Mineral resource of the month: germanium
David Guberman
2010, Earth (55) 27-27
The article provides information on germanium, an element with electrical properties between those of a metal and an insulator. Applications of germanium include its use as a component of the glass in fiber-optic cable, in infrared optics devices and as a semiconductor and substrate used in electronic and solar applications....
Mineral resource of the month: perlite
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2010, Earth (55) 27-27
The article talks about perlite, which is a mineral used as an aggregate for lightweight construction products, filler for paints and horticultural soil blends. Perlite comes from viscous lava, mined and processed to produce lightweight material that competes with pumice, exfoliated vermiculite and expanded clay and shale. It is mined...
New software methods in radar ornithology using WSR-88D weather data and potential application to monitoring effects of climate change on bird migration
Reginald Mead, John Paxton, Richard S. Sojda
David A. Swayne, Wanhong Yang, A.A. Voinov, A. Rizzoli, T. Filatova, editor(s)
2010, Conference Paper, 2010 International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software; Modelling for Environment's Sake, Fifth Biennial Meeting, Ottawa, Canada
Radar ornithology has provided tools for studying the movement of birds, especially related to migration. Researchers have presented qualitative evidence suggesting that birds, or at least migration events, can be identified using large broad scale radars such as the WSR-88D used in the NEXRAD weather surveillance system. This is potentially...
Mineral resource of the month: lead
David E. Guberman
2010, Earth (55) 29-29
The article discusses the properties and uses lead as a mineral resource. According to the author, lead is a corrosion-resistant, dense, ductile, and malleable blue-gray metal that has been used by humans for 5,000 years. Lead was first used in decorative, fixtures, roofs, pipes, and windows. The author says that...
Lithium
B.W. Jaskula
2010, Mining Engineering (62) 61-62
In 2009, lithium consumption in the United States was estimated to have been about 1.2 kt (1,300 st) of contained lithium, a 40-percent decrease from 2008. The United States was estimated to be the fourth largest consumer of lithium, and remained the leading importer of lithium carbonate and the leading...
Inference of lithologic distributions in an alluvial aquifer using airborne transient electromagnetic surveys
Jesse E. Dickinson, D. R. Pool, R.W. Groom, L.J. Davis
2010, Geophysics (75) WA149-WA161
An airborne transient electromagnetic (TEM) survey was completed in the Upper San Pedro Basin in southeastern Arizona to map resistivity distributions within the alluvial aquifer. This investigation evaluated the utility of 1D vertical resistivity models of the TEM data to infer lithologic distributions in an alluvial aquifer. Comparisons of the...
A universal approximation to grain size from images of non-cohesive sediment
D. Buscombe, D. M. Rubin, J.A. Warrick
2010, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (115)
The two-dimensional spectral decomposition of an image of sediment provides a direct statistical estimate, grid-by-number style, of the mean of all intermediate axes of all single particles within the image. We develop and test this new method which, unlike existing techniques, requires neither image processing algorithms for detection and measurement...
Bromine
Lori E. Apodaca
2010, Mining Engineering (62) 41-42
The entire U.S. production of bromine in 2009 came from underground brines in Arkansas, where it was the leading mineral commodity produced in terms of value. Two companies, Albermarle Corp. and Chemtura Corp., were responsible for bromine recovery. Worldwide, the United States is still the leading producer. However, U.S. dominance...
Mineral resource of the month: sulfur
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2010, Earth (55) 26-27
The article presents information on sulfur. Sulfur is said to be among the few solid elements found in elemental form in nature and has industrial uses. Changes in the sulfur production process over the years are discussed as well as the mining process developed by German engineer Herman Frasch that...
Mineral resource of the month: platinum group metals
Patricia J. Loferski
2010, Earth (55) 28-29
The article focuses on platinum group metals (PGMs) and their properties. According to the author, PGMs, which include iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and ruthenium, are among the rarest mineral commodities in the Earth's crust. PGMs are primarily used as catalytic converters that clean harmful exhaust from vehicle engines. They...
Exploration review
D.R. Wilburn, M.R. Bourget
2010, Mining Engineering (62) 39-52
This summary of international mineral exploration activities for the year 2009 draws upon information from industry sources, published literature and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) specialists. The summary provides data on industry exploration budgets by region and mineral commodity, identifies significant mineral discoveries and areas of mineral exploration, discusses government programs...
Industrial garnet
D.W. Olson
2010, Mining Engineering (62) 55-56
In 2009, U.S. production of crude garnet concentrate for industrial use was estimated to be 56.5 kt (62,300 st), valued at about $8.85 million. This was a 10-percent decrease in quantity compared with 2008 production. Refined garnet material sold or used was 28 kt (31,000 st) valued at $7.96 million....
Understanding the potential dispersal of HPAI H5N1 virus by migratory wildfowl
Nicolas Gaidet, Julien Cappelle, John Y. Takekawa, Diann J. Prosser, Samuel A. Iverson, David C. Douglas, William M. Perry, Taej Mundkur, Scott H. Newman
2010, Argos Forum (71) 4-5
We analysed wildfowl movements between 2006-2009, including 228 birds from 19 species, part of a larger international programme (see Figure 1) coordinated by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations aimed at understanding if there are temporal or spatial relationships between HPAI H5N1 outbreaks and movements of...
Strontium
M.A. Angulo
2010, Mining Engineering (62) 77-78
In 2009, U.S. apparent consumption of strontium (contained in celestite and manufactured strontium compounds) increased to 16 kt (17,600 st) from 10.6 kt (11,700 st) in 2008, an increase of 52 percent. This increase was attributed primarily to an increase in imported celestite. Gross weight of imports totaled 25.3 kt...
Functional linear models to test for differences in prairie wetland hydraulic gradients
Mark C. Greenwood, Richard S. Sojda, Todd M. Preston
David A. Swayne, Wanhong Yang, A.A. Voinov, A. Rizzoli, T. Filatova, editor(s)
2010, Conference Paper, 2010 International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software; Modelling for Environment's Sake, Fifth Biennial Meeting, Ottawa, Canada
Functional data analysis provides a framework for analyzing multiple time series measured frequently in time, treating each series as a continuous function of time. Functional linear models are used to test for effects on hydraulic gradient functional responses collected from three types of land use in Northeastern Montana at fourteen...
A procedure for radiometric recalibration of Landsat 5 TM reflective-band data
G. Chander, M.O. Haque, E. Micijevic, J. A. Barsi
2010, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (48) 556-574
From the Landsat program's inception in 1972 to the present, the Earth science user community has been benefiting from a historical record of remotely sensed data. The multispectral data from the Landsat 5 (L5) Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor provide the backbone for this extensive archive. Historically, the radiometric calibration procedure...
Groundwater sustainability strategies
Tom Gleeson, Jonathan VanderSteen, Marios A. Sophocleous, Makoto Taniguchi, William M. Alley, Diana M. Allen, Yangxiao Zhou
2010, Nature Geoscience (3) 378-379
Groundwater extraction has facilitated significant social development and economic growth, enhanced food security and alleviated drought in many farming regions. But groundwater development has also depressed water tables, degraded ecosystems and led to the deterioration of groundwater quality, as well as to conflict among water users. The effects are not...
An overview of sensor calibration inter-comparison and applications
Xiaoxiong Xiong, Changyong Cao, Gyanesh Chander
2010, Frontiers of Earth Science in China (4) 237-252
Long-term climate data records (CDR) are often constructed using observations made by multiple Earth observing sensors over a broad range of spectra and a large scale in both time and space. These sensors can be of the same or different types operated on the same or different platforms. They can...
Carbonate control of H2 and CH4 production in serpentinization systems at elevated P-Ts
L. Camille Jones, Robert Rosenbauer, Jonas I. Goldsmith, Christopher Oze
2010, Geophysical Research Letters (37)
Serpentinization of forsteritic olivine results in the inorganic synthesis of molecular hydrogen (H2) in ultramafic hydrothermal systems (e.g., mid-ocean ridge and forearc environments). Inorganic carbon in those hydrothermal systems may react with H2 to produce methane (CH4) and other hydrocarbons or react with dissolved metal ions to form carbonate minerals....
Changes in the North American ferroalloys industry structure and trends in the industry during the past 20 years
J.R. Didaleusky, J.D. Jorgenson, L.A. Corathers, M.D. Fenton, P.H. Kuck, J.F. Papp, D.E. Polyak, Kim B. Shedd
2010, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the twelfth international ferroalloys congress: sustainable future: June 6 - 9, 2010, Helsinki, Finland
This analysis of changes in the North American (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) ferroalloys industry between 1987 and 2007 includes the locations and types of ferroalloy plants in North America and the changes in production, imports, exports, pricing, and the structure of ownership since 1987, which was just prior...
Chemical fractionation of Cu and Zn in stormwater, roadway dust and stormwater pond sediments
Kimberly M. Camponelli, Steven M. Lev, Joel W. Snodgrass, Edward R. Landa, Ryan E. Casey
2010, Environmental Pollution (158) 2143-2149
This study evaluated the chemical fractionation of Cu and Zn from source to deposition in a stormwater system. Cu and Zn concentrations and chemical fractionation were determined for roadway dust, roadway runoff and pond sediments. Stormwater Cu and Zn concentrations were used to generate cumulative frequency distributions to characterize potential...
Model-based evaluation of highly and low pathogenic avian influenza dynamics in wild birds
Viviane Hénaux, Michael D. Samuel, Christine M. Bunck
2010, PLoS ONE (5)
There is growing interest in avian influenza (AI) epidemiology to predict disease risk in wild and domestic birds, and prevent transmission to humans. However, understanding the epidemic dynamics of highly pathogenic (HPAI) viruses remains challenging because they have rarely been detected in wild birds. We used modeling to integrate available...
Tectonics of the Maryland Piedmont along the Potomac River; insight since 1960 and potential transfer to the Pennsylvania Piedmont
C. Scott Southworth
Donald U. Wise, Gary M. Fleeger, editor(s)
2010, Conference Paper, Tectonics of the Susquehanna Piedmont in Lancaster, Dauphin, and York Counties, Pa.: proceedings of a symposium associated with the 75th Field Conference of Pennsylvania Geologists, Lancaster, Pa., September 23, 2010
This is a summary of a half century of research in the Mary land Piedmont and how it may or may not have implications for the Piedmont of Pennsylvania. Much of the field mapping and all of the isotopic analyses of rocks and minerals of the Maryland Piedmont have been...
Diel behavior of rearing fall Chinook salmon
Kenneth F. Tiffan, Tobias J. Kock, Joseph J. Skalicky
2010, Northwestern Naturalist (91) 342-345
In fisheries science, habitat use is often inferred when fish are sampled or observed in a particular location. Physical habitat is typically measured where fish are found, and thus deemed important to habitat use. Although less common, a more informative approach is to measure or observe fish behavior within given...
Gemstones
D.W. Olson
2010, Mining Engineering (62) 50-51
Information on the gemstones industry in 2009 is presented. Specifically, details on U.S. production of natural gemstones and laboratory-created, simulant, and treated gemstones; consumption and uses of gemstones; gemstone prices; imports and exports of gemstones; and the outlook for the sector are provided....
