Lisa L Stillings (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Lithium from Source to Sink: Genesis and Evolution of Li Brines and Clays
The purpose of this project is to trace the lithium (Li) geochemical cycle in the Great Basin, with an emphasis on the pathways that lead to the development of lithium clay and brine resources.
Lithium Clays as a Source of Lithium and a Buffer for Lithium Concentration in Brines
We are collaborating with academic and industry geologists to develop a predictive model for lithium partitioning between lithium-bearing clays and lithium brines. We are conducting laboratory experiments to measure lithium partitioning between clays and brines. Experimental results will be compared with real-world data to learn whether this model may be used as an exploration tool for predicting...
Spatial data files associated with the identification of new data for the sagebrush focal area mineral resource assessment in Nevada
In summer 2021, the Bureau of Land Management - Nevada (BLM NV) requested that the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program (USGS MRP), acting through the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center (GMEGSC) and other collaborating USGS Science Centers, conduct a scoping study to: 1) discover mineral resource data and relevant publications that have been released...
Locatable Mineral Assessment Tracts for the U.S. Geological Survey Sagebrush Mineral Resource Assessment Project
The polygon (vector) feature class represents locatable mineral resource assessment tracts (tracts of land) associated with the Department of the Interior (DOI) Sagebrush Focal Areas in Montana, Wyoming and Utah, central Idaho, and the Oregon-Nevada-Idaho border area. The mineral resources tracts are geographic areas that were assessed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and were...
Filter Total Items: 30
Li and Ca enrichment in the Bristol Dry Lake brine compared to brines from Cadiz and Danby Dry Lakes, Barstow-Bristol Trough, California, USA
Relatively few discharging playas in western United States extensional basins have high concentrations of lithium (Li) and calcium (Ca) in the basin-center brines. However, the source of both these ions is not well understood, and it is not clear why basins in close proximity within the same extensional trough have notably different concentrations of Li and Ca. In the Barstow-Bristol...
Authors
Michael R. Rosen, Lisa L. Stillings, Tyler Kane, Kate M. Campbell, Matthew Vitale, Ray Spanjers
Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico—Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum-group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin,
In response to a need for information on potential domestic sources of critical minerals, the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) was established to identify and prioritize areas for acquisition of new geologic mapping, geophysical data, and elevation data to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework of the United States. Phase 1 of Earth MRI concentrated on those...
Authors
Jane M. Hammarstrom, Connie Dicken, Warren C. Day, Albert H. Hofstra, Benjamin J. Drenth, Anjana K. Shah, Anne E. McCafferty, Laurel G. Woodruff, Nora K. Foley, David A. Ponce, Thomas P. Frost, Lisa L. Stillings
Lithium
Lithium, the lightest of all metals, is used in air treatment, batteries, ceramics, glass, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and polymers. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are particularly important in efforts to reduce global warming because they make it possible to power cars and trucks from renewable sources of energy (for example, hydroelectric, solar, or wind) instead of by burning...
Authors
Dwight Bradley, Lisa L. Stillings, Brian Jaskula, LeeAnn Munk, Andrew D. McCauley
Selenium
Selenium (Se) was discovered in 1817 in pyrite from copper mines in Sweden. It is a trace element in Earth’s crust, with an abundance of three to seven orders of magnitude less than the major rock-forming elements. Commercial use of selenium began in the United States in 1910, when it was used as a pigment for paints, ceramic glazes, and red glass. Since that time, it has had many other...
Authors
Lisa L. Stillings
Mineral-deposit model for lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites
Lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites comprise a compositionally defined subset of granitic pegmatites. The major minerals are quartz, potassium feldspar, albite, and muscovite; typical accessory minerals include biotite, garnet, tourmaline, and apatite. The principal lithium ore minerals are spodumene, petalite, and lepidolite; cesium mostly comes from pollucite; and tantalum mostly...
Authors
Dwight Bradley, Andrew D. McCauley, Lisa L. Stillings
Assessing changes in the physico-chemical properties and fluoride adsorption capacity of activated alumina under varied conditions
Adsorption using activated alumina is a simple method for removing fluoride from drinking water, but to be cost effective the adsorption capacity must be high and effective long-term. The intent of this study was to assess changes in its adsorption capacity under varied conditions. This was determined by evaluating the physico-chemical properties, surface charge, and fluoride (F−)...
Authors
Laura S. Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker
Geology and mineral resources of the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex (Oregon and Nevada), the Southeastern Oregon and North-Central Nevada, and the Southern Idaho and Northern Nevada (and Utah) Sagebrush Focal Areas: Chapter B in
SummaryThe U.S. Department of the Interior has proposed to withdraw approximately 10 million acres of Federal lands from mineral entry (subject to valid existing rights) from 12 million acres of lands defined as Sagebrush Focal Areas (SFAs) in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming (for further discussion on the lands involved see Scientific Investigations Report 2016–5089–A)...
Authors
Peter Vikre, Mary Ellen Benson, Donald I. Bleiwas, Joseph P. Colgan, Pamela M. Cossette, Jacob DeAngelo, Connie Dicken, Ronald M. Drake, Edward A. du Bray, Gregory Fernette, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Jon Haacke, Susan M. Hall, Albert H. Hofstra, David A. John, Stephen Ludington, Mark J. Mihalasky, James J. Rytuba, Brian N. Shaffer, Lisa L. Stillings, John C. Wallis, Colin F. Williams, Douglas B. Yager, Lukas Zürcher
By
Energy and Mineral Resources Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, National Minerals Information Center
Comparing activated alumina with indigenous laterite and bauxite as potential sorbents for removing fluoride from drinking water in Ghana
Fluoride is considered beneficial to teeth and bones when consumed in low concentrations, but at elevated concentrations it can cause dental and skeletal fluorosis. Most fluoride-related health problems occur in poor, rural communities of the developing world where groundwater fluoride concentrations are high and the primary sources of drinking water are from community hand-pump borehole...
Authors
Laura S. Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker, James P. Thomas
Corrigendum to “Comparing activated alumina with indigenous laterite and bauxite as potential sorbents for removing fluoride from drinking water in Ghana” [Appl. Geochem. 56 (2015) 50–66]
The authors regret that the application of the t-plot to determine the presence of micropores in the three sorbents needs the following corrections: (1) Fig. 1a, c, e are N2(g) adsorption and desorption isotherms” (remove “BET”). This correction applies to descriptions in the text as well. (2) Table 2, the column titled “Micropores” is mislabelled, and should be labelled “Film thickness”...
Authors
Laura S. Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker, James P. Thomas
Contaminants from Cretaceous black shale: I. Natural weathering processes controlling contaminant cycling in Mancos Shale, southwestern United States, with emphasis on salinity and selenium
Soils derived from black shale can accumulate high concentrations of elements of environmental concern, especially in regions with semiarid to arid climates. One such region is the Colorado River basin in the southwestern United States where contaminants pose a threat to agriculture, municipal water supplies, endangered aquatic species, and water-quality commitments to Mexico. Exposures...
Authors
Michele L.W. Tuttle, Juli W. Fahy, John G. Elliott, Richard I. Grauch, Lisa L. Stillings
Contaminants from Cretaceous black shale: II. Effect of geology, weathering, climate, and land use on salinity and selenium cycling, Mancos Shale landscapes, southwestern United States
The Cretaceous Mancos Shale (MS) is a known nonpoint source for a significant portion of the salinity and selenium (Se) loads in the Colorado River in the southwestern United States and northwestern corner of Mexico. These two contaminants pose a serious threat to rivers in these arid regions where water supplies are especially critical. Tuttle et al. (companion paper) investigates the...
Authors
Michele L.W. Tuttle, Juli W. Fahy, John G. Elliott, Richard I. Grauch, Lisa L. Stillings
Development and application of a soil organic matter-based soil quality index in mineralized terrane of the Western US
Soil quality indices provide a means of distilling large amounts of data into a single metric that evaluates the soil’s ability to carry out key ecosystem functions. Primarily developed in agroecosytems, then forested ecosystems, an index using the relation between soil organic matter and other key soil properties in more semi-arid systems of the Western US impacted by different geologic...
Authors
S.W. Blecker, Lisa L. Stillings, Michael C. Amacher, J.A. Ippolito, Nicole DeCrappeo
Science and Products
Lithium from Source to Sink: Genesis and Evolution of Li Brines and Clays
The purpose of this project is to trace the lithium (Li) geochemical cycle in the Great Basin, with an emphasis on the pathways that lead to the development of lithium clay and brine resources.
Lithium Clays as a Source of Lithium and a Buffer for Lithium Concentration in Brines
We are collaborating with academic and industry geologists to develop a predictive model for lithium partitioning between lithium-bearing clays and lithium brines. We are conducting laboratory experiments to measure lithium partitioning between clays and brines. Experimental results will be compared with real-world data to learn whether this model may be used as an exploration tool for predicting...
Spatial data files associated with the identification of new data for the sagebrush focal area mineral resource assessment in Nevada
In summer 2021, the Bureau of Land Management - Nevada (BLM NV) requested that the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program (USGS MRP), acting through the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center (GMEGSC) and other collaborating USGS Science Centers, conduct a scoping study to: 1) discover mineral resource data and relevant publications that have been released...
Locatable Mineral Assessment Tracts for the U.S. Geological Survey Sagebrush Mineral Resource Assessment Project
The polygon (vector) feature class represents locatable mineral resource assessment tracts (tracts of land) associated with the Department of the Interior (DOI) Sagebrush Focal Areas in Montana, Wyoming and Utah, central Idaho, and the Oregon-Nevada-Idaho border area. The mineral resources tracts are geographic areas that were assessed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and were...
Filter Total Items: 30
Li and Ca enrichment in the Bristol Dry Lake brine compared to brines from Cadiz and Danby Dry Lakes, Barstow-Bristol Trough, California, USA
Relatively few discharging playas in western United States extensional basins have high concentrations of lithium (Li) and calcium (Ca) in the basin-center brines. However, the source of both these ions is not well understood, and it is not clear why basins in close proximity within the same extensional trough have notably different concentrations of Li and Ca. In the Barstow-Bristol...
Authors
Michael R. Rosen, Lisa L. Stillings, Tyler Kane, Kate M. Campbell, Matthew Vitale, Ray Spanjers
Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico—Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum-group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin,
In response to a need for information on potential domestic sources of critical minerals, the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) was established to identify and prioritize areas for acquisition of new geologic mapping, geophysical data, and elevation data to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework of the United States. Phase 1 of Earth MRI concentrated on those...
Authors
Jane M. Hammarstrom, Connie Dicken, Warren C. Day, Albert H. Hofstra, Benjamin J. Drenth, Anjana K. Shah, Anne E. McCafferty, Laurel G. Woodruff, Nora K. Foley, David A. Ponce, Thomas P. Frost, Lisa L. Stillings
Lithium
Lithium, the lightest of all metals, is used in air treatment, batteries, ceramics, glass, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and polymers. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are particularly important in efforts to reduce global warming because they make it possible to power cars and trucks from renewable sources of energy (for example, hydroelectric, solar, or wind) instead of by burning...
Authors
Dwight Bradley, Lisa L. Stillings, Brian Jaskula, LeeAnn Munk, Andrew D. McCauley
Selenium
Selenium (Se) was discovered in 1817 in pyrite from copper mines in Sweden. It is a trace element in Earth’s crust, with an abundance of three to seven orders of magnitude less than the major rock-forming elements. Commercial use of selenium began in the United States in 1910, when it was used as a pigment for paints, ceramic glazes, and red glass. Since that time, it has had many other...
Authors
Lisa L. Stillings
Mineral-deposit model for lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites
Lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites comprise a compositionally defined subset of granitic pegmatites. The major minerals are quartz, potassium feldspar, albite, and muscovite; typical accessory minerals include biotite, garnet, tourmaline, and apatite. The principal lithium ore minerals are spodumene, petalite, and lepidolite; cesium mostly comes from pollucite; and tantalum mostly...
Authors
Dwight Bradley, Andrew D. McCauley, Lisa L. Stillings
Assessing changes in the physico-chemical properties and fluoride adsorption capacity of activated alumina under varied conditions
Adsorption using activated alumina is a simple method for removing fluoride from drinking water, but to be cost effective the adsorption capacity must be high and effective long-term. The intent of this study was to assess changes in its adsorption capacity under varied conditions. This was determined by evaluating the physico-chemical properties, surface charge, and fluoride (F−)...
Authors
Laura S. Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker
Geology and mineral resources of the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex (Oregon and Nevada), the Southeastern Oregon and North-Central Nevada, and the Southern Idaho and Northern Nevada (and Utah) Sagebrush Focal Areas: Chapter B in
SummaryThe U.S. Department of the Interior has proposed to withdraw approximately 10 million acres of Federal lands from mineral entry (subject to valid existing rights) from 12 million acres of lands defined as Sagebrush Focal Areas (SFAs) in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming (for further discussion on the lands involved see Scientific Investigations Report 2016–5089–A)...
Authors
Peter Vikre, Mary Ellen Benson, Donald I. Bleiwas, Joseph P. Colgan, Pamela M. Cossette, Jacob DeAngelo, Connie Dicken, Ronald M. Drake, Edward A. du Bray, Gregory Fernette, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Jon Haacke, Susan M. Hall, Albert H. Hofstra, David A. John, Stephen Ludington, Mark J. Mihalasky, James J. Rytuba, Brian N. Shaffer, Lisa L. Stillings, John C. Wallis, Colin F. Williams, Douglas B. Yager, Lukas Zürcher
By
Energy and Mineral Resources Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, National Minerals Information Center
Comparing activated alumina with indigenous laterite and bauxite as potential sorbents for removing fluoride from drinking water in Ghana
Fluoride is considered beneficial to teeth and bones when consumed in low concentrations, but at elevated concentrations it can cause dental and skeletal fluorosis. Most fluoride-related health problems occur in poor, rural communities of the developing world where groundwater fluoride concentrations are high and the primary sources of drinking water are from community hand-pump borehole...
Authors
Laura S. Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker, James P. Thomas
Corrigendum to “Comparing activated alumina with indigenous laterite and bauxite as potential sorbents for removing fluoride from drinking water in Ghana” [Appl. Geochem. 56 (2015) 50–66]
The authors regret that the application of the t-plot to determine the presence of micropores in the three sorbents needs the following corrections: (1) Fig. 1a, c, e are N2(g) adsorption and desorption isotherms” (remove “BET”). This correction applies to descriptions in the text as well. (2) Table 2, the column titled “Micropores” is mislabelled, and should be labelled “Film thickness”...
Authors
Laura S. Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker, James P. Thomas
Contaminants from Cretaceous black shale: I. Natural weathering processes controlling contaminant cycling in Mancos Shale, southwestern United States, with emphasis on salinity and selenium
Soils derived from black shale can accumulate high concentrations of elements of environmental concern, especially in regions with semiarid to arid climates. One such region is the Colorado River basin in the southwestern United States where contaminants pose a threat to agriculture, municipal water supplies, endangered aquatic species, and water-quality commitments to Mexico. Exposures...
Authors
Michele L.W. Tuttle, Juli W. Fahy, John G. Elliott, Richard I. Grauch, Lisa L. Stillings
Contaminants from Cretaceous black shale: II. Effect of geology, weathering, climate, and land use on salinity and selenium cycling, Mancos Shale landscapes, southwestern United States
The Cretaceous Mancos Shale (MS) is a known nonpoint source for a significant portion of the salinity and selenium (Se) loads in the Colorado River in the southwestern United States and northwestern corner of Mexico. These two contaminants pose a serious threat to rivers in these arid regions where water supplies are especially critical. Tuttle et al. (companion paper) investigates the...
Authors
Michele L.W. Tuttle, Juli W. Fahy, John G. Elliott, Richard I. Grauch, Lisa L. Stillings
Development and application of a soil organic matter-based soil quality index in mineralized terrane of the Western US
Soil quality indices provide a means of distilling large amounts of data into a single metric that evaluates the soil’s ability to carry out key ecosystem functions. Primarily developed in agroecosytems, then forested ecosystems, an index using the relation between soil organic matter and other key soil properties in more semi-arid systems of the Western US impacted by different geologic...
Authors
S.W. Blecker, Lisa L. Stillings, Michael C. Amacher, J.A. Ippolito, Nicole DeCrappeo
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government