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Publications

Results from our Program’s research and minerals information activities are published in USGS publications series as well as in outside journals.  To follow Minerals Information Periodicals, subscribe to the Mineral Periodicals RSS feed.

Filter Total Items: 2294

A portable helium sniffer

A portable helium sniffer has been developed for field use. The instrument is mounted in a four-wheel-drive pickup truck and can detect 50 parts per billion of helium in soil gas. The usefulness of helium sniffing in soil is being investigated as a prospecting tool in gas, oil, uranium, and geothermal prospecting as well as in earthquake prediction.
Authors
Irving Friedman, E.H. Denton

Regional geologic framework off northeastern United States

Six multichannel seismic-reflection profiles taken across the Atlantic continental margin off the northeastern United States show an excess of 14 km of presumed Mesozoic and younger sedimentary rocks in the Baltimore Canyon trough and 8 km in the Georges Bank basin.Beneath the continental rise, the sedimentary prism thickness exceeds 7 km south of New Jersey and Maryland, and it is 4.5 km thick so
Authors
John Schlee, John C. Behrendt, John A. Grow, James M. Robb, Robert E. Mattick, P. T. Taylor, B. J. Lawson

Exploration for porphyry copper deposits in Pakistan using digital processing of Landsat-1 data

Rock-type classification by digital-computer processing of Landsat-1 (formerly ERTS-1) multispectral scanner data has been used to select 23 prospecting targets in the Chagai District, Pakistan, 5 of which have proved to be large areas of hydrothermally altered porphyry containing pyrite. The known porphyry copper deposit at Saindak was used as a control area. Empirical maximum and minimum apparen
Authors
Robert G. Schmidt

The Oligocene volcanic center at Eureka, Nevada

A volcanic center covering an area of about 80 km2 near Eureka, Nev., and active in the early Oligocene, is characterized by rhyolitic, rhyodacitic. and andesitic pyroclastic rocks, lava flows, and shallow intrusive bodies. These rocks were emplaced as intertonguing and interpenetrative units during a 5-m.y. interval; most of the volcanism was in the last 3 million years of this period (36 to 33 m
Authors
M. C. Blake, E. H. McKee, Richard F. Marvin, Miles L. Silberman, Thomas B. Nolan

A review of recently active faults in Taiwan

Six faults associated with five large earthquakes produced surface displacements ranging from 1 to 3 m in the period 1906 through 1951. Four of the ruptures occurred in the western coastal plain and foothills, and two occurred in the Longitudinal Valley of eastern Taiwan. Maps are included showing the locations and dimensions of the displacements. The published geological literature probably would
Authors
Manuel G. Bonilla

Mercury distribution in ancient and modern sediment of northeastern Bering Sea

Reconnaissance sampling of surface and subsurface sediment to a maximum depth of 80 m below the sea floor shows that typical values of 0.03 p.p.m. and anomalies of 0.2-1.3 p.p.m. mercury have been present in northeastern Bering Sea since Early Pliocene time. Values are highest in modern beach (maximum 1.3 and mean 0.22 p.p.m. Hg) and nearshore subsurface gravels (maximum 0.6 and mean 0.06 p.p.m. H
Authors
C.H. Nelson, D.E. Pierce, Kam Leong, F.F.H. Wang

Paleotectonic investigations of the Pennsylvanian System in the United States, Part I: Introduction and regional analyses of the Pennsylvanian System

The Pennsylvanian is the fourth geologic system to be analyzed and synthesized by geologists of the U.S. Geological Survey in the form of a paleotectonic study covering the conterminous United States. Earlier investigations were of the Jurassic, Triassic, and Permian Systems. Results were published as Miscellaneous Geologic Investigation Maps I-175, I-300, and I-450 and in Professional Paper 515.
Authors
Edwin D. McKee, Eleanor J. Crosby, George O. Bachman, Kenneth G. Bell, George H. Dixon, Sherwood E. Frezon, Ernest E. Glick, William P. Irwin, William W. Mallory, William J. Mapel, Edwin K. Maughan, George E. Prichard, Gerald L. Shideler, Gary F. Stewart, Harold R. Wanless, Richard F. Wilson