OFR 97-492: Thief River Falls 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: Thief River Falls Quadrangle
A total of 342 stream-sediment and 471 ground-water samples was collected, under contract with the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP), from the Thief River Falls quadrangle. Stream sediments were collected from the Minnesota and North Dakota portions of the quadrangle by BCI Geonetics in July of 1979. Ground waters were collected by the Minnesota Geological Survey in Minnesota (August-September 1978) and by BCI Geonetics in North Dakota (July 1979). These samples were analyzed by ORGDP for uranium and other elements and the analytical data were released as the Thief River Falls Quadrangle NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) study GJBX-168(81) report.

Summary Tables
The following is a list of sample types collected for the Thief River Falls quadrangle study.

Summary of Thief River Falls quadrangle sample types.
Sediment Sample Type Number of Samples Water Sample Type Number of Samples
Wet Streams 164 Wells 467
Dry Streams 178 Springs 4
Total Sediments 342 Total Waters 471

These Thief River Falls quadrangle samples were analyzed by one or more of the following methods:

Sediment Samples

Water Samples


Discussion of the Reformatting Process for Thief River Falls Quadrangle

The Thief River Falls quadrangle sediment and water data consist of reformatted records from the Thief River Falls Quadrangle NURE HSSR study GJBX-168(81) report. The following problems were found and addressed during the comparison and reformatting stages for these data:

Sediment Records

  1. The latitude value for one stream-sediment sample was reported as 48°N, the dividing line between the Thief River Falls and Grand Forks quadrangles. The data record for this sample was found only in the Thief River Falls Quadrangle NURE HSSR study GJBX-168(81) report. Based on the coordinate values found in the field notes on microfiche that accompany this report, the precision for the decimal-degree coordinates at this site was increased to 4 decimal places. This places the sample unequivocally in the Thief River Falls quadrangle.
  2. 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.
  3. One sample record had an erroneous value for SITE. This value was removed from the SITE field and added as a comment to the REFORMAT field.

Water Records

  1. Six separate well-water samples have the same three latitude-longitude coordinates. It is unclear whether this represents three pairs of samples collected at the same sites 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).

Thief River Falls Quadrangle Sediment Data - 342 records
Thief River Falls Quadrangle Water Data - 471 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 +/- 259 feet (79 m) to +/- 235 feet (72 m) for longitude values (calculated at latitudes of 45° and 50°N, respectively.)


Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Thief River Falls Quadrangle

None found.


Thief River Falls Quadrangle NURE Bibliography


Links Within Open-File Report 97-492

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


Page written by 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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