Variability in results from mineralogical and organic geochemical interlaboratory testing of U. S. Geological Survey shale reference materials
Justin E. Birdwell, Stephen A. Wilson
2019, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 7th Unconventional Resources Technology Conference
The expansion of unconventional petroleum resource exploration and production in the United States has led to an increase in source rock characterization efforts, particularly related to bulk organic and mineralogical properties. To support the analytical and research needs of industry and academia, as well as internal work, the U.S. Geological...
The 30 November 2018 Mw7.1 Anchorage Earthquake
Michael E. West, Adrian Bender, Matthew Gardine, Lea Gardine, Kara Gately, Peter J. Haeussler, Wael Hassan, Franz Meyer, Cole Richards, Natalia Ruppert, Carl Tape, John Thornley, Robert Witter
2019, Seismological Research Letters (91) 66-84
The Mw">Mw 7.1 47 km deep earthquake that occurred on 30 November 2018 had deep societal impacts across southcentral Alaska and exhibited phenomena of broad scientific interest. We document observations that point to future directions...
Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across pan-arctic permafrost region
Susan M Natali, Jennifer D. Watts, Stefano Potter, Brendan M. Rogers, Sarah M. Ludwig, Anne-Katrin Selbmann, Patrick F. Sullivan, Benjamin W. Abbott, Kyle A. Arndt, Leah Birch, Mats P. Bjorkman, Anthony Bloom, Gerardo Celis, Torben R. Christiensen, Casper T. Christiansen, Roisin Commane, Elisabeth J. Cooper, Patrick Crill, Claudia Czimczik, Sergey Davydov, Jinyang Du, Jocelyn E. Egan, Bo Elberling, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Thomas Friborg, Helene Genet, Mathias Gockede, Jordan P. Goodrich, Paul Grogan, Manuel Helbig, Elchin E. Jafarov, Julie Jastrow, Aram Kalhori, Yongwon Kim, John S Kimball, Lars Kutzbach, Mark J. Lara, Klaus S. Larsen, Michael M Loranty, Magnus Lund, Massimo Lupascu, Nima Madani, Avni Malhorta, Jack McFarland, David A. McGuire, Anders Michelson, Christina Minions, Walter C. Oechel, David Olefeldt, Frans-Jan Parmentier, Norbert Pirk, Benjamin Poulter, William L. Quinton, Fereidoun Rezanezhad, David Risk, Torsten Sachs, Kevin Schaefer, Neils M. Schmidt, Edward A. Schuur, Philipp R. Semenchuk, Gaius Shaver, Oliver Sonnentag, Gregory Starr, Claire C. Treat, Mark P. Waldrop, Yihui Wang, Jeffrey Welker, Christian Wille, Xiaofeng Xu, Zhen Zhang, Qianlai Zhuang, Donatella Zona
2019, Nature Climate Change (9) 852-857
Recent warming in the Arctic, which has been amplified during the winter1,<a id="ref-link-section-d35506e2410_1" title="Koenigk, T. et al. Arctic Climate Change in 21st...
Anthropogenic and geologic causes of anomalously high uranium concentrations in groundwater used for drinking water supply in the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, CA
Michael R. Rosen, Karen R. Burow, Miranda Fram
2019, Journal of Hydrology (577) 1-14
Concentrations of uranium (U) >30 µg/L in groundwater are relatively uncommon in drinking water in the United States but can be of concern in those areas where complex interactions of aquifer materials and anthropogenic alterations of the natural flow regime mobilize uranium. High concentrations (>30 µg/L) of U in...
Discrete Zr and REE mineralization of the Baerzhe rare-metal deposit, China
Kunfeng Qiu, Haocheng Yu, Mingqian Wu, Jianzhen Geng, Xiangkun Ge, Zongyang Gou, Ryan D. Taylor
2019, American Mineralogist (104) 1487-1502
Although REE (lanthanides + Y) mineralization in alkaline silicate systems is commonly accompanied with Zr mineralization worldwide, our understanding of the relationship between Zr and REE mineralization is still incomplete (e.g. Škoda and Novák, 2007; Linnen et al., 2014; Petrella et al., 2014; Möller and Williams-Jones, 2016; Wu et al.,...
Can geologic factors be predictive for distinguishing between productive and non-productive geothermal wells?
Drew L. Siler, Erick R. Burns, James E Faulds
2019, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions (43) 884-901
Geologic data are examined to evaluate whether certain geologic characteristics occur in higher abundance or higher magnitude along production geothermal wells relative to non-productive wells. We perform 3D geologic mapping, 3D stress modeling, and fault-slip modeling to estimate fourteen different geologic factors that are hypothesized to control or correlate with...
Discovering blind geothermal systems in the Great Basin Region: An integrated geologic and geophysical approach for establishing geothermal play fairways: All phases
E. Faulds James, Nicholas H. Hinz, Mark Coolbaugh, Bridget Ayling, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Jason W. Craig, Emma McConnville, Drew L. Siler, John Queen, Jeff Witter, Christian Hardwick
2019, Report
Most geothermal resources in the Great Basin region of the western USA are blind, and thus the discovery of new commercial-grade systems requires synthesis of favorable characteristics for geothermal activity. The geothermal play fairway concept involves integration of multiple parameters indicative of geothermal activity to identify promising...
The role of nanoparticles in mediating element deposition and transport at hydrothermal vents
Amy Gartman, Alyssa J. Findlay, Mark D. Hannington, Dieter Garbe-Schonberg, John W. Jamieson, Tom Kwasnitschka
2019, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (261) 113-131
Precipitation processes in hydrothermal fluids exert a primary control on the eventual distribution of elements, whether that sink is in the subseafloor, hydrothermal chimneys, near-field metalliferous sediments, or more distal in the ocean basin. Recent studies demonstrating abundant nanoparticles in hydrothermal fluids raise questions as to the importance of these...
Evaluation of chemical and hydrologic processes in the eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer based on results from geochemical modeling, Idaho National Laboratory, eastern Idaho
Gordon W. Rattray
2019, Professional Paper 1837-B
Nuclear research activities at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) produced liquid and solid chemical and radiochemical wastes that were disposed to the subsurface resulting in detectable concentrations of some waste constituents in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) aquifer. These waste constituents may affect the...
On the portability of ML-MC as a depth discriminant for small seismic events recorded at local distances
Monique M. Holt, Keith D. Koper, William L. Yeck, Sebastiano D’Amico, Zongshan Li, J. Mark Hale, Relu Burlacu
2019, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (4) 1661-1673
In this paper we show that ML-MC is a viable and regionally portable depth discriminant and therefore may contribute in nuclear test ban treaty verification. A recent study found that the difference between local magnitude (ML) and coda duration magnitude (MC) discriminates shallow seismic events (mining blasts, mining-induced earthquakes, and...
Gravity surveys using a mobile atom interferometer
Xuejian Wu, Zachary Pagel, Bola S. Malek, Timothy H. Nguyen, Fei Zi, Daniel S. Scheirer, Holger Muller
2019, Science Advances (5)
Mobile gravimetry is important in metrology, navigation, geodesy, and geophysics. Atomic gravimeters could be among the most accurate mobile gravimeters, but are currently constrained by being complex and fragile. Here, we demonstrate a mobile atomic gravimeter, measuring tidal gravity variations in the laboratory as well as surveying gravity in the...
A river is born: Highlights of the geologic evolution of the Colorado River extensional corridor and its river: A field guide honoring the life and legacy of Warren Hamilton
Keith A. Howard, Kyle House, Barbara E John, Ryan S. Crow, Philip A Pearthree
2019, Book chapter, Geologic excursions in Southwestern North America
The Colorado River extensional corridor, which stretched by a factor of 2 in the Miocene, left a series of lowland basins and intervening bedrock ranges that, at the dawn of the Pliocene, were flooded by Colorado River water newly diverted from the Colorado Plateau through Grand...
Multiproxy Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary event stratigraphy: An Umbria-Marche basin-wide perspective
Matthias Sinnesael, Alessandro Montanari, Fabrizio Frontalini, Rodolfo Coccioni, Jerome Gattacceca, Christophe Snoeck, Wencke Wegner, Christian Koeberl, Leah E. Morgan, Niels de Winter, Donald J. DePaolo, Philippe Claeys
2019, Book chapter, 250 Million Years of Earth History in Central Italy: Celebrating 25 Years of the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco
The complete and well-studied pelagic carbonate successions from the Umbria-Marche Basin (Italy) permit the study of the event-rich stratigraphical interval around the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary (e.g., Deccan volcanism, boundary impact, Paleocene recovery and climate). To test the robustness of various proxy records (bulk carbonate δ13C, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr and Ca, Fe,...
Characterization of the rhyolite of Bodie Hills and 40Ar/39Ar intercalibration with Ar mineral standards
Robert J. Fleck, Andrew T. Calvert, Matthew Coble, Joseph L. Wooden, Kip V. Hodges, Leslie A. Hayden, Matthijs C. van Soest, Edward A. du Bray, David A. John
2019, Chemical Geology (525) 282-302
The rhyolite of Bodie Hills (California) is characterized compositionally and the geochronology of selected phases is studied. Sanidine (BHs) from the rhyolite is well suited as a 40Ar/39Ar reference material with high K/Ca and radiogenic yield. Intercalibration with GA1550 biotite from the Dromedary igneous complex (New South Wales, Australia) yields an age of 9.7946 ± 0.0031 Ma for BHs relative to an age of...
Airborne radiometric maps of Mountain Pass, California
David A. Ponce, Kevin M. Denton
David A. Ponce, editor(s)
2019, Scientific Investigations Map 3412-C
Geophysical investigations of Mountain Pass and vicinity were begun as part of an effort to study regional crustal structures as an aid to understanding the geologic framework and mineral resources of the eastern Mojave Desert. The study area encompasses Mountain Pass, host to one of the world’s largest rare earth...
Water-quality and geochemical variability in the Little Arkansas River and Equus aquifer, south-central Kansas, 2001–16
Mandy L. Stone, Brian J. Klager, Andrew C. Ziegler
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5026
The city of Wichita’s water supply currently (2019) comes from two primary sources: Cheney Reservoir and the Equus Beds aquifer. The Equus Beds aquifer storage and recovery project was developed to help the city of Wichita meet increasing future water demands. Source water for artificial recharge comes from the Little...
Radiocarbon and geologic evidence reveal Ilopango volcano as source of the colossal 'mystery' eruption of 539/40 CE
Robert A. Dull, John R. Southon, Steffen Kutterolf, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Armin Freundt, David Wahl, Payson Sheets, Paul Amaroli, Walter Hernandez, Micheal C. Weimann, Clive Oppenheimer
2019, Quaternary Science Reviews (222)
Ilopango volcano (El Salvador) erupted violently during the Maya Classic Period (250–900 CE) in a densely-populated and intensively-cultivated region of the southern Maya realm, causing regional abandonment of an area covering more than 20,000 km2. However, neither the regional nor global impacts of the Tierra Blanca Joven (TBJ) eruption in Mesoamerica...
Paleoliquefaction field reconnaissance in eastern North Carolina—Is there evidence for large magnitude earthquakes between the central Virginia seismic zone and Charleston seismic zone?
Mark W. Carter, Brett T. McLaurin
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5057
In June 2016, approximately 64 kilometers (km) of riverbank were examined along the Tar and Neuse Rivers near Tarboro and Kinston, North Carolina, for evidence of liquefaction-forming earthquakes. The study area is in the vicinity of the Grainger’s fault zone in eastern North Carolina. The Grainger’s fault zone is a...
Soil mineralogy and geochemistry along a north-south transect in Alaska and the relation to source-rock terrane
Bronwen Wang, Chad P. Hults, Dennis D. Eberl, Laurel G. Woodruff, William F. Cannon, Larry P. Gough
2019, Professional Paper 1814-E
Soils collected along a predominately north-south transect in Alaska were used to evaluate regional differences in the soil mineralogy and geochemistry in the context of a geotectonic framework for Alaska. The approximately 1,395-kilometer-long transect followed the Dalton, Elliott, and Richardson Highways from near Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. Sites were selected...
Magmatic-hydrothermal gold mineralization at the Lone Tree Mine, Battle Mountain district, Nevada
Elizabeth A. Holley, Justin Lowe, Craig A. Johnson, Michael Pribil
2019, Economic Geology (114) 811-856
The Lone Tree deposit is located in the northern Battle Mountain mining district, Nevada. Prior to mine closure in 2006, Santa Fe Pacific Gold and Newmont produced 4.2 Moz of gold at an average grade of 2.06 g/t at Lone Tree, primarily from the N-S– to NNW-SSE–striking Wayne zone. The...
Timescales of water-quality change in a karst aquifer, south-central Texas
MaryLynn Musgrove, John E. Solder, Stephen P. Opsahl, Jennifer T. Wilson
2019, Journal of Hydrology X (4)
Understanding the drivers and timescales over which groundwater quality changes informs groundwater management, use, and protection. To better understand timescales of water-quality change over short (daily to monthly) and long (seasonal to decadal) timescales, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Enhanced Trends Network (ETN) program instrumented and sampled...
The effects of management practices on grassland birds — An introduction to North American grasslands and the practices used to manage grasslands and grassland birds
Jill A. Shaffer, John P. DeLong
2019, Professional Paper 1842-A
The Great Plains of North America is defined as the land mass that encompasses the entire central portion of the North American continent that, at the time of European settlement, was an unbroken expanse of primarily herbaceous vegetation. The Great Plains extend from central Saskatchewan and Alberta to central Mexico...
Temperature-dependent variations in mineralogy, major element chemistry and the stable isotopes of boron, lithium and chlorine resulting from hydration of rhyolite glass: Constraints from hydrothermal experiments at 150 to 350°C and 25 MPa
Jeffery T. Cullen, Shaul Hurwitz, Jaime D. Barnes, John C. Lassiter, Sarah Penniston-Dorland, Simone Kasemann, James Thordsen
2019, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (261) 269-287
Rhyolite-hosted hydrothermal systems in the continental crust contain valuable energy and mineral resources that make them of special interest across several scientific disciplines. Despite extensive research on these systems, the temperature-dependence of chemical reactions between host rocks and aqueous-rich fluids and the mineralogical transformations resulting from these reactions are not...
Reactivity of As and U co-occurring in mine wastes in northeastern Arizona
Johanna Blake, Sumant Avasarala, Abdul-Mehdi Ali, Michael Spilde, Juan S Lezama-Pacheco, Drew Latta, Kateryna Artyushkova, Anastasia G Ilgen, Christopher Shuey, Christopher Nez, Jose M Cerrato
2019, Chemical Geology (522) 26-37
The reactivity of co-occurring arsenic (As) and uranium (U) in mine wastes was investigated using batch reactors, microscopy, spectroscopy, and aqueous chemistry. Analyses of field samples collected in proximity to mine wastes in northeastern Arizona confirm the presence of As and U in soils and surrounding waters, as reported in...
Extent of the Last Glacial Maximum (Tioga) glaciation in Yosemite National Park and vicinity, California
Clyde Wahrhaftig, Greg M. Stock, Reba G. McCracken, Peri Sasnett, Andrew J. Cyr
2019, Scientific Investigations Map 3414
Yosemite National Park, located in the central Sierra Nevada in California, is an icon of the U.S. National Park system. It is famous for its many spectacular geologic features, which include the towering cliffs and hanging waterfalls of Yosemite Valley and the rounded granite domes, deep blue lakes, and jagged...
