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Northwest Texas Pilot Geochemical Survey
The Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP) conducted a pilot study of a area in northwestern Texas for the purpose of determining:

1. Trace elements which are indicative of various types of uranium mineralization.
2. Relationships between samples of stream water, stream sediment, and tree branches, and the relative importance of these sample types.
3. Range of geochemical concentrations from mineralized areas to background area.
4. Adequacy of laboratory sensitivity for analysis of necessary elements in the various types of samples.

For this study, 133 sediment, 1 rock, 197 water, and 116 plant samples were collected in parts of the Lubbock, Brownfield, and Big Spring 1:250,000-scale quadrangles. Of these, one stream sediment and three water samples were collected within the Big Spring quadrangle. These samples were sent to ORGDP and analyzed for uranium and additional elements. A few water samples were analyzed twice by different multielement methods. The analytical data were released as part of the Northwest Texas Pilot Study GJBX-60(76) report.

ORGDP: Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey
Early in the NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) program, personnel from the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP) sampled several areas with a wide-spaced sample coverage (Phase I sampling). Phase I samples were generally collected in stream basins averaging 250 square kilometers in area and from wells at about a 16 km spacing. The purpose of the Phase I sampling was to define uranium provinces that warranted additional sampling at a higher density (Phase II sampling). These samples were sent to the ORGDP and analyzed for uranium and other elements. For many 1:250,000-scale 2-degree quadrangles, Phase I samples were included with later Phase II samples and utilized in the individual HSSR basic data quadrangle reports. Some Phase I samples were never utilized in basic data quadrangle reporting. ORGDP issued the Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey in the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles, Texas GJBX-73(78) report for several of these Phase I samples. This report includes data for 287 stream-sediment, 1 rock, 529 water, and 161 botanical samples collected between July and November of 1976 in the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring quadrangles. Data for one stream-sediment and three water samples collected in the Llano quadrangle were also included in this report. The Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report includes data records for 69 stream-sediment, 143 water, and 9 botanical samples collected within the borders of the Big Spring quadrangle.

Summary Tables
Because of the various analytical methods used, some ORGDP samples may have been analyzed once, twice, or not at all. The following table summarizes the analysis of Big Spring quadrangle samples.

The following is a list of NURE sample types collected in the Big Spring quadrangle.

These Big Spring quadrangle samples were analyzed by one or more of the following methods:

Sediment Samples

• OR1: Oak Ridge Fluorescence Spectroscopy Analysis of sediments for U.
• OR2: Oak Ridge Neutron Activation Analysis - Neutron Counting of Sediments for U.
• OR4: Oak Ridge Emission Spectrochemical Analysis of sediments for Ag, B, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Li, Mn, Mo, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Pt, Sc, Th, Ti, V, Y, Zn, and Zr.
• OR8: Oak Ridge Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Analysis of sediments for As and Se.

Water Samples

• OR9-FL: Oak Ridge Fluorescence Spectroscopy Analysis of waters for U.
• OR10: Oak Ridge Emission Spectrochemical Analysis of waters for Ag, Al, Au, B, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Sc, Th, Ti, V, Zn, and Zr.
• OR11: Oak Ridge Emission Spectrochemical Analysis of waters for Ag, Al, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Sc, Ti, V, Y, and Zr.
• OR14: Oak Ridge Turbidimetric Analysis of waters for Sulfate only.
• OR17: Oak Ridge Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Analysis of waters for As and Se.

Plant Samples

• OR1-P: Oak Ridge Fluorescence Spectroscopy Analysis of plants for U.

Discussion of the Reformatting Process for Big Spring Quadrangle

The Big Spring quadrangle sediment and water data consist of reformatted records from the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report and reformatted records from the Northwest Texas Pilot Geochemical Survey GJBX-60(76) report. The following problems were found and addressed during the comparison and reformatting stages for the Big Spring quadrangle data:

Sediment Records

1. A total of 133 records for sediment samples collected for the Northwest Texas Pilot Geochemical Survey GJBX-60(76) report were also included in the digital data file for the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report. These duplicate records were compared and, when necessary, combined to form a single record containing all data. A comment in the REFORMAT field identifies each of these records. Only 1 of these records are found in the data for the Big Spring quadrangle.
2. The Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report included data for one sediment sample apparently collected in the Llano quadrangle.
3. One stream-sediment sample originally had a longitude of exactly 100°W, the dividing line between the Big Spring quadrangle and the Abilene quadrangle. The coordinates for this sample were changed slightly to values found in tables on microfiche within the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report. This slight change places the sample clearly in the Big Spring quadrangle.

Water Records

1. A total of 217 records for water samples collected for the Northwest Texas Pilot Geochemical Survey GJBX-60(76) report were also included in the digital data file for the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report. These duplicate records were compared and, when necessary, combined to form a single record containing all data. A comment in the REFORMAT field identifies each of these records.
2. Twenty-four water samples from the Northwest Texas Pilot Geochemical Survey GJBX-60(76) report and the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report were apparently analyzed by two different ORGDP multielement analysis methods. Because of overlapping data fields, it was necessary to create two data records for each sample to preserve all the data. A comment in the REFORMAT field identifies each of these records. One of these samples is located within the Big Spring quadrangle.
3. The Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report included data for 3 water samples apparently collected in the Llano quadrangle.
4. An unlikely sample collection date was found for one sample. This date was removed from the SAMPDAT field and the original SAMPDAT value with the most likely correct value was added as a comment to the REFORMAT field.
5. Records for 3 water samples had values for dissolved oxygen listed in the sample COMMENT field. Since the USGS-Reformatted NURE HSSR Data Files have a field for dissolved oxygen (O_DISS), these values were manually entered from the COMMENT field into the O-DISS field.
6. One stream-water sample originally had a longitude of exactly 100°W, the dividing line between the Big Spring quadrangle and the Abilene quadrangle. The coordinates for this sample were changed slightly to values found in tables on microfiche within the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report. This slight change places the sample clearly in the Big Spring quadrangle.

Plant Records

1. The Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring Quadrangles Wide-Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey GJBX-73(78) report includes data for 9 plant samples collected in the Big Spring quadrangle.
2. Seven of the plant samples collected in the Lubbock quadrangle were not analyzed by any method.
3. At the time of this Open-File release (v. 1.41), the ORGDP plant data have not been completely reformatted and released for downloading. See the ORGDP Plant Data page for a more detailed description of the data format and plant data availability.

Download The Data

The NURE HSSR data are now available online in two databases: The sediment database (also includes data for soils and some rocks) at http://tin.er.usgs.gov/nure/sediment/ and the water database at http://tin.er.usgs.gov/nure/water/. From these two web sites, NURE HSSR data can be selected, examined, summarized, and downloaded by political boundaries (State and County), by quadrangle (1:250,000-scale, 1:100,000-scale, and 1:63,360-scale for Alaska or 1:24,000-scale for the Lower 48 States), and by hydrologic unit (drainage region, subregion, river basin, or sub-basin). Selected data can be downloaded as a dBase file, a shapefile, an HTML table, or ASCII text (tab- or comma-delimited).

Big Spring Quadrangle Sediment Data - 70 records
Big Spring Quadrangle Water Data - 147 records

Notes for Data Users

The ORGDP water samples were reportedly collected in the field without any filtering or acidification. (See the SAMPTYP coding explanation in the On-Line Manual for USGS-Reformatted NURE HSSR Data Files for descriptions of different Sample Types). However, the samples were filtered later in the laboratory through a 0.45 micron membrane filter before analysis. Therefore, the samples were not true "untreated water" samples and the analytical data may not be directly comparable for other quadrangle water samples of the same SAMPTYP when collected by a different laboratory. Since this was the standard procedure for Oak Ridge, water data from other Oak Ridge quadrangles should be comparable.

Latitude-longitude coordinates were reported in the original data files, as decimal degrees, to only 3 decimal places. Therefore, the precision of these coordinates is limited to +/- 0.001 degrees or +/- 3.6 seconds. This translates to a minimum precision of +/- 364 feet (111 m) for latitude values and between +/- 317 feet (97 m) to +/- 300 feet (91 m) for longitude values (calculated at latitudes of 30° and 35°N, respectively.)

Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Big Spring Quadrangle

None found.

Big Spring Quadrangle NURE Bibliography

• Nichols, C.E., Butz, T.R., Cagle, G.W., and Kane, V.E., 1977, National Uranium Resource Evaluation, Wide Spaced Uranium Geochemical Survey in the Plainview, Lubbock, and Big Spring quadrangles, Texas: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-10, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-73(78), 231 p.
• Nichols, C.E., Kane, V.E., Browning, M.T., and Cagle G.W., 1976, National Uranium Resource Evaluation, Northwest Texas Pilot Geochemical Survey: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-1, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-60(76), 231 p.

Links Within Open-File Report 97-492

Back to Texas NURE data
Frequently Asked Questions Concerning NURE HSSR Data
Home Page: USGS National Geochemical Database - NURE HSSR data

Page written by Bryan G. Moravec and Steven M. Smith
Contact: Steven M. Smith (smsmith@usgs.gov)
Version 1.20: August 07, 2000
Version 1.30: September 11, 2001
Version 1.41: February 23, 2006

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey URL: https://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/of/1997/492/quad/q_bigspg.htm Questions or Assistance: USGS Web Contact Page Last Modified: Wed Dec 7 16:25 EST 2016