MAGNETOTELLURIC DATA ACROSS THE
BATTLE MOUNTAIN-EUREKA AND CARLIN TRENDS, 
SOUTH OF CORTEZ, NEVADA  

by 

Jackie M. Williams, Brian D. Rodriguez, and Douglas P. Klein

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Open-File Report 01-118


Many sediment-hosted gold deposits occur along linear trends in 
northern Nevada.  The distribution and genesis of these deposits 
along the Battle Mountain-Eureka and Carlin gold trends is not 
fully understood.  In general, most models agree that regional 
structures played an important role in the spatial distribution of 
these deposits.  To investigate crustal structures that may be related 
to the genesis of gold deposits along these trends, a regional 
southwest-northeast profile of magnetotelluric soundings was 
acquired in 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2000.  Resistivity modeling of 
the magnetotelluric data can be used to infer the deep resistivity 
structure of the crust to investigate possible tectonic controls on the 
emplacement of mineral deposits along these linear trends that may 
be used to help improve critical gold endowment estimates in the 
Humboldt River Basin.  The purpose of this report is to release the 
magnetotelluric sounding data; no interpretation of the data is 
included.