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What's new from the Western Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center?

Tom Frost named Acting Center Director

Tom completed his BA in Geology in 1975 at U.C. Santa Barbara. He then worked for Arnold Bouma and Monty Hampton at the Marine Geology Branch in Menlo Park for three years. There he worked on environmental hazards associated with oil leasing in the Gulf of Alaska and Cook Inlet. Changing gears dramatically, he went to Stanford for a PhD under Gail Mahood working on field and chemical evidence for rheologic modeling of mafic and felsic magma interaction in granitic plutons in the Sierra Nevada. During his time at Stanford, he worked part time for USGS Branch of Analytical Labs while they were located at Stanford, tending XRF machines during graduate student hours. After completing his PhD in 1987, the A-Labs and Exploration Geochemistry Branch had merged, so he went to work in Alaska doing geochemical surveys and geologic mapping. Ultimately he became a member of the Mineral Resources Branch and moved to Spokane in 1989. Tom changed gears in 1994, when the Spokane Mineral Resources office responded to the needs of the USFS/BLM-lead Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP), which was charged with assessing forest-landscape-aquatic-social-economic conditions in the Columbia Basin and develop adaptive management plans for Federal Lands in the basin. Tom also served as the Scientist in Charge of the Spokane office. Please help welcome Tom to the position of Acting Center Director.

We would also like to acknowledge Phil Davis as he leaves his post as the Center Director and returns to scientific studies. The Regional Executive's Office thanks and appreciates Phil for the exceptional leadership and direction that he has provided to the WMERSC over the past years. We wish him well in his new endeavors.

Historical Files from Federal Government Mineral Exploration-Assistance Programs, 1950 to 1974, now on-line

Congress enacted the Defense Production Act in 1950 to provide funding and support for the exploration and development of critical mineral resources. From 1950 to 1974 Department of the Interior agencies, the Defense Minerals Administration (DMA), the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA), and the Office of Minerals Exploration (OME), carried out this mission. Contracts with mine owners provided financial assistance for mineral exploration on a joint-participation basis. These contracts are documented in more than 5,000 “dockets” now archived online (http://minerals.usgs.gov/dockets/) by the U.S. Geological Survey. This archive provides access to unique and difficult to recreate information, such as drill logs, assay results, and underground geologic maps, that is invaluable to land and resource management organizations and the minerals industry.

John Galloway receives (USGS) Occupational Health and Safety Award of Merit

For contributions as a member of the Firearms Safety Committee. Congratulations John!

A bear spray safety training program for the USGS was officially initiated by the bureau Firearms Safety Committee (FSC) to address accident prevention and to promote personnel training in bear spray and its transportation, storage, and use for defense against wild animals.

Over the past year the FSC developed a Bear Spray Training for Defense Against Dangerous Animals course. This course is accessible to all Department of the Interior and USGS employees and volunteers as well as employees from other bureaus within the DOI. The course was designed to ensure that through the proper training, the use of bear spray can reduce the number of bears killed and reduce potential injuries to employees caused by bears. In areas where bear populations are considered Threatened or Endangered under the Endangered Species Act the proper use of bear spray can help reduce human caused mortalities thus, assisting in the recovery of the species.

Since the inception of this training, the USGS has had an excellent safety record with respect to bear spray accidents and incidents involving aggressive bears. The establishment of this course exemplifies the dedication of the FSC members in their efforts to further occupational safety and health for 001 and USGS employees. This contribution is even more appreciated as most of the FSC members perform occupational safety and health duties on a volunteer basis.

International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG) committee selects Dr. Donald A. Singer as 2010 Georges Matheron Lecturer.

Dr. Donald A. Singer

The Matheron Lecturer Committee of IMAG, chaired by Vice President Qiuming Cheng, has selected Dr. Donald A. Singer (Menlo Park, CA) as the 2010 Georges Matheron Lecturer. The Georges Matheron Lecturer Committee seeks nominations and selects each year a Georges Matheron Lecturer who is a scientist with proven research ability in the field of spatial statistics or mathematical morphology. Dr. Singer has been asked to give a keynote lecture at this year's IAMG Annual Conference in Budapest August 29 - Sept. 2, 2010. This lecture series in honor of  Georges Matheron, a  leader in the field of geostatistics, was initiated in 2005, and the first lecture was given in 2006 at the IAMG Annual Meeting in Liège, Belgium. The mission of the IAMG is to promote, worldwide, the advancement of mathematics, statistics and informatics in the Geosciences.

Western Mineral Environmental Resources employees receive awards at the Western Region awards ceremony held in Menlo Park, CA March 3, 2010.

• Thomas Light - Safety and Health Excellence Award - Tom was instrumental in the development of the Interagency Aviation Training website. He has been a leader in proposing policy changes and safety training initiatives. He has chaired the Survey’s Aviation Advisory Committee and his leadership in these forums has led to a program plan adopted by the USGS and it has been made available to the other bureaus.
• Kimberly Jenkins - Superior Service Award - In recognition of her dedicated and exceptional administrative contributions to the Western Mineral Environmental Resources Science Center (WMERSC) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Kim has performed consistent, exceptional service throughout her career, and has earned the highest respect of her colleagues in the entire USGS.  Rising through the administrative ranks to Administrative Officer, she has proven to be one of the very best in this position for the USGS.  As Administrative Officer for WMERSC, Kim has served as the expert in all the complex administrative and fiscal operations of the WMERSC’s distributed science center offices.  Her long-term, careful management of fiscal resources has established WMERSC’s reputation as highly efficient with consistently excellent fiscal closeouts.  Ms. Jenkins has served as a member of the Bureau’s Administrative Business Strategy Team.  Invaluable financial and management training has been provided by Kim to her administrative assistants, capitalizing on the different strengths of the staff and ensuring consistency and the necessary skill sets in business procedures across the science center. The skills of the staff developed under her direction, guidance, and training have enabled the center to focus their efforts on the development and execution of excellent scientific programs.  Despite numerous rotations in Center leadership, she has ensured continuity and success of critical administrative functions, while instituting various new administrative tools, many of which have then been adopted by other teams. 
• Laurie Balistrieri - Meritorious Service Award - In recognition of her exceptional scientific contributions in low-temperature geochemistry that have significantly advanced mineral-resource and environmental science of the U.S. Geological Survey. As an internationally recognized expert in the field of biogeochemistry, Ms. Balistrieri’s work on environmental geochemistry has significantly impacted how Federal regulatory agencies make use of scientific data for land-use permitting processes and for managing the reclamation of public lands affected by mining activities. The impact of her work is a direct result of her innovative field-sampling techniques, analytical methods, and numerical geochemical, ecosystem models, all of which unravel complex physical, chemical, and biological processes that control the bioavailability of potentially toxic metals in the environment. Her work on element cycling in natural lakes and mine pit lakes showed how stratification, mixing, ventilation, biological production, biological decomposition, geochemical reactions, and bottom currents affect the concentration and distribution of elements in lakes and sediments.  Her innovative time-integrated sampling yields improved measures of metal exposure to biota in river systems, which she applied to the San Luis Valley wetlands, downstream from the Summitville mine (Colorado), to help EPA’s remediation efforts.  She also determined the cycling and bioavailability of dissolved metals within and downstream of the Coeur d’Alene mining district, and within Coeur d’Alene Lake.  Her work in this area was used by EPA to develop their long-term remediation goals and was considered essential by the National Academy of Science in their evaluation of the Superfund process at mega-mining sites.  Her Coeur d’Alene research led to her recent award of a Gledden Senior Visiting Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia, where she worked collaboratively on the refinement of environmental geochemical models. For her many outstanding contributions to the mineral-resources and environmental programs of the U.S. Geological Survey, Laurie S. Balistrieri is granted the Meritorious Service Award of the Department of the Interior.
• Alan Wallace - Meritorious Service Award - Dr. Wallace is one of the leading experts on the geologic evolution and modification of mineral deposits within the Basin-and-Range province. His mineral-resource investigations produced new models for shallow post-mineralization processes and his detailed geologic maps in Nevada have been, and are being used, by private industry to discover new mineral deposits, such as the currently producing Hollister Gold Mine, Snyder Mine, and the Standard gold deposit in western Nevada. Dr. Wallace's diatomite distribution maps provided the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with a means to map favorable habitat for rare and endangered plant species, such as buckwheat, that favor soils developed from diatomite. His leadership and science in the multidisciplinary Humboldt River Basin Mineral Assessment in Nevada provided the BLM with important mineral-resource data to facilitate land management decisions. Dr. Wallace's associated geologic maps have been extremely useful to the USGS and State hydrologists as a basis for improving predictive models of the Basin's water resources, which are critical for both human use and ecosystem health in this desert region. Dr. Wallace's work has been beneficial to hydrologists in Colorado and New Mexico, where his geological studies in the Rio Grande Rift/San Luis Basin and the Basin-and-Range Carbonate Aquifer projects produced new basin evolution models and revised concepts for fault controls on groundwater. His work enabled a more realistic representation of the structural and stratigraphic complexity of the aquifer system in groundwater models, thereby reducing uncertainties and improving capability to forecast the availability of water supplies for both humans and ecosystems. Dr. Wallace's outstanding scientific contributions highlight the USGS mission to advance the scientific understanding of the Nation's societal issues through cooperative, interdisciplinary scientific research.

Quantitative Mineral Resource Assessment, an Integrated Approach

by Donald Singer and W. David Menzie

Policy makers, mineral exploration experts, and regional planners decide how public lands, which may contain undiscovered resources, should be used or whether to invest in exploration for minerals on a regular basis. Decisions are also made concerning mineral resource adequacy, national policy, and regional development. This book makes explicit the factors that can affect a mineral-related decision so that decision-makers can clearly see the possible consequences of their decisions. Based on work done at the US Geological Survey, the authors address the question of the kinds of issues decision-makers are trying to resolve and what forms of information would aid in resolving these issues. The goal of the process discussed is to offer unbiased quantitative assessments in a format needed in decision-support systems so that consequences of alternative courses of action can be examined with respect to land use or mineral-resource development. The book documents the results of a previously unpublished experiment demonstrating that experts can make unbiased estimates of the numbers of undiscovered deposits and provides newly developed deposit density models and demonstrates how to use them to make probabilistic estimates of numbers of undiscovered deposits. This will be useful to governmental or industrial policy makers, managers of explorations, planners of regional development, and similar decision-makers.

The 232 page hardback book (available for purchase on-line) was released by Oxford University Press.

Reports on Progress in Identifying Concealed Mineral Deposits given at 2009 Northwest Mining Association technical session

Center Scientist appointed Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Keith R. Long (Tucson) has been appointed editor-in-chief of Natural Resources Research, one of three journals published by the International Association of Mathematical Geologists. The journal publishes original research on the application of quantitative methods to the study of natural resources. This journal has long been of value to the USGS as a venue for interdisciplinary studies that are not appropriate for specialized, single-discipline journals.

The Copper King Mine at the 2009 Menlo Park Open House

Western Mineral and Environmental Resources Scientists receive DOI Distinguished Service Awards

WMER scientists David John and James Rytuba were each recently awarded the Department of the Interior Distinguished Service Award. Distinguished Service Award is the highest honorary recognition an employee can receive within the Department of the Interior. It is granted for an outstanding contribution to science, outstanding skill or ability in the performance of duty, outstanding contribution made during an eminent career in the Department, or any other exceptional contribution to the public service.

In recognition of his outstanding scientific contributions and leadership to the U.S. Geological Survey in the field of volcanology and epithermal mineral deposits.

Dr. John is an internationally recognized expert in volcanology and volcanic-related epithermal mineral deposits.  His research has integrated field, stratigraphic, petrologic, fluid-inclusion, and isotopic studies to generate detailed to regional genetic studies of mineral deposits within the Cascade Range and the Great Basin.  The published results of this diverse research have been outstanding.  His research on the Wasatch Mountains of Utah showed that variations in fluid-inclusion (hydrothermal fluid) type and composition, and the resulting ore deposits, are directly related to variations in the paleodepth of formation.  This research was cited as a ‘landmark study’ by a keynote speaker at the 1997 Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) Symposium.  In the northern Great Basin, Dr. John was the first to discern that systematic differences in the types and characteristics of epithermal gold-silver deposits are related to differences in their tectonic setting and associated magma composition and that these relations may be common worldwide. His groundbreaking work proposed a redefinition of the classification of epithermal gold-silver deposits, which resulted in a new genetic model for these deposits (2000 Reviews in Economic Geology) and in a new assessment of these relations for gold deposits (2003 SEG Special Publication).  Dr. John’s research defined tectonomagmatic settings where certain epithermal deposits were unlikely to form in particular arc and extensional settings, but his work was also the first to recognize the genetic relation between epithermal gold deposits and tholeiitic basalts, which highlights the global potential for similar deposits in these types of volcanic settings. This work was sited as a seminal paper by a keynote speaker at the 2007 Arizona Geological Society Ores and Orogenesis symposium.  These studies opened new research areas in economic geology and new exploration efforts in private industry.  Dr. John’s integration of field, remote-sensing, and geophysical studies of Cascades volcanoes has produced detailed evolutionary models, identified geologic factors that promote hydrothermal alteration and mineral-deposit formation, and suggests areas in and near particular volcanoes that are more likely locations of future debris flows.  These studies of modern, well-preserved volcanic systems and related hydrothermal features provide essential new research and exploration guidelines for more highly dissected and dismembered Tertiary, volcanic-related mineral deposits, both in the western US and globally.

In recognition of his outstanding scientific contributions and leadership in understanding the origin and environmental impact of mineral deposits and mineral resources.

Dr. Rytuba is a world-renowned expert in two closely related areas of scientific study: The fundamental geology of mineral deposits related to volcanic centers, and environmental issues related to mercury in mineral deposits. Dr. Rytuba developed a seminal comprehensive geological framework for understanding the distribution and origin of mineral deposits in California. This work provided the basis for new exploration strategies along the North American-Pacific plate margin. The work also led to his pioneering studies of the McDermitt and Lake Owyhee volcanic fields in Nevada and Oregon. Important mercury, uranium, lithium, and precious-metal deposits and now being mined these volcanic fields. The principles developed by Dr. Rytuba proved to be globally transferable. As part of an international team, he was the first to identify and document the geologic evolution of the Rodalquilar volcanic complex in Spain, the first of such in Europe. The gold deposits associated with the Rodalquilar complex stimulated years of research and exploration of analogous deposits by the Spanish government and private industry. Dr. Rytuba also identified several new gold deposit systems in Micronesia, and developed a genetic model for such oceanic mineral deposits. His work instigated mineral exploration in these territories, which now show high potential for significant mineral resources. In environmental research, Dr. Rytuba addressed the processes and controls on mercury and arsenic mobility in natural settings and in settings disrupted by mining activities. The collaborative research strategy developed by Dr. Rytuba for environmental research related to mercury was awarded an Environmental Protection Agency Star grant. His research demonstrated that many mineral-deposit types contain mercury-enriched phases, which upon weathering can release mercury at sufficiently high concentration into the environment with the potential for causing adverse ecological impacts. Dr. Rytuba showed that the seasonal aspect of environmental mercury, if not considered during remediation, can actually exacerbate mercury release. As a result of his extensive knowledge and experience, Dr. Rytuba was invited to testify to Congress on environmental issues related to mercury.

2008 Northwest Mining Association annual meeting "Mining Minerals for a Dependent World"

USGS Mineral Resources Program scientists presented during the 114th annual Northwest Mining Association meeting and convention in Sparks, NV Dec. 1-5. The USGS session Mineral Commodities for Emerging Technologies featured the following presentations and speakers:

• Economics of strategic and critical minerals by Keith Long (Tucson, AZ)
• Lithium for emerging technologies by Brian Jaskula (Reston, VA)
• The Iron Hill (Powderhorn) carbonatite complex, Gunnison Co, CO - A potential source of several uncommon mineral resources by Brad van Gosen (Denver, CO)
• Rhenium for emerging technologies by Michael Magyar (Reston, VA)
• Unconventional volcanic-hosted gallium resources by Jim Rytuba (Menlo Park, CA)
• A “criticality” matrix: an approach to identifying critical minerals by Kate Johnson (Reston, VA)

USGS Scientist Awarded Fellowship to Study Element Cycling in Aquatic Systems:

USGS research geochemist Laurie Balistrieri recently received a Gledden Visiting Senior Fellowship, awarded to researchers in applied sciences, to collaborate with colleagues at the University of Western Australia. Balistrieri will be working at the university August-November (2008) to test a model that describes the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphate, and metals in bottom sediments of aquatic systems, incorporating the model into three dimensional models of the water column, and using the coupled models to examine the interplay of physical and biogeochemical processes on the cycling of metals and nutrients in a lake affected by mining activities. The result will be a state-of-the-art tool that can be used by scientific, management, and regulatory agencies to assess element cycling and test various scenarios in aquatic systems.

2008 Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration annual meeting "New Horizons/New Challenges"

During the 2008 SME annual meeting, Mineral Resources Program staff chaired a technical session entitled Rare Earths-Mining, Geology, and Metal. Consumption of rare earths has increased worldwide, resulting in increased prices for most rare-earth products and a shortfall in supply. Increased use of rare earths is expected to continue in many applications, especially automotive catalytic converters, permanent magnets, and rechargeable batteries. The USGS sponsored a workshop titled Mineral Materials for Emerging Technologies to foster collaboration and input from leaders in the industrial minerals community for current and future USGS minerals research.  Mineral Resources Program staff are developing a new project on mineral materials most critical to the growth of the national economy, especially minerals required for frontier technologies. MRP staff also hosted a booth during the exhibit portion of the meeting. Information regarding recently released publications and current/completed projects was disseminated.

Products

• Understanding Metal Pathways in Mineralized Ecosystems
• Understanding Contaminants Associated with Mineral Deposits
• Preliminary Non-Fuel Mineral Resource Assessment of Afghanistan
• USGS Reference Materials Program: Serving the Needs of the Global Analytical Community
• Integrated Geologic, Geochemical, and Geophysical Studies in Big Bend National Park
• Earth Science Studies in Support of Public Policy Development and Land Stewardship—Headwaters Province, Idaho and Montana
• Mineral Commodity Summaries

Projects

• Assessment Techniques for Concealed Mineral Resources
• Mineral Resources On-line Spatial Data
• Metallogenic Evolution of Mesoproterozoic Sedimentary Rocks in Idaho and Montana
• Pathways of Metal Transfer from Mineralized Sources to Bio-receptors
• Quantitative Global Mineral-Resource Assessments

Nevada Supervolcano's Flesh Exposed

The fault-riddled landscape of northern Nevada has sliced and diced the remains of one of the world's largest volcanoes, providing a rare chance to inspect the innards of Caetano caldera, the so-called "supervolcano." One reason the Caetano caldera is so special -- Nevada's faulted, blocky crust there has slid and tilted so the insides are visible on the surface, like books on a shelf without a bookend. "You can actually put your hands on the rocks," said geologist David John, of the USGS. John is also the author of a paper about the Caetano caldera in the February edition of the journal Geosphere. More information can be found in an article posted on "Discovery News" on the Discovery Channel website.

USGS Shares Department of Defense Award for Technical Excellence

On Dec. 4, 2008 a joint USGS-U.S. Air Force-Texas Tech University effort was recognized with an award presented by the Department of Defense, Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, for the "Project-of-the-Year" in the Environmental Restoration Focus Area. The award was presented at the annual Partners in Environmental Technology Technical Symposium in Washington, DC for the research project on "The Identification and Characterization of Natural Sources of Perchlorate". Each year, projects are recognized that exhibit technical excellence and have helped the DoD achieve its mission while improving its environmental performance. The principal USGS investigator on this project, Greta J. Orris, was one of the initial people to identify the presence of naturally-occurring perchlorate. Much of the success of this project has been due to the ongoing cooperation with other USGS researchers including D. Stonestrom, J. Betancourt, M. Walvoord, D. Smith, and many others from the water, biology, and geology disciplines within the USGS.

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