SEARCH · USGS Science
Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
This report updates a report on the Precambrian geology of the Lake Superior region published in Geological Society of America's Decade of North American Geology Volume C-2 (1993) on the Precambrian<196>conterminous U.S.
Mauna Kea Volcano, on the Island of Hawaii, is capped by lavas of alkalic and transitional basalt (Hamakua Volcanics) erupted between approximately 250-200 and 70-65 ka and hawaiite, mugearite, and benmoreite (Laupahoehoe Volcanics) erupted between approximately 65 and 4 ka. These lavas, which form the entire subaerial surface of the volcano, issued from numerous scattered vents and are intercalated on the upper slopes with glacial deposits. The lavas record diminishing magma-supply rate and degree of partial melting from the shield stage through the postshield stage. Much of the compositional variation apparently reflects fractionation of basaltic magma in reservoirs within and beneath the volcano.
The White River Narrows area of Southeast Nevada contains 18 regionally distributed middle Tertiary dacite to rhyolite ash-flow tuffs. Geochemical data provide an excellent opportunity to study stratigraphic and petrologic relations of these tuffs. Chemical data for each of the tuffs are distinctive and provide a significant addition to other data used to identify and correlate these units. Relatively minor compositional variation within the tuffs is noteworthy.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
No abstract available.
No abstract available.
A synthesis of Late Cretaceous paleogeography of the Western Interior from Mexico to southwestern Canada emphasizes the areal distribution of peat-forming environments during six biostratigraphically constrained time intervals. Isopach maps of strata for each interval reveal the locations and magnitude of major depocenters. The paleogeographic framework provides insight into the relative importance of tectonism, eustasy, and climate on the accumulation of thick peats and their preservation as coals. A total of 123 basin summaries and their data provide the ground truth for construction of the isopach and paleogeographic maps.
More than 100 tephra-fall deposits erupted from Mount St. Helens within about the last 40,000 years are grouped into tephra sets and layers distinguished from each other chiefly by differences in mineral composition and age. The tephra deposits record a complex history of the volcano, form important time-stratigraphic markers, and provide information about probable kinds, frequencies, and magnitudes of future eruptions.
Characteristics of alaskan-type ultramafic-mafic intrusions are described and evaluated to determine the origin and emplacement mechanism of these bodies.
Diabase dikes of widespread occurrence intrude only middle Proterozoic rocks in the New Jersey Highlands. These dikes are enriched in TiO2, P2O5, Zr, and light rare earth elements, and have compositions that range from tholeiitic to alkalic. Dike descriptions, field relations, petrography, geochemistry, petrogenesis, and tectonic setting are discussed. The data are consistent with emplacement in a rift-related, within-plate environment and suggest a correlation with other occurrences of late Proterozoic Appalachian basaltic magmatism.
Coastal plain sediments are underlain by pre-Mesozoic crystalline rocks. The inner coastal plain is underlain by schist that is correlated with the Potomac Terrane, as well as by mafic rocks probably equivalent to the Wilmington or Bel Air-Rising Sun terranes. The northern and central outer coastal plain is underlain by metasedimentary rocks similar to the Brompton-Cameron Terrane. Rocks beneath the southern coastal plain probably correlate with those of the Chopawamsic and Roanoke Rapids terranes.
Middle Proterozoic rocks of the New Jersey Highlands consist of a basement of dacitic, tonalitic, trondhjemitic, and charnockitic rocks that constitute the Losee metamorphic suite. These rocks are unconformably overlain by a layered supracrustal sequence of quartzo-feldspathic and calcareous rocks. Abundant sheets of hornblende- and biotite-bearing rocks of the Byram intrusive suite and clinopyroxene-bearing rocks of the Lake Hopatcong intrusive suite were synkinematically emplaced at about 1,090 Ma. These intrusive suites constitute the Vernon Supersuite. The postorogenic Mount Eve Granite has been dated at 1,020?4 Ma and is confined to the extreme northern Highlands.
Approximately 24 samples of the Monterey Formation, Southern California, have been analyzed for their major-element oxide and minor-element content. These analyses allow identification of a detrital fraction, composed of terrigenous quartz, clay minerals, and other Al silicate minerals, and a marine fraction, composed of biogenic silica, calcite, dolomite, organic matter, apatite, and minor amounts of pyrite. The minor-element contents in the marine fraction alone are interpreted to have required, at the time of deposition, a high level of primary productivity in the photic zone and denitrifying bacterial respiration in the bottom water.
This publication represents a milestone in the U.S. global change research program on the land characterization of Arctic land processes. The book describes 20 ecological regions and includes a folded, color-coded map that shows them. The map legend summarizes the characteristics of each region and has 41 color photographs of representative sites. The map and accompanying information should prove helpful in making practical decisions concerning land management planning and in determining the availability of natural resources.
The lithostratigraphy, microlithofacies, and conodonts are described in a key section of the Wahoo Limestone (Middle Carboniferous); this unit forms a hydrocarbon reservoir at Prudhoe Bay. The Wahoo was deposited in a range of environments on the inner part of a high-energy carbonate ramp. Microfacies and conodont biofacies used together refine paleoenvironmental interpretations. Only 24 conodont species distributed among 14 genera were recognized in a section that spans about 10 million years. Significant conodont collections from the Wahoo across the Northeast Brooks Range are described in an appendix.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Liquid wastes from an enriched-uranium cold-scrap recovery plant at Wood River Junction, Rhode Island, were discharged to the environment through evaporation ponds and trenches from 1966 through 1980. Leakage from the ponds and trenches resulted in a plume of contaminated ground water extending northwestward to the Pawcatuck River through a highly permeable sand and gravel aquifer of glacial origin.