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USGS2025

Estimates of global surface water dynamics harnessing near real-time land cover observations and open science geospatial capabilities

Spatio-temporal changes to our world’s surface water resources are escalating. Translating how these changes impact communities and ecosystems requires time-varying data of Global Surface Water Extents (GSWE). Traditionally, GSWE mapping has been limited to static estimates, with recent efforts focusing on annual averages, frequency and occurrence of long-term variations. Building upon these foundational capabilities, we harnessed remotely sensed Sentinel-2 based near real-time Dynamic World (DW) land cover products to produce the first-of-its-kind 10 m resolution GSWE dataset representing 2015–2023. Our dataset estimated 2.5 million km 2 of permanent waters and 8 million km 2 of seasonal waters worldwide. Comparing our Sentinel-2 based data to contemporary Landsat-based GSWE, we observed that our data mapped less water within the >50% probability of occurrence range, suggesting a lower presence of open permanent water especially in high latitudes, deviating from what we previously learnt from Landsat data. Statistical analysis compared to well-established observational products and widely used GSWE datasets across some of the world’s most ecologically significant regions, including Pantanal in South America and Haor in South Asia, supports the overall physical realism of our data in predicting global open surface water dynamics. Our key contribution is a prototype Open Science operational framework that extracts routinely available DW products, runs geospatial analytics, and creates actionable water information for educators, researchers, and stakeholders at any scale of practical interest. We present examples of this operational capability through instant mapping of flood in Spain and drought in Lake Urmia, Central Asia, frequent monitoring of river extent changes at the Ganges–Brahmaputra confluence, and above all, interoperability with other existing GSWE applications.

Environmental Research Letters↗

USGS1971

Banquet speech "Man's conquest of energy, its ecological and human consequences"

The world's energy resources suitable for power production are of two classes: (1) various channels of the continuous energy flux from extraterrestrial sources, and from the earth's interior, and (2) chemical, thermal, and nuclear energy stored in the outer part of the lithosphere and in the oceans. The continuous energy influxes are from: solar radiation, 178,000 × 1012 watts; geothermal energy, 32 × 1012 watts; and tidal energy, 3 × 1012 watts. Of the solar energy influx, the only fraction suitable at present for large-scale power production is the approximately 40,000 × 1012 watts expended in evaporation of water and in atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Of this, the world's potential water power is about 2.9 × 1012 watts. A very small fraction of the solar influx, 40 × 1012 watts, is stored chemically by photosynthesis. A minute fraction of this, stored during the geologic past, is the source of the energy of the fossil fuels, coal and petroleum. Tidal power is capable of large-scale development in a small number of coastal localities with a total potential power of about 64,000 megawatts. Of the sources of stored energy, geothermal energy is the least important. Installed capacity by 1970 is about 1,125 electrical megawatts, and the ultimate potential is estimated at about 60,000 megawatts, with a lifetime of probably less than a century. The largest sources of stored energy, other than nuclear, are the fossil fuels. The initial minable world reserves of coal and lignite are estimated to have been about 7.

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science↗

USGS2009

Modeled ground water age distributions

The age of ground water in any given sample is a distributed quantity representing distributed provenance (in space and time) of the water. Conventional analysis of tracers such as unstable isotopes or anthropogenic chemical species gives discrete or binary measures of the presence of water of a given age. Modeled ground water age distributions provide a continuous measure of contributions from different recharge sources to aquifers. A numerical solution of the ground water age equation of Ginn (1999) was tested both on a hypothetical simplified one-dimensional flow system and under real world conditions. Results from these simulations yield the first continuous distributions of ground water age using this model. Complete age distributions as a function of one and two space dimensions were obtained from both numerical experiments. Simulations in the test problem produced mean ages that were consistent with the expected value at the end of the model domain for all dispersivity values tested, although the mean ages for the two highest dispersivity values deviated slightly from the expected value. Mean ages in the dispersionless case also were consistent with the expected mean ages throughout the physical model domain. Simulations under real world conditions for three dispersivity values resulted in decreasing mean age with increasing dispersivity. This likely is a consequence of an edge effect. However, simulations for all three dispersivity values tested were mass balanced and stable demonstrating that the solution of the ground water age equation can provide estimates of water mass density distributions over age under real world conditions.

Ground Water↗

USGS2020

Foreward: Geology Field Trips in and around the U.S. Capital

The first annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) was held in 1888 in Ithaca, New York (Fairchild, 1932), but official Sections of GSA formed much later. During the spring of 1949, a symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee, on mineral resources of the southeastern United States became the catalyst for the creation of the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of America (King, 1964), and the first annual meeting of the Southeastern Section was held in 1952 in Roanoke, Virginia (Wilson, 1954). The Northeastern Section formed much later, and its first annual meeting was held in 1966 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Socolow, 1968). At all of these section meetings, field trips have been important venues for geologists and especially students to gather together, examine rocks in the field, and discuss ideas. These field trips have been especially important at combined section meetings because they provide settings for geologists who are experienced in one geographic region to examine and compare the geology of other regions. The first combined meeting of the Southeastern and Northeastern sections occurred in 1976 in Arlington, Virginia. Since then, the Southeastern and Northeastern sections have met together on numerous occasions, including 1982 in Washington, DC; 1991 in Baltimore, Maryland; 2004 in Tysons Corner, Virginia; and 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland. Since the first combined section meeting in 1976, there has been a gradual increase in the role of technology in geology field studies. In fact, during the past several decades there has been an increase in emphasis in our society on the instrumental component of science, the goal of which is operational techniques to do or control things, and a corresponding decrease in emphasis on the natural philosophy component of science, the goal of which is a greater understanding of the natural world (Dear, 2006). The modern education acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), for example, is often used as a catch-all term that implies that science and technology are relatively synonymous, and implies that greater technology leads automatically to greater understanding of the natural world. This assumption, however, is not always valid (Dear, 2006), and technology should not be promoted as a substitute for field experiences. Technology can be a tool that leads to greater understanding of the natural world, but not all Science uses technology as a means of providing greater understanding. The benefits of new technologies include: (1) data of greater resolution; and (2) greater efficiency of capturing, storing, and visualizing data. The risks of new technologies include: (1) an overabundance of data, some of which may be of little value; (2) less time available for analysis of data, if geologists become occupied primarily with capturing and storing data; and (3) errors that arise from complacency and the perception that field-checking may not be necessary. In other words, there is a risk that a glut of data and vast amounts of time devoted to the capturing and storing of data may result in a reduced interest and (or) willingness to field-check data. In the spirit of the early GSA section meetings, we feel that there are still enormous advantages to conducting geology field trips in conjunction with traditional meeting presentations and posters. In 2020, with this current combined Southeastern and Northeastern section meeting in Reston, Virginia, we have assembled eight different field trips that cover a wide range of territory in and around the Nation’s capital. These field trip localities include the immediate vicinity of Washington, DC, as well as various locations in nearby areas of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia. The physiographic provinces include Mesozoic Rift Basins, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge, the Valley and Ridge, and the Allegheny Plateau of the Appalachian Basin. The field trip sites exhibit a wide range of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, as well as rocks with a wide range of geologic ages from the Mesoproterozoic to the Holocene. We hope that this guidebook provides new motivation for geologists to examine rocks in the field, to discuss ideas with colleagues in the field, and to avoid becoming complacent. The editors of this volume would like to thank the authors of the different field trip guides, the field trip leaders, and all of the reviewers who made suggestions for improving the field trip manuscripts. The editors would also like to thank Elle Derwent of GSA for her logistical help and guidance regarding the field trips, and April Leo and the staff of the GSA Publications Department for seeing this book through to publication.

Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia↗

USGS2014

Earth is (mostly) flat: Apportionment of the flux of continental sediment over millennial time scales: COMMENT

Recent synthesis of 10 Be-derived denudation rates by Willenbring et al. (2013) suggests that the “flat” areas of the world, those with average slopes of <∼100 m/km and representing ∼90% of Earth’s land surface, have adequately high rates of denudation to produce most of the sediment transported to the world’s oceans. This finding is based on the product of interpolated denudation rates (L/T) over the world’s drainage areas (L 2 ) using landscape slope as the controlling variable. We suggest that these findings are incorrect on several grounds.

Geology↗

USGS1998

A primer on the geological occurrence of gas hydrate

This paper is part of the special publication Gas hydrates: relevance to world margin stability and climatic change (eds J.P. Henriet and J. Mienert).Natural gas hydrates occur world-wide in polar regions, usually associated with onshore and offshore permafrost, and in sediment of outer continental and insular margins. The total amount of methane in gas hydrates probably exceeds 1019 g of methane carbon. Three aspects of gas hydrates are important: their fossil fuel resource potential; their role as a submarine geohazard; and their effects on global climate change. Because gas hydrates represent a large amount of methane within 2000 m of the Earth's surface, they are considered to be an unconventional, unproven source of fossil fuel. Because gas hydrates are metastable, changes of pressure and temperature affect their stability. Destabilized gas hydrates beneath the sea floor lead to geological hazards such as submarine slumps and slides, examples of which are found world-wide. Destabilized gas hydrates may also affect climate through the release of methane, a 'greenhouse' gas, which may enhance global warming and be a factor in global climate change.

Geological Society Special Publication↗

USGS1987

Prospects for heavy crude oil development

The problems of utilizing heavy crude oil and natural bitumens centre on their high viscosity which makes them difficult to produce, store, transport, and refine. These factors are reflected in costs. World reserves are substantial, however, perhaps as much as 7 trillion† barrels estimated to represent 0·9 trillion barrels of recoverable oil. Nearly 2·1 trillion barrels of heavy crude oil, more than 50% of the world's total reserve, are located in Venezuela largely in the Orinoco Oil Belt. About 75% of the natural bitumen, 2·6 trillion barrels, is located in Canada in the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River areas of Alberta. Most of the estimated undiscovered heavy crude oil in the world, approximately 630 billion barrels, is outside the US and Canada. Data required to determine the cost of finding natural bitumen and heavy oil are roughly the same as for other mineral commodities. Similarly for recovery costs. The variables are so extensive that dollar amounts have little meaning without qualification. Recovery depends on depth below surface. Near-surface deposits are recovered by mechanical mining. Deeper deposits must be won by thermal means. Transportation by pipeline is feasible only if the viscosity is lowered by partial upgrading, heating, or by the use of diluents. Part of the high cost of refining results from the major investment required for the large installations that are needed for economic rates of production.

Energy Exploration & Exploitation↗

USGS2007

Global rates of habitat loss and implications for amphibian conservation

A large number of factors are known to affect amphibian population viability, but most authors agree that the principal causes of amphibian declines are habitat loss, alteration, and fragmentation. We provide a global assessment of land use dynamics in the context of amphibian distributions. We accomplished this by compiling global maps of amphibian species richness and recent rates of change in land cover, land use, and human population growth. The amphibian map was developed using a combination of published literature and digital databases. We used an ecoregion framework to help interpret species distributions across environmental, rather than political, boundaries. We mapped rates of land cover and use change with statistics from the World Resources Institute, refined with a global digital dataset on land cover derived from satellite data. Temporal maps of human population were developed from the World Resources Institute database and other published sources. Our resultant map of amphibian species richness illustrates that amphibians are distributed in an uneven pattern around the globe, preferring terrestrial and freshwater habitats in ecoregions that are warm and moist. Spatiotemporal patterns of human population show that, prior to the 20 th century, population growth and spread was slower, most extensive in the temperate ecoregions, and largely exclusive of major regions of high amphibian richness. Since the beginning of the 20 th century, human population growth has been exponential and has occurred largely in the subtropical and tropical ecoregions favored by amphibians. Population growth has been accompanied by broad-scale changes in land cover and land use, typically in support of agriculture. We merged information on land cover, land use, and human population growth to generate a composite map showing the rates at which humans have been changing the world. When compared with the map of amphibian species richness, we found that many of the regions of the earth supporting the richest assemblages of amphibians are currently undergoing the highest rates of landscape modification.

Copeia↗

USGS2023

Wildlife health surveillance: Gaps, needs and opportunities

Disease emergence represent a global threat for public health, economy, and biological conservation and most of the emerging diseases have zoonotic origin from wildlife. To prevent their spread and to support the implementation of control measures, disease surveillance and reporting systems are needed, and due to globalisation, these activities should be carried at world level. To define the main gaps affecting the performances of wildlife health surveillance and reporting systems at word level, we analysed the Wildlife Disease Surveillance Survey submitted to all Members of World Organisation for Animal Health which inquire on structure and limits of surveillance and reporting systems. The response from 103 Members, covering all world areas, showed that 54.4% of them have a wildlife disease surveillance programme and 66% implemented a strategy to manage their spread. The lack of dedicated budget affected the possibility of outbreak investigations, sampling collection and diagnostic testing. Although most Members maintain records relating to wildlife mortality or morbidity events in centralised databases, data analyses and disease risk assessment are reported as main needs. Our evaluation of surveillance capacity showed an overall low level associated to great variability between Members not restricted to specific geographical area. A better recognition of the value of wildlife disease surveillance resulting in allocation of adequate resources by governments would make wildlife disease surveillance systems more functional. Moreover, the future comprehension of the influence of socio-economic, cultural and biodiversity aspects will be essential to increase better disease surveillance under One Health approach.

Scientific and Technical Review↗

USGS1967

The Amazon, measuring a mighty river

The Amazon, the world's largest river, discharges enough water into the sea each day to provide fresh water to the City of New York for over 9 years. Its flow accounts for about 15 percent of all the fresh water discharged into the oceans by all the rivers of the world. By comparison, the Amazon's flow is over 4 times that of the Congo River, the world's second largest river. And it is 10 times that of the Mississippi, the largest river on the North American Continent.

Amazon River↗

USGS1960

Strategic graphite, a survey

Strategic graphite consists of certain grades of lump and flake graphite for which the United States is largely or entirely dependent on sources abroad. Lump graphite of high purity, necessary in the manufacture of carbon brushes, is imported from Ceylon, where it occurs in vein deposits. Flake graphite, obtained from deposits consisting of graphite disseminated in schists and other metamorphic rocks, is an essential ingredient of crucibles used in the nonferrous metal industries and in the manufacture of lubricants and packings. High-quality flake graphite for these uses has been obtained mostly from Madagascar since World War I. Some flake graphite of strategic grade has been produced, however, from deposits in Texas, Alabama, and Pennsylvania. The development of the carbon-bonded crucible, which does not require coarse flake, should lessen the competitive advantage of the Madagascar producers of crucible flake. Graphite of various grades has been produced intermittently in the United States since 1644. The principal domestic deposits of flake graphite are in Texas, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and New York. Reserves of flake graphite in these four States are very large, but production has been sporadic and on the whole unprofitable since World War I, owing principally to competition from producers in Madagascar. Deposits in Madagascar are large and relatively high in content of flake graphite. Production costs are low and the flake produced is of high quality. Coarseness of flake and uniformity of the graphite products marketed are cited as major advantages of Madagascar flake. In addition, the usability of Madagascar flake for various purposes has been thoroughly demonstrated, whereas the usability of domestic flake for strategic purposes is still in question. Domestic graphite deposits are of five kinds: deposits consisting of graphite disseminated in metamorphosed siliceous sediments, deposits consisting of graphite disseminated in marble, deposits formed by thermal or dynamothermal metamorphism of coal beds or other highly carbonaceous sediments, vein deposits, and contact metasomatic deposits in marble. Only the first kind comprises deposits sufficiently large and rich in flake graphite to be significant potential sources of strategic grades of graphite. Vein deposits in several localities are known, but none is known to contain substantial reserves of graphite of strategic quality. Large resources of flake graphite exist in central Texas, in northeastern Alabama, in eastern Pennsylvania, and in the eastern Adirondack Mountains of New York. Tonnages available, compared with the tonnages of flake graphite consumed annually in the United States, are very large. There have been indications that flake graphite from Texas, Alabama, and Pennsylvania can be used in clay-graphite crucibles as a substitute for Madagascar flake, and one producer has made progress in establishing markets for his flake products as ingredients of lubricants. The tonnages of various commercial grades of graphite recoverable from various domestic deposits, however, have not been established; hence, the adequacy of domestic resources of graphite in a time of emergency is not known. The only vein deposits from which significant quantities of lump graphite have been produced are those of the Crystal Graphite mine, Beaverhead County, Mont. The deposits are fracture fillings in Precambrian gneiss and pegmatite. Known reserves in the deposits are small. In Texas, numerous flake-graphite deposits occur in the Precambrian Packsaddle schist in Llano and Burnet Counties. Graphite disseminated in certain parts of this formation ranges from extremely fine to medium grained. The principal producer has been the mine of the Southwestern Graphite Co., west of the town of Burnet. Substantial reserves of medium-grained graphite are present in the deposit mined by the company. In northeastern Alabama, flake-graphite deposits occur in the Ashland mica schist in two belts that trend northeastward across Clay, Goosa, and Chilton Counties. The northeastern belt has been the most productive. About 40 mines have been operated at one time or another, but only a few have been active during or since World War I. The deposits consist of flake graphite disseminated in certain zones or "leads" consisting of quartz-mica-feldspar schists and mica quartzite. Most of past production has come from the weathered upper parts of the deposits, but unweathered rock has been mined at several localities. Reserves of weathered rock containing 3 to 5 percent graphite are very large, and reserves of unweathered rock are even greater. Flake graphite deposits in Chester County, Pa., have been worked intermittently since about 1890. The deposits consist of medium- to coarse-grained graphite disseminated in certain belts of the Pickering gneiss. The most promising deposit is one worked in the Benjamin Franklin and the Eynon Just mines. Reserves of weathered rock containing 1.5 percent graphite are of moderate size; reserves of unweathered rock are large. In the eastern Adirondack Mountains in New York there are two principal kinds of flake-graphite deposits: contact-metasomatic deposits and those consisting of flake graphite disseminated in quartz schist. The contact-metasomatic deposits are small, irregular, and very erratic in graphite content. The deposits in quartz schist are very large, persistent, and uniform in grade. There are large reserves of schist containing 3 to 5 percent graphite, but the graphite is relatively fine grained.

Bulletin↗

USGS2003

Geothermal energy: clean power from the Earth's heat

Societies in the 21st century require enormous amounts of energy to drive the machines of commerce and to sustain the lifestyles that many people have come to expect. Today, most of this energy is derived from oil, natural gas, and coal, supplemented by nuclear power. Local exceptions exist, but oil is by far the most common source of energy worldwide. Oil resources, however, are nonrenewable and concentrated in only a few places around the globe, creating uncertainty in long-term supply for many nations. At the time of the Middle East oil embargo of the 1970s, about a third of the United States oil supply was imported, mostly from that region. An interruption in the flow of this import disrupted nearly every citizen’s daily life, as well as the Nation’s economy. In response, the Federal Government launched substantial programs to accelerate development of means to increasingly harness “alternative energies”—primarily biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind. The new emphasis on simultaneously pursuing development of several sources of energy recognized the timeless wisdom found in the proverb of “not putting all eggs in one basket.” This book helps explain the role that geothermal resources can play in helping promote such diversity and in satisfying our Nation’s vast energy needs as we enter a new millennium. For centuries, people have enjoyed the benefits of geothermal energy available at hot springs, but it is only through technological advances made during the 20th century that we can tap this energy source in the subsurface and use it in a variety of ways, including the generation of electricity. Geothermal resources are simply exploitable concentrations of the Earth’s natural heat (thermal energy). The Earth is a bountiful source of thermal energy, continuously producing heat at depth, primarily by the decay of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes—principally of uranium, thorium, and potassium—that occur in small amounts in all rocks. This heat then rises to and through the Earth’s surface, where it escapes into the atmosphere. The amount of heat that flows annually from the Earth into the atmosphere is enormous—equivalent to ten times the annual energy consumption of the United States and more than that needed to power all nations of the world, if it could be fully harnessed. Even if only 1 percent of the thermal energy contained within the uppermost 10 kilometers of our planet could be tapped, this amount would be 500 times that contained in all oil and gas resources of the world. How might we benefit from this vast amount of thermal energy beneath our feet? Where, by what means, and how much of the Earth’s natural heat can be usefully harnessed? These are especially important questions to contemplate, because global population is expected to soon exceed seven billion and many scientists believe that the world’s fossilfuel resources may be substantially depleted within this century. Faced with such prospects, both the public and private sectors are working toward more fully utilizing the Earth’s abundant thermal energy and other alternative energy resources. A skeptic might question the wisdom of devoting much national effort to geothermal energy development, especially because many experts think that geothermal heat can contribute at most about 10 percent to the Nation’s energy supply using current technologies. However, ongoing advances in exploration and heat-extraction technologies are improving our ability to use the resource and may substantially increase the geothermal contribution to the Nation’s energy supply. In an attempt to help national planners and average citizens alike understand the nature and energy potential of geothermal resources, this book (1) describes the distribution and nature of geothermal energy, (2) reviews the common types of geothermal systems that provide useful energy with current technology, (3) considers potential geothermal resources that might someday be tapped with developing technologies, and (4) summarizes the role of earth-science information in assessing and harnessing geothermal resources wherever they occur worldwide. The predecessor to this book (Tapping the Earth’s Natural Heat, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1125, published in 1994) summarized the situation in the early 1990s. In an effort to support national energy planners, this new circular incorporates more recent advances in geothermal science and technology.

Circular↗

USGS2007

Proceedings for a workshop on deposit modeling, mineral resource assessment, and their role in sustainable development

The world's use of nonfuel mineral resources continues to increase to support a growing population and increasing standards of living. The ability to meet this increasing demand is affected especially by concerns about possible environmental degradation associated with minerals production and by competing land uses. What information does the world need to support global minerals development in a sustainable way? Informed planning and decisions concerning sustainability and future mineral resource supply require a long–term perspective and an integrated approach to resource, land use, economic, and environmental management worldwide. Such perspective and approach require unbiased information on the global distribution of identified and especially undiscovered resources, the economic and political factors influencing their development, and the potential environmental consequences of their exploitation. The U.S. Geological Survey and the former Deposit Modeling Program of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sponsored a workshop on "Deposit Modeling, Mineral Resource Assessment, and Their Role in Sustainable Development" at the 31st International Geological Congress (IGC) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 18–19, 2000. The purpose of the workshop was to review the state-of-the-art in mineral deposit modeling and resource assessment and to examine the role of global assessments of nonfuel mineral resources in sustainable development. The workshop addressed questions such as the following: Which of the available mineral deposit models and assessment methods are best suited for predicting the locations, deposit types, and amounts of undiscovered nonfuel mineral resources remaining in the world? What is the availability of global geologic, mineral deposit, and mineral exploration information? How can mineral resource assessments be used to address economic and environmental issues? Presentations included overviews of assessment methods applied in previous national and other small-scale assessments of large regions and of the resulting assessment products and their uses. Twenty-seven people from Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Peru, Slovenia, South Africa, United States, and Venezuela participated in the 2-day post-Congress workshop. The attendees represented academia, government, environmental organizations, and the mining industry.

Circular↗

USGS2012

Materials flow of indium in the United States in 2008 and 2009

Indium is a material that has many applications. It is used by anyone who watches television or views a computer screen. It is found in solar energy arrays and in soldering applications that are required to be lead free. In 2009, about 550 metric tons (t) of indium metal was produced from primary sources world-wide; it was estimated that the United States consumed about 110 t of indium metal (20 percent of world primary production). However, when imports of consumer products that contain indium are considered, the United States consumed about 200 t of indium (36 percent of world primary production). When one considers the recovery from the low-efficiency sputtering process that coats indium-tin oxide onto glass and other surfaces, the recycling rate (within the manufacturing process that uses indium-tin oxide in flat panel displays approaches 36 percent. However, indium recovery from old scrap generated from end-of-life consumer products is not sufficiently economic to add significantly to secondary production. Between 1988 and 2010, indium prices averaged $381 per kilogram (in constant 2000 dollars). However, prices have been quite volatile (deviating from the average of $381 per kilogram by ±$199 per kilogram, a 52 percent difference from the average), reflecting short-term disequilibrium of supply and demand but also responsiveness of supply to demand. The dynamics of zinc smelting govern the primary supply of indium because indium is a byproduct of zinc smelting. Secondary indium supply, which accounts for about one-half of total indium supply, is governed by indium prices and technological advances in recovery. Indium demand is expected to grow because the number and volume of cutting edge technology applications that depend on indium are expected to grow.

Circular↗

USGS2016

Recent trends in the nonfuel minerals industry of Iran

Summary In response to the recent removal of international sanctions on Iran, including the lifting of “secondary” sanctions by the United States on investment into and trade with Iran, the U.S. Geological Survey National Minerals Information Center compiled and analyzed available information on the current state of Iran’s nonfuel minerals industry. This Circular features a new map and table that identify existing mines and mineral-processing facilities and provide information on location, ownership, and capacity for metals and industrial minerals whose output levels may substantially change in the near future. Additionally, the report covers Iran’s mineral resources and reserves, official mineral production targets for 2025, and current output and share of global mineral production. Recent trends and developments in individual mineral commodities are discussed, including mineral exploration and partnerships with foreign investors. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that Iran held globally significant reserves of feldspar (2d largest in the world), barite (5th largest), gypsum (5th largest), fluorspar (8th largest), and iron ore (10th largest). The Government of Iran claimed to also have significant reserves of chromium, copper, gold, manganese, phosphate rock, and zinc. In 2014, Iran was the second-leading producer of gypsum and the sixth-leading producer of barite, with 6.1 percent and 3.6 percent of world output, respectively. Iran was also the world’s 7th-leading producer of cement, feldspar, and fluorspar; 8th-leading producer of bentonite; 9th-leading producer of molybdenum; 11th-leading producer of iron ore; and 14th-leading producer of crude steel. The Government of Iran plans to quadruple the output of aluminum, copper cathode, direct-reduced iron, and iron ore pellets; triple that of crude steel and gold; and double that of cement, pig iron, and zinc by 2025. It also plans to double the contribution of mining and to quadruple that of mineral processing to the national economy in the next decade. In order to achieve these major goals, the construction and expansion of several mines and mineral facilities are planned or under development. Whether Iran’s annual mineral production increases as rapidly as envisioned by the Government will depend largely on the amount of foreign investment into the minerals industry; integration of modern technology into mineral facilities; and availability of energy to aluminum, copper, and steel plants at competitive prices to international investors.

Circular↗

USGS1999

Magnitude and Significance of Carbon Burial in Lakes, Reservoirs, and Northern Peatlands

It is estimated that freshwater lakes in the world have a total area of about 1.5x1012 m2 (Shiklomanov, 1993; table 1). Including saline inland seas in this total would add another 1x1012 m2. The 28 largest (area of each > 5,000 km2) freshwater lakes in the world have a total area of 1.18x1012 m2 or about 79 percent of the total area of all freshwater lakes. If the 28 large lakes bury organic carbon (OC), on average, at the same rate as Lake Michigan (5 g/m2/yr), then the annual rate of OC burial in these 28 lakes is about 6 Tg/yr (6 terragrams per year or 6x1012 g/yr; table 1). If the smaller lakes bury OC, on average, at the same rate as an average Minnesota lake (72 g/m2/yr), then the annual rate of OC accumulation in these smaller lakes is about 23 Tg/yr (23x1012 g/yr; table 1). If saline inland seas bury OC at the Lake Michigan rate, this would be an additional 5 Tg/yr, for a total of 34 Tg/yr for all freshwater lakes and saline inland seas (table 1). Mulholland and Elwood (1982) estimated the OC burial in all lakes and inland seas (excluding the Black Sea) to be 60 Tg/yr today (table 1) and an average of 20 Tg/yr for the last 10,000 years. Stallard (1998) modeled terrestrial sedimentation as a series of 864 scenarios. For lake area, he used 1.54x1012 m2, the area of the 250 largest lakes in the world. This is close to the total of large and small lakes given in table 1. Again, including inland seas to this total would add an additional 1x1012 m2. Results of scenarios for lakes and reservoirs were divided into two components, those with clastic sediments and those with organic sediments. The results of OC burial in the most likely of Stallard's scenarios for lakes range from 48 to 72 Tg/yr (table 1), the average of which is close to the 60 Tg/yr estimated by Mulholland and Elwood (1982). We will use an average of 54 Tg/yr (table 1). The closeness of these estimates, calculated by different methods, suggests that this value is not in error by more than a factor of two.

Fact Sheet↗

USGS1995

Sea level change: lessons from the geologic record

Rising sea level is potentially one of the most serious impacts of climatic change. Even a small sea level rise would have serious economic consequences because it would cause extensive damage to the world's coastal regions. Sea level can rise in the future because the ocean surface can expand due to warming and because polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers can melt, increasing the ocean's volume of water. Today, ice caps on Antarctica and Greenland contain 91 and 8 percent of the world's ice, respectively. The world's mountain glaciers together contain only about 1 percent. Melting all this ice would raise sea level about 80 meters. Although this extreme scenario is not expected, geologists know that sea level can rise and fall rapidly due to changing volume of ice on continents. For example, during the last ice age, about 18,000 years ago, continental ice sheets contained more than double the modem volume of ice. As ice sheets melted, sea level rose 2 to 3 meters per century, and possibly faster during certain times. During periods in which global climate was very warm, polar ice was reduced and sea level was higher than today.

Fact Sheet↗

USGS2007

Global Data Toolset (GDT)

According to the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) approximately 60 percent of the data contained in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) has missing or incomplete boundary information. As a result, global analyses based on the WDPA can be inaccurate, and professionals responsible for natural resource planning and priority setting must rely on incomplete geospatial data sets. To begin to address this problem the World Data Center for Biodiversity and Ecology, in cooperation with the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (RMGSC), the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), the Global Earth Observation System, and the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) sponsored a Protected Area (PA) workshop in Asuncion, Paraguay, in November 2007. The primary goal of this workshop was to train representatives from eight South American countries on the use of the Global Data Toolset (GDT) for reviewing and editing PA data. Use of the GDT will allow PA experts to compare their national data to other data sets, including non-governmental organization (NGO) and WCMC data, in order to highlight inaccuracies or gaps in the data, and then to apply any needed edits, especially in the delineation of the PA boundaries. In addition, familiarizing the participants with the web-enabled GDT will allow them to maintain and improve their data after the workshop. Once data edits have been completed the GDT will also allow the country authorities to perform any required review and validation processing. Once validated, the data can be used to update the global WDPA and IABIN databases, which will enhance analysis on global and regional levels.

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