Kalispell Quadrangle NURE HSSR Study

OFR 97-492: Kalispell 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)

This page is currently being rewritten to the Version 1.41 format.

Brief History and Description of Data

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

During May - June 1976, totals of 1,725 sediment and 1,684 water samples were collected from 1,781 locations in Lincoln and Flathead Counties of northwest Montana as part of one of the initial Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) studies. This study covered all of the Kalispell quadrangle and parts of the adjacent Sandpoint and Cut Bank quadrangles. Within the Kalispell quadrangle, 1,521 sediment samples and 1,476 water samples were collected. The samples were analyzed by LASL for uranium content and the data were released in the GJBX-48(77) report.

A subset of 1,502 sediment and 1,455 water samples were sent to the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant for multielement analyses. The analytical data were released in the GJBX-394(81) report for the Kalispell Quadrangle NURE HSSR study. The latitude-longitude coordinates for the water data in this report often differ very slightly from that reported for corresponding samples in the report for Lincoln and Flathead Counties of northwest Montana. The variations appear to be due to a difference of truncating decimal degrees at 4 decimal places for the early report and then rounding decimal degrees to 4 decimal places in the later report.

The following is a list of all sample types collected in the Kalispell quadrangle and included in the NEW-FORMAT NURE data files.

*Summary of Kalispell quadrangle sample types.*
Sediment Sample Type	Number of Samples	Water Sample Type	Number of Samples
Wet Streams	1,349	Streams	1,383
Dry Streams	85	Wells	3
Wet Springs	36	Springs	39
Dry Springs	2	Natural Ponds	38
Wet Natural Ponds	35	Artificial Ponds	13
Dry Natural Ponds	1
Wet Artificial Ponds	13
Total Sediments	1,521	Total Waters	1,476

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

Sediment Samples

LA1: Los Alamos Delayed-Neutron Counting 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.

Water Samples

LA6-DN: Los Alamos Delayed-Neutron Counting Analysis of waters for U.
LA6-FL: Los Alamos Fluorometry Analysis of waters for U.
OR13: Oak Ridge Emission Spectrochemical Analysis of waters for Ag, Al, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Sc, Si, Sr, Ti, V, Y, Zn, and Zr. (Note: Nb and Th may be included in this method.)

Composition of the NEW-FORMAT NURE Data Files

The data in the NEW-FORMAT NURE data files consist of records from both the GJBX-48(77) report and the GJBX-394(81) report. Records for the reanalyzed samples have been combined into a single record that contains all of the information from both studies. The water data file from the Lincoln and Flathead Counties of northwest Montana GJBX-48(77) report was missing records for 1,302 Kalispell water samples that contained LASL uranium analyses. Data from these records were added to the NEW-FORMAT NURE data files from published tables in the GJBX-48(77) report. When possible, coordinates for water sample location were taken from the later Oak Ridge report and the fact that the coordinates may differ slightly due to rounding was noted in each record's REFORMAT field.

Two water samples collected as part of the Pie Town Area Special Study in New Mexico had LASLID values that were exactly the same as two water samples collected by LASL in the Kalispell Quadrangle. To prevent confusion and to preserve uniqueness in sample records, a suffix of DS was added to the Primary Identification Number(PRIME_ID) for each of these 2 Pie Town Area records.

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 websites, 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).

Kalispell Quadrangle Sediment Data - 1,521 records
Kalispell Quadrangle Water Data - 1,476 records

Notes for Data Users

None at this time.

Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Kalispell Quadrangle

Bendix Field Engineering Corporation of Grand Junction, Colorado studied the Rainy Creek, Bobtail Creek, Poole Lake, Cabinet Mountain, Warland Creek, Dry Creek - Granite Creek, Kishenehn Formation, Northeastern Whitefish Range, Star Meadow, and Eureka areas in a summary report for the Kalispell quadrangle [PGJ/F-133(82)]. A total of 116 rock, 50 stream sediment, and 8 water samples were collected from these areas and analyzed to accompany previous HSSR data. The multielement analytical data for the samples were released only as microfiche appendices to the summary report.

Kalispell Quadrangle NURE Bibliography

Aamodt, P.L., 1977, Uranium hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance in Lincoln and Flathead Counties, northwest Montana: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory informal report LA-6652-MS, Los Alamos, N.M., U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-48(77), 139 p.
Fleshman, B.R., and Siegmund, B.L., 1982, National Uranium Resource Evaluation, Kalispell Quadrangle, Montana: Bendix Field Engineering Corporation, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., PGJ/F-133(82), 49 p.
Uranium Resource Evaluation Project, 1981, Hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance basic data for Kalispell quadrangle, Montana: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-341, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-394(81), 249 p.

Links Within Open-File Report 97-492

Back to Montana NURE data
Back to Idaho 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 1.00: September 11, 1998
Version 1.10: July 29, 1999
Version 1.20: August 07, 2000
Version 1.30: September 11, 2001
Version 1.40: January 13, 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_kspell.htm Questions or Assistance: USGS Web Contact Page Last Modified: Wed Dec 7 16:13 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)