Antarctica - The dynamic heart of it all
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The Albuquerque Basin, located in central New Mexico, is about 100 miles long and 25–40 miles wide. The basin is hydrologically defined as the extent of consolidated and unconsolidated deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age that encompasses the structural Rio Grande Rift between San Acacia to the south and Cochiti Lake to the north. Drinking-water supplies throughout the basin were obtained solely from groundwater resources until December 2008, when the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) began treatment and distribution of surface water from the Rio Grande through the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project. A 20-percent population increase in the basin from 1990 to 2000 and a 22-percent population increase from 2000 to 2010 may have resulted in an increased demand for water in areas within the basin. An initial network of wells was established by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the City of Albuquerque from April 1982 through September 1983 to monitor changes in groundwater levels throughout the Albuquerque Basin. In 1983, this network consisted of 6 wells with analog-to-digital recorders and 27 wells where water levels were measured monthly. The network currently (2015) consists of 124 wells and piezometers. (A piezometer is a specialized well open to a specific depth in the aquifer, often of small diameter and nested with other piezometers open to different depths.) The USGS, in cooperation with the ABCWUA, currently (2015) measures and reports water levels from the 124 wells and piezometers in the network; this report presents water-level data collected by USGS personnel at those 124 sites through water year 2015 (October 1, 2014, through September 30, 2015).
A water-quality investigation of the Spokane River was completed during summer low-flow conditions in 1998 and 1999 as part of the USGS NAWQA Program, in cooperation with the WDOE. (Abbreviations used in this report are defined on the last page.) Samples for analyses of water chemistry; bed sediment; aquatic communities (fish, macroinvertebrates, and algae); contaminants in tissue (fish and macroinvertebrates); and associated measures of habitat were collected at six sites downstream from Coeur d’Alene Lake between river miles 63 and 100. These data provided baseline information to evaluate the water-quality status of the Spokane River and can be used to determine the ecological risk to aquatic organisms from contaminants.
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The Antarctic Seismic Data Library System for Cooperative Research (SDLS) has served for the past 16 years under the auspices of the Antarctic Treaty (ATCM Recommendation XVI-12) as a role model for collaboration and equitable sharing of Antarctic multichannel seismic reflection (MCS) data for geoscience studies. During this period, collaboration in MCS studies has advanced deciphering the seismic stratigraphy and structure of Antarctica’s continental margin more rapidly than previously. MCS data compilations provided the geologic framework for scientific drilling at several Antarctic locations and for high-resolution seismic and sampling studies to decipher Cenozoic depositional paleoenvironments. The SDLS successes come from cooperation of National Antarctic Programs and individual investigators in “on-time” submissions of their MCS data. Most do, but some do not. The SDLS community has an International Polar Year (IPY) goal of all overdue MCS data being sent to the SDLS by end of IPY. The community science objective is to compile all Antarctic MCS data to derive a unified seismic stratigraphy for the continental margin – a stratigraphy to be used with drilling data to derive Cenozoic circum-Antarctic paleobathymetry maps and local-to-regional scale paleoenvironmental histories.
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partners, routinely reports long-term concentration trends and monthly and annual constituent loads for stream water-quality monitoring stations across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This report documents flow-adjusted trends in sediment and total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations for 31 stations in the years 1985–2011 and for 32 stations in the years 2002–2011. Sediment and total nitrogen and phosphorus yields for 65 stations are presented for the years 2006–2011. A combined nontidal water-quality indicator (based on both trends and yields) indicates there are more stations classified as “improving water-quality trend and a low yield” than “degrading water-quality trend and a high yield” for total nitrogen. The same type of 2-way classification for total phosphorus and sediment results in equal numbers of stations in each indicator class.
A network of three new infrasound station arrays was installed around Kīlauea Volcano between July 2012 and September 2012, and a preliminary analysis of open-vent monitoring has been completed by Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). Infrasound is an emerging monitoring method in volcanology that detects perturbations in atmospheric pressure at frequencies below 20 Hz, which can result from volcanic events that are not always observed optically or thermally. Each array has the capability to detect various infrasound events as small as 0.05 Pa as measured at the array site. The infrasound monitoring network capabilities are demonstrated through case studies of rockfalls, pit collapses, and rise-fall cycles at Halema'uma'u Crater and Pu'u 'Ōʻō.
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The Western Molybdenum Company mine was opened many years ago to obtain copper. The only production was several cars of crude copper ore shipped during World War I. An unsuccessful attempt to produce molybdenum was made in 1939-1941. The deposit consists of steeply dipping, northeast-striking veins in monzonite and marble, carrying molybdenite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, scheelite, and some quartz. Northwest- striking faults cut and offset the veins as much as 10 feet. The main vein, which contains all the known ore, is developed by four levels to a depth of 293 feet. It contains ore shoots from a few inches to 4 feet wide and up to 130 feet long, carrying about 1 percent MoS 2 , 1 percent Cu, and 0.15 percent W0 3 .
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The Mt. Montro kyanite deposit, 14 miles north of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia, is near the middle of a belt of kyanite-bearing gneisses and schists that is 9 miles long and 1 mile wide. The deposit, which seems to be the most persistent and the largest single body of kyanite rocks in the belt, is approximately 12, 600 feet long, as much as 480 feet in outcrop width, and from 25 to 350 feet thick. Kyanite-quartz-biotite-feldspar-garnet-muscovite gneiss, local interbeds of kyanite-mica schist, and lesser amounts of biotite-quartz gneiss, are the principal rocks in the deposit. Other rocks in the kyanite belt include garnet-biotite gneiss, undifferentiated quartzo-feldspathic gneiss, quartzite, and amphibolite. The rocks are the product of regional metamorphism to almandine amphibolite facies. The regional strike is northwest and dips are southwest. Kyanite crystals are as much as 3 inches long. The kyanite content ranges from 5. 8 to 46. 7 percent, but most rocks contain between 10 and 35 percent. Garnetiferous beds contain as much as 15 percent red garnets that range to half an inch in diameter. In general, the garnet-rich beds are found in the upper part of the deposit. he total reserves of the Mt. Montro kyanite deposit are estimated at about 10 million tons of kyanitic rock containing approximately 2.5 million tons of kyanite. These estimates include measured, indicated, and inferred reserves, calculated to depths of 25 to 100 feet, on the assumption that open-cut mining to those depths would be feasible. The largest part of the deposit underlies Mt. Montro and contains about 8 million tons of kyanitic rock containing nearly 1.9 million tons of kyanite. Residual soil overlying the deposit averages about 5 feet in thickness and is estimated to comprise slightly more than 400,000 cubic yards of material containing about 186,000 tons of kyanite. The proximity of the kyanite deposit to a paved highway, to port facilities at Buchanan, and to water, electrical power, and timber resources are considered favorable factors relevant to possible development.