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These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16782

Physical Climate Forces

Key FindingsThe coasts of the U.S. are home to many large urban centers and important infrastructure such seaports, airports, transportation routes, oil import and refining facilities, power plants, and military bases. All are vulnerable to varying degrees to impacts of global warming such as sea-level rise, storms, and flooding. High Confidence.Physical observations collected over the past severa
Authors
S.J. Williams, D. Atkinson, A. R. Byrd, H. Eicken, T. M. Hall, Thomas G. Huntington, Y. Kim, T.R. Knutson, J.P. Kossin, M. Lilly, J. M. Marra, J Obeysekera, A. Parris, J. Ratcliff, T. Ravens, D. Resio, P. Ruggiero, E. Robert Thieler, James G. Titus, T.V. Wamsley

Peralkaline- and calc-alkaline-hosted volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits of the Bonnifield District, East-Central Alaska

Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag-Au deposits of the Bonnifield mining district formed during Late Devonian-Early Mississippian magmatism along the western edge of Laurentia. The largest deposits, Dry Creek and WTF, have a combined resource of 5.7 million tonnes at 10% Zn, 4% Pb, 0.3% Cu, 300 grams per tonne (g/t) Ag, and 1.6 g/t Au. These polymetallic deposits are hosted in high fiel
Authors
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Nora K. Foley, John E. Slack, Alan E. Koenig, Robert L. Oscarson

Strategies for soil quality assessment using VNIR gyperspectral spectroscopy in a western Kenya Chronosequence

Visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VNIRS) is a rapid and nondestructive method that can predict multiple soil properties simultaneously, but its application in multidimensional soil quality (SQ) assessment in the tropics still needs to be further assessed. In this study, VNIRS (350–2500 nm) was employed to analyze 227 air-dried soil samples of Ultisols from a soil chronosequence i
Authors
Rintaro Kinoshita, Bianca N. Moebius-Clune, Harold M. van Es, W. Dean Hively, A. Volkan Bilgilis

Igneous activity, metamorphism, and deformation in the Mount Rogers area of SW Virginia and NW North Carolina: A geologic record of Precambrian tectonic evolution of the southern Blue Ridge Province

Mesoproterozoic basement in the vicinity of Mount Rogers is characterized by considerable lithologic variability, including major map units composed of gneiss, amphibolite, migmatite, meta-quartz monzodiorite and various types of granitoid. SHRIMP U-Pb geochronology and field mapping indicate that basement units define four types of occurrences, including (1) xenoliths of ca. 1.33 to ≥1.18 Ga age,
Authors
Richard P. Tollo, John N. Aleinikoff, Roland Mundil, C. Scott Southworth, Michael A. Cosca, Douglas W. Rankin, Allison E. Rubin, Adrienne Kentner, Christopher A. Parendo, Molly S. Ray

Step-changes in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the Gulf of Maine, as documented by the GNATS time series

We identify step-changes in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the Gulf of Maine (GoM) using the Gulf of Maine North Atlantic Time Series (GNATS), a series of oceanographic measurements obtained between September 1998 and December 2010 along a transect in the GoM running from Portland, ME, to Yarmouth, NS. GNATS sampled a period of extremes in precipitation and river discharg
Authors
William M. Balch, D.T. Drapeau, B.C. Bowler, Thomas G. Huntington

The Nation's top 25 construction aggregates producers

In 2010, the market appeared to bottom out with production continuing its downward trend and average unit values down for the first time since 1998.
Authors
Jason Christopher Willett

Mineral resource of the month: boron

The article offers information on the mineral, boron. Boron compounds, particularly borates, have more commercial applications than its elemental relative which is a metalloid. Making up the 90% of the borates that are used worldwide are colemanite, kernite, tincal, and ulexite. The main borate deposits are located in the Mojave Desert of the U.S., the Tethyan belt in southern Asia, and the Andean
Authors
Robert D. Crangle

Mineral resource of the month: tungsten

The article offers information on tungsten. It says that tungsten is a metal found in chemical compounds such as in the scheelite and ore minerals wolframite. It states that tungsten has the highest melting point and it forms a compound as hard as diamond when combined with carbon. It states that tungsten can be used as a substitute for lead in fishing weights, ammunition, and hunting shot. Moreov
Authors
Kim B. Shedd

Mineral resource of the month: mercury

The article offers information on mercury, a mineral commodity used in industrial and small-scale gold mining applications. Mercury has been reported to be used for amalgamation with gold since the Roman times. Mercury from cinnabar from Almadén, Spain has been used by Romans and has been continued to be used through the Middle Ages and the Colonial era.
Authors

Perlite

Domestic production, consumption, exports and prices of perlite in the United States were all estimated to have decreased in 2011 compared with 2010, but not significantly. The weak economic conditions that prevailed in the United States for most of the 2011 probably accounted for these decreases. The only statistic that increased was imports, which were estimated to have risen by about 6 percent
Authors
W. Bolen

Mineral resource of the month: dimension stone

The article offers information on dimension stone (DS) that are quarried as natural rock for a specific size and dimension chosen for its color, strength, durability. Varieties of metamorphic, igneous or sedimentary rocks are used but DS rocks are mainly marble, granite and slate that can be found from Maine to Alabama in the U.S., in the Carrara District of Italy as well as in Greece, China and B
Authors
Thomas P. Dolley

Industrial garnet

Garnet has been used as a gemstone since the Bronze Age. However, garnet's angular fractures, relatively high hardness and specific gravity, chemical inertness, and nontoxicity make it ideal for many industrial applications. It is also free of crystalline silica and can be recycled.
Authors
D.W. Olson