Lake Charles Quadrangle NURE HSSR Study

OFR 97-492: Lake Charles 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 69 stream-sediment samples were collected within the Lake Charles 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 Lake Charles 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)].

Texas
Subcontractors for the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) collected at least 279 stream-sediment samples within 4 counties along the eastern border of Texas 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 Palestine, Alexandria, Beaumont, and Lake Charles 1:250,000-scale quadrangles. (A total of 79 stream-sediment samples were collected within the Lake Charles quadrangle.) These samples were sent to SRL for analysis of uranium and 16 additional elements. SRL was only able to analyze 26 of the 279 stream-sediment samples collected in Texas; this includes 3 sediment samples within the Lake Charles quadrangle. The analytical and site location data for all Texas sediment samples were released as a separate file in the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas Data Report [GJBX-104(82)].

SRL: Lake Charles Quadrangle
SRL did not release a separate report for the Lake Charles 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 142 sediment samples from the Lake Charles quadrangle. The site coding information for this data set was summarized in the GJBX-51(82) report.

Gold Analyses
Data for gold analyses of sediments by SRL neutron activation were released in the GJBX-135(82) summary report. The introduction of that report states:

"This report contains previously unreported neutron-activation analyses of gold in sediment samples determined at SRL. These data were not included in the standard SRL NURE data reports because the gold spectrum was not measured in the original analytical procedure and the report format was designed without the gold analyses being included. Gold analyses became available as the analytical procedure was refined, but the report format was not modified to incorporate these data."

Only those sediment samples that had detectable concentrations of gold by neutron activation analysis were given in the GJBX-135(82) report. Sediment samples with concentrations below detection limits were not reported and can only be ascertained by identifying which samples were actually analyzed by neutron activation at SRL.

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 Lake Charles quadrangle samples.

*Combination of laboratories that analyzed samples for the Lake Charles quadrangle.*
Laboratory Analysis	Sediments	Waters
Only SRL	0	0
Only ORGDP	139	0
Both SRL and ORGDP (2 records needed)	3	0
None	6	0
Total Samples	148	0
Total Data Records	151	0

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

*Summary of Lake Charles quadrangle sample types.*
Sediment Sample Type	Number of Samples	Water Sample Type	Number of Samples
Wet Streams	148
Total Sediments	148	Total Waters	0

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

Sediment Samples

SR1: Savannah River Neutron Activation Analysis - Neutron Counting of sediments for U.
SR2: Savannah River Neutron Activation Analysis of sediments for Al, Ce, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, La, Lu, Mn, Na, Sc, Sm, Th, Ti, V, and Yb. (Note: Au values were reported later for this method.)
OR1: Oak Ridge Fluorescence Spectroscopy Analysis of sediments for U.
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 Lake Charles Quadrangle

Sediment Records
The Lake Charles quadrangle sediment data consist of records from the Texas and Louisiana portions 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. The following problems were found and addressed during the comparison and reformatting stages for the Lake Charles quadrangle sediment data:

The SRL and the ORGDP Laboratory each analyzed the same 3 stream-sediment samples from Texas. Because of overlapping data fields, it was necessary to create two data records for each sample to preserve all the 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.
Gold concentrations from the GJBX-135(82) report were added to the appropriate sediment records. A value of -0.01 (<0.01 ppm Au) was added to all other sediment samples determined to have been analyzed by SRL neutron activation. This value was chosen because 0.01 is the lowest reported gold concentration in the entire report.

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).

Lake Charles Quadrangle Sediment Data - 151 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 Lake Charles quadrangle is limited to Avoyelles, Rapides, and Vernon Parishes in Louisiana, and to Jasper and Newton Counties in Texas. These counties and parishes are found only along the northern half of the Lake Charles quadrangle. The laboratory and analytical methods used also may vary by county or parish such that adjacent counties or parishes often have very different analytical coverages.

Six sediment samples within the Lake Charles 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	County or Parish	Sample Media	Unanalyzed Samples	Total Samples
Louisiana	Avoyelles	Sediment	5	12
Louisiana	Vernon	Sediment	1	44

Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Lake Charles Quadrangle

None found.

Lake Charles Quadrangle NURE Bibliography

Fay, W.M., and Cook, J.R., 1982, Gold analyses by neutron activation from SRL NURE samples: E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Savannah River Laboratory, Aiken, S.C., SRL Internal Doc. DPST-81-141-38, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-135(82), 45 p.
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 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/ofr-97-0492/quad/q_lkchas.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)