Baton Rouge Quadrangle NURE HSSR Study

OFR 97-492: Baton Rouge 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.]

Louisiana
Subcontractors for the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) collected at least 1,017 stream-sediment samples within 15 parishes of central Louisiana as part of the NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) program. The sampling effort was completed between August and October of 1978 and included portions of the Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Jackson, Lake Charles, Natchez, Palestine, Shreveport, and Tyler 1:250,000-scale quadrangles. (A total of 8 sediment samples were collected within the Baton Rouge quadrangle.) These sediment samples were sent to SRL for analysis of uranium and 16 additional elements. SRL was able to analyze only 28 Louisiana stream-sediment samples; none of the SRL Louisiana samples from the Baton Rouge quadrangle were analyzed. The analytical and site location data for all Louisiana sediment samples were released as a separate file in the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas Data Report [GJBX-104(82)].

Mississippi
Subcontractors for the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) collected at least 814 ground-water samples within 14 counties of southwest central Mississippi as part of the NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) program. The sampling effort was completed between August, 1978 and January, 1979 and included portions of the Hattiesburg, Jackson, Meridian, and Natchez 1:250,000-scale quadrangles. (No water samples were collected within the small Mississippi portion of the Baton Rouge quadrangle.) These samples were sent to SRL for analysis of uranium and 16 additional elements. SRL was able to analyze all 814 Mississippi water samples. The analytical and site location data for all Mississippi water samples were released as a separate file in the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas Data Report [GJBX-104(82)].

SRL: Baton Rouge Quadrangle
SRL did not release a separate report for the Baton Rouge quadrangle.

ORGDP: Beaumont, Lake Charles, and Baton Rouge Quadrangles
SRL sent several Texas and Louisiana sediment samples to the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP) for analysis of uranium and 31 additional elements. ORGDP released the analytical data for 173 samples in the Beaumont, Lake Charles, and Baton Rouge Quadrangles GJBX-66(82) Data Report. This report includes data for 5 sediment samples from the Baton Rouge quadrangle. The site coding information for this data set was summarized in the GJBX-51(82) report.

Summary Tables
Because of the various laboratories and analytical methods used, some SRL samples may have been analyzed once, twice, or not at all. The following table summarizes the analysis of Baton Rouge quadrangle samples.

*Combination of laboratories that analyzed samples for the Baton Rouge quadrangle.*
Laboratory Analysis	Sediments	Waters
Only SRL	0	0
Only ORGDP	5	0
Both SRL and ORGDP	0	0
None	3	0
Total Samples	8	0
Total Data Records	8	0

The following is a list of all sample types collected and reported for NURE studies in the Baton Rouge quadrangle.

*Summary of Baton Rouge quadrangle sample types.*
Sediment Sample Type	Number of Samples	Water Sample Type	Number of Samples
Wet Streams	8
Total Sediments	8	Total Waters	0

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

Sediment Samples

OR2: Oak Ridge Neutron Activation Analysis of sediments for U.
OR7: Oak Ridge Emission Spectrochemical Analysis of sediments for Ag, Al, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Sc, Sr, Th, Ti, V, Y, Zn, and Zr.

Discussion of the Reformatting Process for Baton Rouge Quadrangle

Sediment Records
The Baton Rouge quadrangle sediment data consist of reformatted records from the Louisiana portion of the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas GJBX-104(82) Data Report combined with records from the ORGDP Beaumont, Lake Charles, and Baton Rouge Quadrangles GJBX-66(82) Data Report. When combining sample records, site descriptive information and coordinates were compared for all corresponding records. Sources of data are described in the REFORMAT comment field. The following problems were found and addressed during the comparison and reformatting stages for the Baton Rouge quadrangle sediment data:

The original ORGDP file for the Beaumont, Lake Charles, and Baton Rouge quadrangles did not include all of the information about the character of the sample location. This missing information includes observations taken at each site on the stream width, depth, and flow, water color, surrounding vegetation, local relief, weather, and possible contaminants. In addition, the longitude coordinate reported in the ORGDP file only had 3 decimal places instead of the 4 decimal places found in the corresponding records from SRL State files. When combining corresponding SRL and ORGDP records, all of the site descriptive data and the longitude values to 4 decimal places from the SRL data files were preserved in the final database.

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).

Baton Rouge Quadrangle Sediment Data - 8 records

Notes for Data Users

In the eastern United States, SRL collected samples primarily by county or parish. Often, not all counties or parishes within a quadrangle were completely sampled. Sample coverage in the Baton Rouge quadrangle is limited to Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. This parish is found in the southwestern corner of the Baton Rouge quadrangle. The laboratory and analytical methods used also may vary by parish such that adjacent parishes often have very different analytical coverages.

Three sediment samples within the Baton Rouge quadrangle were not analyzed by any of the various laboratories. The following table summarizes the locations of those unanalyzed samples.

*General locations of unanalyzed samples.*
State	Parish	Sample Media	Unanalyzed Samples	Total Samples
Louisiana	Avoyelles	Sediment	3	8

Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Baton Rouge Quadrangle

None found.

Baton Rouge Quadrangle NURE Bibliography

Fay, W.M., Sargent, K.A., and Cook, J.R., 1982, Data report: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas: E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Savannah River Laboratory, Aiken, S.C., SRL Internal Doc. DPST-81-146-24, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-104(82), 37 p.
Uranium Resource Evaluation Project, 1982, Hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance basic data for Beaumont, Lake Charles, and Baton Rouge quadrangles, Texas, Louisiana: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-421, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-66(82), 21 p.
Uranium Resource Evaluation Project, 1982, Supplement to hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance basic data reports K/UR-405 and K/UR-408 through K/UR-443 [GJBX-52(82) through GJBX-88(82)]: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-412, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-51(82), 25 p.

Links Within Open-File Report 97-492

Back to Louisiana NURE data
Back to Mississippi 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/ofr-97-0492/quad/q_batnrg.htm Questions or Assistance: USGS Web Contact Page Last Modified: Wed Dec 7 16:10 EDT 2016

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)