Drought and water management in ancient Maya society
Tripti Bhattacharya, Samantha Krause, Dan Penny, David Wahl
2022, Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment (47) 189-204
Paleoclimate research in the Maya region of Mesoamerica provides compelling evidence of drought during key periods of cultural transition in Maya society. These include the transition from the Preclassic to the Classic, and from Classic to the Postclassic. Previous research emphasized a causal relationship between drought and...
Biosiliceous, organic-rich, and phosphatic facies of Triassic strata of northwest Alaska: Transect across a high-latitude, low-angle continental margin
Julie A. Dumoulin, Katherine J. Whidden, William A. Rouse, Richard O. Lease, Adam Boehlke, Paul O’Sullivan
2022, Book chapter, Understanding the Monterey Formation and similar biosiliceous units across space and time
The Shublik Formation (Middle and Upper Triassic) is a mixed siliciclastic-carbonate-phosphatic unit in northern Alaska. It generated oil found in Prudhoe Bay and other accumulations and is a prospective self-sourced resource play on Alaska’s North Slope. Its distal, deeper-water equivalent—the Otuk Formation—consists largely of radiolarian chert, mudstone, and limestone and...
Potential effects of energy development on environmental resources of the Williston Basin in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota—Water resources
Timothy T. Bartos, Steven K. Sando, Todd M. Preston, Gregory C. Delzer, Robert F. Lundgren, Rochelle A. Nustad, Rodney R. Caldwell, Zell E. Peterman, Bruce D. Smith, Kathleen M. Macek-Rowland, David A. Bender, Jill D. Frankforter, Joel M. Galloway
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5070-C
The Williston Basin has been a leading oil and gas producing area for more than 50 years. While oil production initially peaked within the Williston Basin in the mid-1980s, production rapidly increased in the mid-2000s, largely because of improved horizontal (directional) drilling and hydraulic fracturing methods. In 2012, energy development...
Potential effects of energy development on environmental resources of the Williston Basin in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota—Executive summary
Max Post van der Burg, Kevin C. Vining, Jill D. Frankforter
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5070-A
Executive SummaryThe Williston Basin, which includes parts of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota in the United States and parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada, has been explored as a potential source of energy resources since the early 20th century; however, commercially viable petroleum drilling and recovery began in...
Sedimentary organics in Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars: Results from the SAM instrument suite and supporting laboratory analyses
Maeva Millan, Amy Williams, Amy McAdam, Jennifer Eigenbrode, A. Steele, C Freissinet, D. P. Glavin, C. Szopa, A. Buch, Roger E. Summons, J. M. T. Lewis, G. M. Wong, C. H. House, B. Sutter, O. McIntosh, A. B. Bryk, H. B. Franz, C. Pozarycki, J. C. Stern, R. Navarro-Gonzalez, R. H. Williams, D. P. Archer, V. Fox, Kristen A. Bennett, S. Teinturier, C. Malespin, S. S. Johnson, P. R. Mahaffy
2022, JGR Planets (127)
The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite instrument on board NASA's Curiosity rover has characterized the inorganic and organic chemical composition of seven samples from the Glen Torridon (GT) clay-bearing unit. A variety of organic molecules were detected with SAM using pyrolysis (up to ∼850°C) and wet chemistry experiments...
Comparing root cohesion estimates from three models at a shallow landslide in the Oregon Coast Range
Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff, Kevin M. Schmidt, Charlotte Wirion
2022, GeoHazards (3) 428-451
Although accurate root cohesion model estimates are essential to quantify the effect of vegetation roots on shallow slope stability, few means exist to independently validate such model outputs. One validation approach for cohesion estimates is back-calculation of apparent root cohesion at a landslide site with well-documented failure conditions. The catchment...
Microbiome assembly in thawing permafrost and its feedbacks to climate
Jessica G. Ernakovich, Robyn A. Barbato, Virginia Rich, Christina Schädel, Rebecca E. Hewitt, Stacey Doherty, Emily Whalen, Benjamin Abbott, Jiri Barta, Christina Biasi, Chris Chabot, Jenni Hultman, Christian Knoblauch, Maggie Chui Yim Lau Vetter, Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Susanne Liebner, Rachel Mackelprang, Tullis Onstott, Andreas Richter, Ursel M. E. Schutte, Henri Siljanen, Neslihan Tas, Ina Timling, Tatiana Vishnivetskaya, Mark Waldrop, Matthias Winkel
2022, Global Change Biology (28) 5007-5026
The physical and chemical changes that accompany permafrost thaw directly influence the microbial communities that mediate the decomposition of formerly frozen organic matter, leading to uncertainty in permafrost–climate feedbacks. Although changes to microbial metabolism and community structure are documented following thaw, the generality of post-thaw assembly patterns across permafrost soils...
Geochemical studies of the Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin, Colorado: I. Major, minor, and trace elements
Jeremy Boak, Tengfei Wu, Justin E. Birdwell
C. J. Hurst, editor(s)
2022, Book chapter, The lacustrine Green River Formation: Hydrocarbon potential and Eocene climate record
The Eocene Green River Formation contains the largest oil shale deposits in the world and is a welldocumented example of a lacustrine depositional system. In addition, mineral resources associated with oil shale in the Piceance Basin nahcolite [NaHCO3] and dawsonite [NaAl(CO3)(OH)2)] are of current and potential economic value, respectively. Detailed...
Incorporating streambank wells in stream mass loading studies to more effectively identify sources of solutes in stream water
Andrew H. Manning, Robert L. Runkel, Jean M. Morrison, Richard Wanty, Katherine Walton-Day
2022, Applied Geochemistry (145)
Stream synoptic sampling studies that include flow estimates derived from the stream tracer dilution method are now commonly performed to identify sources and processes controlling solute transport to streams. However, a limitation of this mass-loading approach is its inability to identify the side of the stream on which a source is located...
Marine minerals in Alaska — A review of coastal and deep-ocean regions
Amy Gartman, Kira Mizell, Douglas C. Kreiner
2022, Professional Paper 1870
Minerals occurring in marine environments span the globe and encompass a broad range of mineral categories, forming within varied geologic and oceanographic settings. They occur in coastal regions, either from the continuation or mechanical reworking of terrestrial mineralization, as well as in the deep ocean, from diagenetic, hydrogenetic, and hydrothermal...
GeoAI and the future of spatial analytics
Wenwen Li, Samantha Arundel
2022, Book chapter, New thinking in GIScience
This chapter discusses the challenges of traditional spatial analytical methods in their limited capacity to handle big and messy data, as well as mining unknown or latent patterns. It then introduces a new form of spatial analytics—geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI)—and describes the advantages of this new strategy in big data...
Continental shelves as detrital mixers: U-Pb and Lu-Hf detrital zircon provenance of the Pleistocene–Holocene Bering Sea and its margins
Matthew A. Malkowski, Samuel Johnstone, Glenn R. Sharman, Colin J. White, Daniel S. Scheirer, Ginger Barth
2022, The Depositional Record (8) 1008-1030
Continental shelves serve as critical transfer zones in sediment-routing systems, linking the terrestrial erosional and deep-water depositional domains. The degree to which clastic sediment is mixed and homogenized during transfer across broad shelves has important implications for understanding deep-sea detrital records. Wide continental shelves are thought to act as capacitors...
Hydrogeology and simulation of groundwater flow in the Lucerne Valley groundwater basin, California
Christina Stamos-Pfeiffer, Joshua Larsen, Robert E. Powell, Jonathan C. Matti, Peter Martin
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5048
The Lucerne Valley is in the southwestern part of the Mojave Desert and is about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. The Lucerne Valley groundwater basin encompasses about 230 square miles and is separated from the Upper Mojave Valley groundwater basin by splays of the Helendale Fault. Since its...
Potential for critical mineral deposits in Maine, USA
John F. Slack, F.M. Beck, D.C. Bradley, M. M. Felch, Robert G. Marvinney, A.T.H. Whittaker
2022, Atlantic Geoscience (58) 155-191
An analysis of the potential for deposits of critical minerals and elements in Maine presented here includes data and discussions for antimony, beryllium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, niobium, platinum group elements, rhenium, rare earth elements, tin, tantalum, tellurium, titanium, uranium, vanadium, tungsten, and zirconium. Deposits are divided into...
Arkansas and Landsat
U.S. Geological Survey
2022, Fact Sheet 2022-3042
Scenic Arkansas certainly lives up to its nickname, “The Natural State.” The Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains boast stunning views, vast resources, and recreation. Hardwood and pine forests cover one-half of the State. The major rivers—Arkansas, Ouachita, Red, and White—offer recreation and navigation as they drain toward the Mississippi River,...
U-Pb and fission-track data from zircon and apatite resolve latest- and post-Alleghanian thermal histories along the Fall Line of the Atlantic margin of the southeastern United States
William H. Craddock, Paul O'Sullivan, Ryan J. McAleer
2022, Geosphere (18) 1330-1353
Although the Atlantic continental margin of the eastern United States is an archetypal passive margin, episodes of rejuvenation following continental breakup are increasingly well documented. To better constrain this history of rejuvenation along the southern portion of this continental margin, we present zircon...
Global tellurium supply potential from electrolytic copper refining
Nedal T. Nassar, Haeyeon Kim, Max Frenzel, Michael S. Moats, Sarah M. Hayes
2022, Resources, Conservation & Recycling (184)
The transition towards renewable energy requires increasing quantities of nonfuel mineral commodities, including tellurium used in certain photovoltaics. While demand for tellurium may increase markedly, the potential to increase tellurium supply is not well-understood. In this analysis, we estimate the quantity of tellurium contained in anode slimes generated...
Petrogenesis and rare earth element mineralization of the Elk Creek carbonatite, Nebraska, USA
Philip Verplanck, G. Lang Farmer, Richard M. Kettler, Heather A. Lowers, Craig A. Johnson, Alan E. Koenig, Michael J. Blessington
2022, Ore Geology Reviews (146)
Although carbonatites are the primary source of the world’s rare earth elements (REEs), the processes responsible for ore-grade REE enrichment in carbonatites are still poorly understood. In this study, we present a petrologic, geochemical, and isotopic evaluation of the Elk Creek carbonatite in southeast Nebraska...
U-Pb scheelite ages of tungsten and antimony mineralization in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district, central Idaho
Niki E. Wintzer, Mark D. Schmitz, Virginia S. Gillerman, Jeffrey D. Vervoort
2022, Economic Geology
The Stibnite-Yellow Pine district contains the largest antimony resource in the United States, as well as significant gold, and is a historic producer of tungsten. Application of in situ laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) direct dating of scheelite from two Au-Sb-W ore deposits,...
Late Holocene human-environment interactions on the central California coast, USA, inferred from Morro Bay salt marsh sediments
Ellie Broadman, Liam M. Reidy, David Wahl
2022, Anthropocene (38)
Coastal salt marshes and estuaries provide valuable ecosystem services, yet are susceptible to alteration from human activities. Records of past environmental change in these ecosystems can elucidate relationships between human activities, such as land-use practices, and physical and ecological processes, such as sediment accretion...
Aqueous geochemistry of waters and hydrogeology of alluvial deposits, Pinnacles National Park, California
Kathleen Scheiderich, Claire R. Tiedeman, Paul A. Hsieh
2022, Open-File Report 2022-1026
A cooperative study between the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) characterized groundwater quality and hydrogeology in parts of Pinnacles National Park. The water-quality investigation assessed the geochemistry of springs, wells, surface water, and precipitation and analyzed geochemistry of rock formations that affect the water chemistry...
Isotopic analysis of radium geochemistry at discrete intervals in the Midwestern Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system
Madeleine J Mathews, Sean R Scott, Madeline B Gotkowitz, Randall J. Hunt, Matthew Ginder-Vogel
2022, Applied Geochemistry (142)
Radium (Ra) is a geogenic radioactive contaminant that frequently occurs at elevated levels in the Midwestern Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system (MCOAS). Geochemical indicators (e.g., redox conditions or total dissolved solids) can broadly characterize conditions associated with elevated Ra levels in groundwater, but do not consistently correlate to elevated Ra within specific stratigraphic horizons. A coupled geochemical...
Age of the late Holocene Bonneville landslide and submerged forest of the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon and Washington, USA, by radiocarbon dating
Nathaniel D. Reynolds, Jim E. O'Connor, Patrick T. Pringle, Alex C. Bourdeau, Robert L. Schuster
2022, Quaternary Research (109) 65-82
The late Holocene Bonneville landslide, a 15.5 km2 rockslide-debris avalanche, descended 1000 m from the north side of the Columbia River Gorge and dammed the Columbia River where it bisects the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington, USA. The landslide, inundation, and overtopping created persistent geomorphic, ecologic,...
Remote sensing and mapping Miocene paleovalleys of the Marble, Bristol, and Old Dad Mountains in the Trilobite and Bristol Mountain Wildernesses, California
David C. Buesch, Janet Harvey
2022, Conference Paper, Volcanoes in the Mojave: 2022 Desert symposium field guide and proceedings
Wilderness areas in the Mojave Desert, California, are remote and rugged terrain, but they contain important geology for understanding faults of the eastern California shear zone (ECSZ), and remote sensing offers techniques that can optimize mapping. The Bristol–Granite Mountain fault zone (BGMFZ) is the easternmost fault of the ECSZ with...
Hyperspectral remote sensing of white mica: A review of imaging and point-based spectrometer studies for mineral resources, with spectrometer design considerations
John Michael Meyer, Elizabeth A. Holley, Raymond F. Kokaly
2022, Remote Sensing of Environment (275)
Over the past ~30 years, hyperspectral remote sensing of chemical variations in white mica have proven to be useful for ore deposit studies in a range of deposit types. To better understand mineral deposits and to guide spectrometer design, this contribution reviews relevant papers from the fields of remote sensing, spectroscopy, and geology that have utilized spectral changes caused...
