Arctic Quadrangle NURE HSSR Study

OFR 97-492: Arctic 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.]

Totals of 1,149 sediment and 1,100 water samples were collected from 1,150 locations in the Arctic quadrangle as part of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) Arctic Quadrangle NURE Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) study. Samples were collected during July of 1979. The sediment samples were analyzed by LASL for uranium and up to 43 additional elements. but LASL was unable to complete the Arctic quadrangle data release report. The data were sent to and released by the Bendix Field Engineering Corporation in Grand Junction, Colorado only as a microfiche GJBX-253(81) report. This report includes results for stream sediment samples only and does not give any details on the sample collection or analytical methods used for these samples.

LASL sent the 1,100 water samples from the Arctic quadrangle to the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP) for analysis. These samples were analyzed for uranium and up to 27 additional elements and the results were released by ORGDP in the GJBX-151(81) report.

Personnel of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, Alaska Field Operations Center, Fairbanks, collected 416 rock and 1,584 sediment samples "in 6 project areas in central and northeastern Alaska." The samples were sent to LASL for analysis (uranium and up to 42 other elements) and the results were released by Bendix Field Engineering Corporation of Grand Junction, Colo. in the GJBX-33(80) report. This report includes results for 682 sediment samples collected from within the Arctic quadrangle. However, the report does not include any site description data, and sample locations could only be identified on plates accompanying the report.

The following is a list of NURE sample types collected for these studies in the Arctic quadrangle.

*Summary of Arctic quadrangle sample types.*
Sediment Sample Type	Number of Samples	Water Sample Type	Number of Samples
Wet Streams	1,720	Streams	1,036
Dry Streams	47	Lakes	64
Wet Lakes	64
Total Sediments	1,831	Total Waters	1,100

These Arctic 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.
LA2: Los Alamos Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of sediments for Ag, Bi, Cd, Cu, Nb, Ni, Pb, Sn, and W. (U.S. Bureau of Mines Study only.)
LA3: Los Alamos Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of sediments for Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Cu, Nb, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn, W and Zr.
LA4: Los Alamos Arc-Source Emission Spectrography Analysis of sediments for Be and Li. (U.S. Bureau of Mines Study only.)
LA5: Los Alamos Neutron Activation Analysis of sediments for Al, Au, Ba, Ca, Ce, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Lu, Mg, Mn, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Sr, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, V, Yb, and Zn.

Water Samples

OR9-FL: Oak Ridge Fluorescence Spectroscopy Analysis of waters for U.
OR9-MS: Oak Ridge Mass Spectrometry 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 sediment data in the NEW-FORMAT NURE data files consist of 1,149 reformatted sediment records from the GJBX-253(81) LASL sediment data report and 682 reformatted sediment records from the GJBX-33(80) U.S. Bureau of Mines report. The water data in the NEW-FORMAT NURE data files consist of 1100 reformatted water records from the GJBX-151(81) ORGDP water data report. Any changes in the data or problems found are noted in the REFORMAT comment field.

The site locations for samples from the U.S. Bureau of Mines studies were only identified on plates that accompanied the U.S. Bureau of Mines GJBX-33(80) report. These locations were digitized from the plates and the coordinates added to the sediment file. Occasionally, a sample site was plotted more than once or not at all. Problems with the coordinates for these samples are noted in the REFORMAT comment field.

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).

Arctic Quadrangle Sediment Data - 1,825 records
Arctic Quadrangle Water Data - 1,100 records

Notes for Data Users

Water samples from this quadrangle are reported to have been acidified with nitric acid but NOT filtered in the field.

The ORGDP fluorometric procedure for uranium required each water sample to be centrifuged before taking an aliquot for analysis. It is not clear whether water samples analyzed by emission spectrometry were also centrifuged prior to analysis.

Values of 99999 are as reported in the GJBX publications and may reflect values above determination limits.

Sediment samples from the U.S. Bureau of Mines GJBX-33(80) report were assigned a SAMPTYP of 12 but no information was available on whether these samples were wet or dry.

Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Arctic Quadrangle

LASL compiled all of the regional HSSR data from Alaskan NURE studies and produced a report [GJBX-32(83] that graphically displays the distribution of selected elements for most of the State. No additional geochemical data were released with this report.

Arctic Quadrangle NURE Bibliography

Stablein, N.K., 1980, Report on the mineral resource investigations in six areas of central and northeastern Alaska: Bendix Field Engineering Corporation, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-33(80), 186 p.
Uranium Resource Evaluation Project, 1981, Hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance basic data for Arctic quadrangle, Alaska: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-301, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-151(81), 107 p.
Weaver, T.A., Freeman, S.H., Broxton, D.E., Bolivar, S.L., and others, 1983, The geochemical atlas of Alaska: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., LA-9897-MS, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-32(83), 57 p.
Zinkl, R.J., Shettel, D.L., Jr., Langfeldt, S.L., Youngquist, C.A., D'Andrea, R.F., Jr., Garcia, S.R., Hanks, D., George, W.E., and Bolivar, S.L., 1981, Uranium hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance of the Arctic NTMS quadrangle, Alaska: Bendix Field Engineering Corporation, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-253(81), 90 p.

Links Within Open-File Report 97-492

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

Page written by Andrew W. Holt and Steven M. Smith
Contact: Steven M. Smith (smsmith@usgs.gov)
Version 1.20: August 07, 2000
Version 1.30: September 11, 2001
Version 1.40: 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_ak/q_arctic.htm Questions or Assistance: USGS Web Contact Page Last Modified: Wed Dec 7 16:16 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)