Beechey Point Quadrangle NURE HSSR Study

OFR 97-492: Beechey Point 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 212 sediment and 214 water samples were collected from 215 locations in the Beechey Point quadrangle as part of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) Beechey Point 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 Beechey Point 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-7(82) report. This report does not give any details on the sample collection or analytical methods used on these samples.

LASL sent the 214 water samples from the Beechey Point 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-246(81) report.

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

*Summary of Beechey Point quadrangle sample types.*
Sediment Sample Type	Number of Samples	Water Sample Type	Number of Samples
Wet Streams	12	Streams	12
Wet Lakes	200	Lakes	202
Total Sediments	212	Total Waters	214

These Beechey Point 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.
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.
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 data in the NEW-FORMAT NURE data files consist of 212 reformatted sediment records from the GJBX-7(82) report and 214 reformatted water records from the GJBX-246(81) report. Any changes in the data or problems found 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).

Beechey Point Quadrangle Sediment Data - 212 records
Beechey Point Quadrangle Water Data - 214 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.

Other NURE Geochemical Data for the Beechey Point 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.

Beechey Point Quadrangle NURE Bibliography

Hardy, L.C., D'Andrea, R.F., Jr., Zinkl, R.J., Shettel, Jr., Langfeldt, S.L., Hensley, W.K., Thomas, G.J., Martell, C.J., and Maassen, L.W., 1981, Uranium hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance of the Beechey NTMS quadrangle, Alaska: Bendix Field Engineering Corporation, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-7(82), 30 p.
Uranium Resource Evaluation Project, 1981, Hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance basic data for Beechey Point quadrangle, Alaska: Union Carbide Corporation, Nuclear Division, Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge, Tenn., K/UR-338, U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colo., GJBX-246(81), 45 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.

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_bechpt.htm Questions or Assistance: USGS Web Contact Page Last Modified: Wed Dec 7 16:17 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)