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At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources
USGS1975

Cylindrical jointing in mafic dikes, central Beartooth Mountains, Montana

Cylindrical joints are well displayed in two Precambrian mafic dikes that cut granitic gneiss in the central Beartooth Mountains, Mont. The dikes are vertical and about 23 m (75 ft) and 23 to 46 m (75-150 ft) thick, respectively. The cylindrical joints are perpendicular to the dike walls, and the cylinders defined by the joints are as much as 5 m (16 ft) in diameter. No petrographic, textural, or other features related to or possibly responsible for the joints are recognized. The dikes are chemically and petrographically similar to quartz dolerite dikes found throughout the Beartooth Mountains. Some of these dikes show typical polygonal columnar joints; a few others have cylindrical jointing, but in most dikes neither kind of jointing was observed. The orientation of the cylindrical joints normal to the walls of the dikes indicates that they probably formed by thermal contraction during post-crystallization cooling of the dikes and are thus genetically related to the much more common polygonal jointing. However, the model proposed to explain the cylindrical joints suggests that their origin is partly dependent on the geometric relation between the orientation of the dikes and that of the predike fracture pattern in the host rock.

Montana, Wyoming↗
USGS1975

Preliminary results of a gravity survey of the Henrys Lake quadrangle, Idaho and Montana

A gravity survey of the Henrys Lake quadrangle shows that a gravity low with about 10 milligals of closure coincides with the Henrys Lake basin. The low is interpreted to reflect a basin fill of 1,100 m or more of Cenozoic sediments and volcanic rock. The data indicate that on the east and probably on the west the basin is bounded by northwest- and north-trending faults, and near its waist by the east-trending Centennial fault. A model constructed across the Henrys Lake basin suggests a northwest-trending fault, located near the southeast corner of Henrys Lake and concealed beneath the basin fill. The sparse gravity data east of the Centennial Mountains are not sufficient to provide any evidence on the extension of the Centennial fault across the Henrys Lake basin.

Idaho, Montana, Wyoming↗
USGS1975

Comparison of fission-track, K-Ar, and Rb-Sr radiometric age determinations from some granite plutons in Maine

Fission-track ages have been determined on eight apatite and four sphene concentrates separated from plutonic rocks in Maine. K-Ar and Rb-Sr ages for some of these rocks were previously published. In northeastern Maine the whole-rock Rb-Sr, biotite K-Ar, and apatite fission-track ages are concordant at 400-420 million years, whereas in south-central Maine the apatite fission-track age is 150 m.y. and the biotite K-Ar age is about 250 m.y. At intermediate positions along the traverse the whole-rock Rb-Sr, biotite K-Ar, and sphene fission-track ages agree fairly well in the range 390-325 m.y., but the apatite fission-track ages are all about 100 m.y. younger. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis of burial metamorphism and uplift as proposed in 1970 by Zartman, Hurley, Krueger, and Giletti to explain the abundance of Permian K-Ar ages in central New England.

Maine↗
USGS1975

K-Ar ages of plutonic rocks in the Lassiter Coast area, Antarctica

Numerous middle Cretaceous stocks and small batholiths intruded Middle and Upper Jurassic sedimentary and volcanic rocks in the Lassiter Coast area of the southern Antarctic Peninsula. To establish the age of the quartz diorite and granodiorite plutonic events, five plutons were dated by the K-Ar method. The results indicate a timespan of about 20 m.y. for the emplacement of the plutons and a minimum age of 120 m.y. for the deformation of the sedimentary (Latady Formation) and volcanic rocks. Three of the more silicic plutons have concordant biotite and hornblende ages of 100 and 106 m.y.; two discordant ages of about 118 m.y. were obtained on the more mafic plutons. Petrographically, chemically, and geochronologically, the plutons of the southern to central Lassiter Coast are similar to the calc-alkaline suite of igneous rocks of the Andes of Patagonia, the Antarctic Peninsula, and eastern Ellsworth Land.

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗
USGS1976

Hydrogeology of a drift-filled bedrock valley near Lino Lakes, Anoka County, Minnesota

The bedrock surface of east-central Minnesota is dissected by an intricate network of valleys. Outside the bedrock valley at site B, 3 mi (4. 8 km) from site A, 100 ft (30 m) of drift overlies the bedrock surface. Observation wells were installed at the two sites to determine the vertical ground-water movement between the various aquifer units and the lateral movement between the two sites. An aquifer test of the lowest valley-fill aquifer at site A showed that the observation well completed in the same aquifer as the pumping well responded immediately; whereas a lag of about 100 min occurred between the lower valley fill and uppermost body of sand and gravel. This indicates that the hydraulic connection between these two layers is poor at the immediate site. Test results show that the lower sand-and-gravel aquifer has a transmissivity between 14,000 and 27,000 ft 2 /d (1,300 and 2,500 m 2 /d). Although the hydraulic gradient is vertically downward in the valley, much of the drift fill is poorly permeable. This suggests that the quantity of downward-percolating water reaching the lowest valley-fill aquifer is relatively small at the test site. Because valley cut through a number of bedrock aquifers in the region, they could potentially be an important avenue of contamination from land-surface waste. In addition, the vast network of bedrock valleys in the Twin Cities area might cause contaminants to disseminate rather rapidly throughout a large area.

Minnesota↗
USGS1978

Three-dimensional finite-difference model of ground-water system underlying the Muskegon County wastewater disposal system, Michigan

The spray irrigation system used by Muskegon County for wastewater treatment is the largest of its kind in the United States. It has 2200 hectares of irrigated farm land, 688 hectares of treatment lagoons, and 105 kilometers of drainage tile. The system has a design capacity of 1.8 cubic meters of wastewater per second. A three-dimensional finite-difference model was developed to study the effect of the disposal operation on ground-water conditions. Model calculations show that the water table at and adjacent to most of the wastewater site is lower as a result of the operation of the system to date. However, along the northwest boundary of the site, where irrigated land was not undertiled, the water table is 1 to 2 meters higher than it would be under natural conditions. Predictive simulations indicate that, even if the drainage tiles lost 75 percent of their effectiveness, the impact of disposal operations on ground-water levels would be negligible outside of the wastewater site.

Michigan↗
USGS1974

Time of travel and dye dosage for an irrigation canal system near Duchesne, Utah

Fracturing and subsidence of the land surface in the Milford area oil Utah have resulted from the decline of water levels due to pumping in unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary age. To the writers’ knowledge, these are the first such effects of ground-water withdrawal reported in Utah. The fracturing is in an area about 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and 11 miles (18 km) long near Milford, in an unsaturated clay-silt zone (locally peaty at top) in the upper part of the principal ground-water reservoir. The fractures range in length from several feet to more than 100 feet (30 m), and their maximum measured depth in 1972 was 4 feet (1.2 m). Land subsidence in the Milford area is demonstrated by three lines of evidence: (1) collapse structures, (2) well casings that protrude higher above the land surface than when first placed in the borehole, and (3) lower elevations at National Ocean Survey (formerly U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey) bench marks in 1970 than in 1908. This evidence shows that land subsidence in the Milford area is of two types, each having a different origin. One type has a near-surface origin in the clay-silt zone in the upper part of the principal groundwater reservoir, and the other is in the lower artesian aquifers of the principal ground-water reservoir. The amount of observed subsidence ranges from 0.05 foot (0.015 m) at the bench mark at Read to about 6 feet (1.8 m) at collapse structures in the Hay Springs area.

Utah↗
USGS1978

Paleomagnetic evidence for a Late Cretaceous deformation of the Great Valley Sequence, Sacramento Valley, California

Paleomagnetic samples from five localities within the Great Valley sequence range in age from Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. All samples possess normal polarity, and alternating-field demagnetization experiments show that the remanence was acquired after the sequence was folded. A mean paleomagnetic pole position determined from 17 demagnetized samples is located at 72° N., 181° E., with the radius of the 95-percent circle of confidence equal to 5.4°. This pole position agrees very well with known Cretaceous poles from North America, a fact indicating that the deformation and remagnetization of the sequence must have occurred during the Late Cretaceous.

California↗
USGS1976

Cenozoic deposits of southeastern New Mexico and an outline of the history of evaporite dissolution

Sedimentary records of Cenozoic history in southeastern New Mexico begin with the Ogallala Formation of Miocene and Pliocene age. Later records include the Gatuna Formation of early or middle Pleistocene age, Mescalero caliche, an informal term, of middle Pleistocene age, and fluvial deposits of late Pleistocene age but there are many gaps in the record. The modern landscape is the result of erosion and deposition in climates that have ranged from semihumid to semiarid as well as dissolution of soluble rocks in Permian formations in the subsurface. This dissolution may have begun as early as Jurassic time and has continued intermittently to the present.

New Mexico↗
USGS1976

Bog stratigraphy, radiocarbon dates, and Pinedale to Holocene glacial history in the Front Range, Colorado

Radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic cores from bogs, kettle ponds, and former ice-marginal lakes on the east and west sides of the Front Range, Colo., between lat 40°00' and 40°24' N. suggest that (1) valley glaciers of Pinedale age began to recede from their terminal positions between about 14,600 and 13,000 yr ago, (2) revegetation of glaciated areas at altitudes of 2,600-2,900 m (8,600-9,500 ft) was complete by 11,000-10,000 yr ago, (3) at one site, 3,500±1,000 yr elapsed before peat began to form after deglaciation, (4) the formation of bogs within the glaciated areas kept pace with glacier recession in a general way, beginning at progressively later times as deglaciation proceeded upward, (5) Pinedale glaciers had disappeared or were reduced to small remnants by about 8,000 yr ago, (6) moraines that have been mapped as belonging to the early stade of Pinedale Glaciation are no younger than 13,000 yr B.P. and may be older than 14,600 yr, and those delimiting what has been mapped as late stade are no younger than about 7,600 yr B.P. and are probably older than 7,800 yr, and (7) most of the till mapped as Pinedale was deposited between about 14,600 and 8,000 yr ago.

Colorado↗
USGS1976

The volumetric properties of H2O — A graphical portrayal

A graphical display of the volumetric properties of H 2 O is presented as density (0.01 to 1.0 g-cm -3 ) contoured on pressure-temperature coordinates and pressure (1-10,000 bars) contoured on density-temperature coordinates over the temperature range 0-1,000 °C. Data were obtained from sources published during 1964-1969; several minor inconsistencies are observed and attributed to inadequacies in the equations of state used to describe experimental data obtained above 1,000 bars.

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗
USGS1976

The heat capacities at low temperatures and entropies at 298.15 K of low albite, analbite, microline, and high sanidine

The heat capacities of low albite and analbite, NaAlSi 3 O 8 , and of microcline and high sanidine, KAlSi 3 Og, have been measured from 15 to 375 K using an adiabatic calorimeter. Tables of the thermodynamic functions C° p , (H° T –H° 0 )/T, (G° T –H° 0 )/T, and S° T –S° 0 are presented for these four feldspars from 0 to 370 K. At 298.15 K (25.0°C) the values for S° T S° 0 for low albite, analbite, microcline, and high sanidine are 207.4±0.4, 207.7±0.4, 214.2±0.4, and 214.2±0.4 J/(mol . K), respectively. The effect of the state of Al/Si order upon the heat capacity is quite small. The difference, ΔC° p , between albite-analbite and microcline-sanidine never exceeds 0.5 percent at temperatures below 400 K. With the exception of microcline, the heat capacities of these four feldspars follow a smooth S-shaped curve between 15 and 375 K, with no indication of transitions or anomalous behavior. Above 250 K, the heat capacity of microcline shows a form of thermal hysteresis. In the temperature range 250 to 375 K, the heat capacity of microcline is dependent upon its past thermal history. At 375 K, microcline which had been cooled to 230 K before the measurement of C° p has a heat capacity greater by approximately 1.2 percent than microcline which had not been previously cooled below 295 K. After a day of annealing at about 300 K, C° p of the previously cooled microcline decreases to essentially the same value as the microcline which had never been at a temperature below 300 K.

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗
USGS1976

Definitive X-ray powder data for covellite, anilite, djurleite, and chalcocite

By using the Guinier-Hägg focusing X-ray powder camera with Cr Kα 1 and Cu Kα 1 radiations, new powder data for covellite (CuS), anilite (Cu 7 S 4 , djurleite (Cu 1.934 S), and low chalcocite (Cu 2 S) have been obtained from synthetic and natural materials. The powder data were treated by least-squares analysis to obtain the best unit-cell parameters consistent with the data. These powder data are intended to replace inferior and incomplete data previously published and to serve as standards for the study of copper sulflde minerals.

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗