OFR 97-492: Fremont Quadrangle NURE HSSR Study

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National Geochemical Database—Reformatted Data from the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) Program

By Steven M. Smith
Version 1.40 (2006)

Brief History and Description of Data

[See History of NURE HSSR Program for a summary of the entire program.]

ORGDP: Fremont Quadrangle
A total of 560 stream-sediment and 567 well-water samples was collected from the Fremont quadrangle by contractors for the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP). Sediment samples were collected in the quadrangle by BCI Geonetics Inc. between September and October of 1979. Ground-water samples were collected by the Nebraska Geologic Survey between June and August of 1979. These samples were analyzed by the ORGDP for uranium and other elements. The analytical data were released as the Fremont Quadrangle NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) study GJBX-392(81) report.

Summary Tables
The following is a listing of the sample types collected for the Fremont quadrangle study.

Summary of Fremont quadrangle sample types.
Sediment Sample Type Number of Samples Water Sample Type Number of Samples
Wet Streams 233 Wells 567
Dry Streams 327    
Total Sediments 560 Total Waters 567

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

Sediment Samples

Water Samples


Discussion of the Reformatting Process for Fremont Quadrangle

The Fremont quadrangle sediment and water data consist of reformatted records from the Fremont Quadrangle NURE HSSR study GJBX-392(81) report. The following problems were found and addressed during the comparison and reformatting stages for these data:

Sediment Records

  1. 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.
  2. One sample record contained an impossible value for the concentration of potassium (K_PCT) of 144%. Although the most likely source of this error is a missing decimal point, this could not be confirmed in published sources. This value was removed from the K_PCT field and added as a comment to the REFORMAT field.

Water Records

  1. Unlikely sample collection dates were found for three samples. These dates were removed from the SAMPDAT field. For each record, the original SAMPDAT value and the most likely correct value was added as a comment to the REFORMAT field.
  2. Two separate well-water samples have the same latitude-longitude coordinates. It is unclear whether this represents a pair of samples collected at the same site or samples collected at separate sites so close together that the coordinate precision was insufficient to distinguish.

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).

Fremont Quadrangle Sediment Data - 560 records
Fremont Quadrangle Water Data - 567 records


Notes for Data Users

The 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 +/- 365 feet (111 m) for latitude values and between +/- 280 feet (85 m) to +/- 259 feet (79 m) for longitude values (calculated at latitudes of 40° and 45°N, respectively.)


Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Fremont Quadrangle

None found.


Fremont Quadrangle NURE Bibliography


Links Within Open-File Report 97-492

Back to Nebraska NURE data
Back to Iowa 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 1.10: July 29, 1999
Version 1.20: August 07, 2000
Version 1.30: September 11, 2001
Version 1.41: February 23, 2006

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