Young basalt fields of the Mojave Desert
David M. Miller, David C. Buesch
2022, Conference Paper, Volcanoes in the Mojave: 2022 Desert symposium field guide and proceedings
Basalt, a mafic volcanic rock common in mid-ocean islands and in several continental settings, is melted from upper mantle rocks in many cases and thus provides information on mantle conditions. Basalt lava fields, some decorated with cinder cones, are scattered around the Mojave Desert. Only a few basalt fields have...
Post-Early Miocene silicic volcanism in the northern Mojave Desert, California
David M. Miller, Phillip B Gans, Tracey J. Felger, Jorge A. Vazquez
2022, Conference Paper, Volcanoes in the Mojave: 2022 Desert symposium field guide and proceedings
Silicic volcanism that postdates widespread early Miocene volcanism in the Mojave Desert is underappreciated. We compiled age, petrographic, and geochemical data for volcanic rocks in a wide swath of the desert south of the Garlock fault using an age threshold of post-18.8 Ma, approximately the limit of the earlier Miocene...
The ~400 yr B.P. eruption of Half Cone, a post-caldera composite cone within Aniakchak caldera, Alaska Peninsula
Brandon Browne, Christina A. Neal, Charles R. Bacon
2022, Report
Aniakchak volcano is a historically active caldera located on the central Alaska Peninsula. The largest eruption from Aniakchak since the ~3,400 yr B.P. caldera-forming eruption occurred ~400 yr B.P. from Half Cone volcano, an intracaldera composite cone on the northwest floor of the Aniakchak caldera that was largely destroyed by the eruption. The ~400...
A methodology to assess the historical environmental footprint of in-situ recovery (ISR) of uranium: A demonstration in the Goliad Sand in the Texas Coastal Plain, USA
Tanya J. Gallegos, Annie Scott, Victoria G. Stengel, Andrew Teeple
2022, Minerals (12)
In-situ recovery (ISR) has been the only technique used to extract uranium from sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the Pliocene Goliad Sand in the Texas Coastal Plain. Water plays a crucial role throughout the ISR lifecycle of production and groundwater restoration yet neither the water use nor other environmental footprints have...
Database of the "North America Tapestry of Time and Terrain" map
Steven M. Cahan, Christopher P. Garrity, David R. Soller, Jose F. Vigil
2022, Data Series 1150
In 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey published a distinctive map, entitled “A Tapestry of Time and Terrain,” which showed a generalized depiction of the geology in the conterminous United States, draped over shaded-relief topography. In 2003, that map concept was extended geographically, and the resulting new map was published at...
Mechanisms for retention of low molecular weight organic carbon varies with soil depth at a coastal prairie ecosystem
Jack McFarland, Corey Lawrence, Courtney Creamer, Marjorie S. Schulz, Christopher H. Conaway, Sara Peek, Mark Waldrop, Sabrina N. Sevilgen, Monica Haw
2022, Soil Biology and Biochemistry (168)
Though primary sources of carbon (C) to soil are plant inputs (e.g., rhizodeposits), the role of microorganisms as mediators of soil organic carbon (SOC) retention is increasingly recognized. Yet, insufficient knowledge of sub-soil processes complicates attempts to describe microbial-driven C cycling at depth as most studies of microbial-mineral-C interactions focus...
Early Neoproterozoic gold deposits of the Alto Guaporé province, southwestern Amazon craton, western Brazil
Rodrigo Prudente de Melo, Marcos Aurelio Farias de Oliveira, Richard J. Goldfarb, Craig A. Johnson, Erin E. Marsh, Roberto Perez Xavier, Leandro Rocha de Oliveira, Leah E. Morgan
2022, Economic Geology (117) 127-163
The Alto Guaporé gold province, southwestern Amazon craton, contains gold deposits that have been mined since the beginning of the 18th century and these deposits, together, have modern-day, pre-mining gold resources of at least 1.8 Moz. The ore is associated with quartz vein systems along the southeastern part of the...
Assessing mineral supply concentration from different perspectives through a case study of zinc
Christine L. Thomas, Nedal T. Nassar, John H. DeYoung Jr.
2022, Mineral Economics (35) 6067-616
Increasing demand for nonfuel mineral commodities has increased concerns regarding the reliability of their supplies. “Criticality” assessments over the past decade have attempted to capture this concern through a set of indicators, the most common of which quantifies the risk associated with market concentration by applying the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI)...
Planning and operations of the Hydrate 01 Stratigraphic Test Well, Prudhoe Bay Unit, Alaska North Slope
Timothy S. Collett, Margarita V. Zyrianova, Norihiro Okinaka, Motoi Wakatsuki, Ray Boswell, Scott Marsteller, David Minge, Stephen Crumley, David Itter, Robert D. Hunter, Ana Garcia-Ceballos, Ge Jin
2022, Journal of Energy and Fuels (36) 3016-3039
The National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, and the U.S. Geological Survey are leading an effort to conduct an extended gas hydrate production test in northern Alaska. The proposed production test required the drilling of an initial stratigraphic test well...
Geology & mineralogy of the Old Mine Park area Trumbull Connecticut
Harold Moritz, Robert P. Wintsch, Bill Devlin, Ryan J. McAleer, Shinae Lee, SookJu Kim, Keewook Yi
2022, Book
Old Mine Park, in the northern Trumbull area (also known as Long Hill) of southwestern Connecticut, is a recreation area encompassing the mineral-rich hill of “Saganawamps” and owned by the Town of Trumbull. Most of its 72 acres are wooded, rocky and undeveloped but it is surrounded by dense infrastructure...
Comparison of sediment composition by smear slides to quantitative shipboard data: A case study on the utility of smear slide percent estimates, IODP Expedition 353, northern Indian Ocean
Stephen C. Phillips, Kate Littler
2022, Scientific Drilling (30) 59-74
Smear slide petrography has been a standard technique during scientific ocean drilling expeditions to characterize sediment composition and classify sediment types, but presentation of these percent estimates to track downcore trends in sediment composition has become less frequent over the past 2 decades. We compare semi-quantitative smear slide composition estimates...
Gas hydrate saturation estimates, gas hydrate occurrence, and reservoir characteristics based on well log data from the hydrate-01 stratigraphic test well, Alaska North Slope
Seth S. Haines, Timothy Collett, Jun Yoneda, Naoyuki Shimoda, Ray Boswell, Norihiro Okinaka
2022, Journal of Energy and Fuels (36) 3040-3050
The Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well was drilled at the Kuparuk 7-11-12 site on the Alaska North Slope in December 2018. Sonic log data provide compressional (P) and shear (S) slowness from which we determine gas hydrate saturation (Sgh) estimates using effective medium theory. The sonic Sgh estimates compare...
Occurrence and sources of lead in private wells, Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Leah M. Santangelo, Craig J. Brown, James B. Shanley, Michael Pribil, Danny Rutherford
2022, Applied Geochemistry (139)
Lead (Pb) occurrence and sources and aqueous geochemistry were assessed in private wellhead and tap water at a targeted area of concern for possible exceedances and at a control area in the same geologic formation, and in wells at a nearby landfill in south-central...
Juvenile continental crust evolution in a modern oceanic arc setting: Petrogenesis of Cenozoic felsic plutons in Fiji, SW Pacific
Chris S. Marien, Elizabeth Kathleen Drewes-Todd, Allen Stork, Erin Todd, James B Gill, J. Elis Hoffman, Kenichiro Tani, Charlotte M. Allen, Carsten Munker
2022, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (320) 339-365
Viti Levu, Fiji, provides one of the best exposed Phanerozoic analogues for the formation of juvenile continental crust in an intra-oceanic setting. Tonalites and trondhjemites are present in several large (75–150 km2) adjacent, mid-Cenozoic plutons. We report major and trace element data...
Mineral commodity summaries 2022
U.S. Geological Survey
2022, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022
IntroductionEach mineral commodity chapter of the 2022 edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) includes information on events, trends, and issues for each mineral commodity as well as discussions and tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics, and world production, reserves,...
Modeling subsurface performance of a geothermal reservoir using machine learning
Dmitry Duplyakin, Koenraad F Beckers, Drew L. Siler, Michael J. Martin, Henry E. Johnston
2022, Energies (15)
Geothermal power plants typically show decreasing heat and power production rates over time. Mitigation strategies include optimizing the management of existing wells—increasing or decreasing the fluid flow rates across the wells—and drilling new wells at appropriate locations. The latter is expensive, time-consuming, and subject to many engineering...
Post-landing major element quantification using SuperCam laser induced breakdown spectroscopy
Ryan B. Anderson, Olivier Forni, Agnes Cousin, Roger C. Wiens, Samuel M. Clegg, Jens Frydenvang, Travis S.J. Gabriel, Ann M. Ollila, Susanne Schröder, Olivier Beyssac, Erin Gibbons, David Vogt, Elise Clave, Jose-Antonio Manrique, Carey Legett, Paolo Pilleri, Raymond Newell, Joseph Sarrao, Sylvestre Maurice, Gorka Arana, Karim Benzerara, Pernelle Bernardi, Sylvain Bernard, Bruno Bousquet, Adrian J. Brown, Cesar Alvarez-Llamas, Baptiste Chide, Edward A. Cloutis, Jade Comellas, Stephanie Connell, Erwin Dehouck, Dorothea Delapp, Ari Essunfeld, Cecile Fabre, Thierry Fouchet, Cristina Garcia, Laura Garcia-Gomez, Patrick J. Gasda, Olivier Gasnault, Elisabeth Hausrath, Nina L. Lanza, Javier Laserna, Jeremie Lasue, Guillermo Lopez, Juan Manuel Madariaga, Lucia Mandon, Nicolas Mangold, Pierre-Yves Meslin, Marion Nachon, Anthony Nelson, Horton E. Newsom, Adriana Reyes-Newell, Scott Robinson, Fernando Rull, Shiv Sharma, Justin I Simon, Pablo Sobron, Imanol Torre Fernandez, Arya Udry, Dawn Venhaus, Scott McLennan, Richard V. Morris, Bethany L. Ehlmann
2022, Spectrochimica Acta B (188)
The SuperCam instrument on the Perseverance Mars 2020 rover uses a pulsed 1064 nm laser to ablate targets at a distance and conduct laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) by analyzing the light from the resulting plasma. SuperCam LIBS spectra are preprocessed to remove ambient light, noise, and...
Differences in population characteristics and modeled response to harvest regulations in reestablished Appalachian Walleye populations
Dustin M. Smith, Corbin D. Hilling, Stuart A. Welsh, David I. Wellman Jr.
2022, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (42) 612-629
Historically, the Monongahela, Tygart, and Cheat River watersheds in West Virginia were impaired by acidification from acid mine drainage and Walleye Sander vitreus were extirpated from these watersheds by the 1940s. Walleye were reestablished after water quality improvements following passage of environmental legislation and subsequent reintroduction efforts. We compared population characteristics, with...
UAS-based tools for mapping and monitoring hydrothermal systems: An example from Mammoth Lakes, California
Laurie Antoinette Zielinski, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Tait E. Earney, Grant H. Rea-Downing, R. Greg Vaughan, Peter J. Kelly, Gordon H. Keller, Branden James Dean, William Schermerhorn
2022, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions (46) 1618-1637
Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) can accommodate a variety of tools for mapping and monitoring hydrothermal systems (e.g., magnetic, gas, photogrammetry, and thermal infrared [TIR]). These platforms offer increased speed, coverage area, and uniformity compared to ground-based measurements, as well as lower flight height – and therefore higher resolution – than...
Estimates of metals contained in abyssal manganese nodules and ferromanganese crusts in the global ocean based on regional variations and genetic types of nodules
Kira Mizell, James R. Hein, Manda Viola Au, Amy Gartman
2022, Book chapter, Perspectives on deep-sea mining
Deep-ocean ferromanganese crusts and manganese nodules are important marine repositories for global metals. Interest in these minerals as potential resources has led to detailed sampling in many regions of the global ocean, allowing for updated estimates of their global extent. Here, we present global estimates of total tonnage as well...
Multimineral petrophysics of thermally immature Eagle Ford Group and Cretaceous mudstones, U.S. Geological Survey Gulf Coast 1 research wellbore in central Texas
Lauri A. Burke, Justin E. Birdwell, Stanley T. Paxton
2022, Interpretation (10) T151-T165
Traditional petrophysical methods to evaluate organic richness and mineralogy using gamma-ray and resistivity log responses are not diagnostic in source rocks. We have developed a deterministic, nonproprietary method to quantify formation variability in total organic carbon (TOC) and three key mudrock mineralogical components of nonhydrocarbon-bearing...
Factors Affecting Groundwater Quality Used for Domestic Supply in Marcellus Shale Region of North-Central and North-East Pennsylvania, USA
Charles A. Cravotta III, Lisa A. Senior, Matthew D. Conlon
2022, Applied Geochemistry (137)
Factors affecting groundwater quality used for domestic supply within the Marcellus Shale footprint in north-central and north-east Pennsylvania are identified using a combination of spatial, statistical, and geochemical modeling. Untreated groundwater, sampled during 2011–2017 from 472 domestic wells within the study...
Constraints on triple oxygen isotope kinetics
Justin A. Hayles, Bryan Alan Killingsworth
2022, Chemical Geology (589)
Isotopic disequilibrium is not as well constrained as equilibrium, hindering interpretation of isotopic variations. Kinetic isotope effects, a subset of disequilibrium, are common in nature and have been assumed to be distinct from equilibrium and mass independent isotope effects based on underdeveloped criteria. Using basic physical principles, we provide needed mechanistic constraints on...
A Bayesian nonparametric approach to unmixing detrital geochronologic data
John R. Tipton, Glenn R. Sharman, Samuel Johnstone
2022, Mathematical Geosciences (54) 151-176
Sedimentary deposits constitute the primary record of changing environmental conditions that have acted on Earth’s surface over geologic time. Clastic material is eroded from source locations (parents) in sediment routing systems and deposited at sink locations (children). Both parents and children have characteristics that vary across many different dimensions, including...
Diagenesis of Vera Rubin ridge, Gale crater, Mars from Mastcam multispectral images
Briony H. N. Horgan, Jeffrey R. Johnson, Abigail A. Fraeman, Melissa Rice, Christina Seeger, James F. Bell, Kristen A. Bennett, Edward A. Cloutis, Lauren A. Edgar, Jens Frydenvang, John P. Grotzinger, Jonas L’Haridon, Samantha Jacob, Nicolas Mangold, Elizabeth B. Rampe, Frances Rivera-Hernandez, Vivian Z. Sun, Lucy Thompson, Danika F. Wellington
2022, JGR Planets (125)
Images from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission of lacustrine sedimentary rocks of Vera Rubin ridge on “Mt. Sharp” in Gale crater, Mars, have shown stark color variations from red to purple to gray. These color differences crosscut stratigraphy and are likely due to diagenetic alteration of the sediments after...