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Edwin H. McKee

Publications and source records attributed to Edwin H. McKee.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS1999

High-angle faults in the basement of Yucca Flat, Nevada Test Site, Nevada, based on analysis of a constrained gravity inversion surface

Using a model of the topographic subsurface derived from drill hole and gravity inversion analysis of the basement rocks in Yucca Flat, Nevada Test Site (NTS), Nevada, a fault map and digital fault dataset were constructed based on offsets of the basement surface. Because these faults are, in large part, not present at the surface, they are interpreted to be inactive faults, older than the alluvial basin fill.

Nevada↗
USGS1999

Digital Geologic Map of the Nevada Test Site and Vicinity, Nye, Lincoln, and Clark Counties, Nevada, and Inyo County, California

This digital geologic map of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and vicinity, as well as its accompanying digital geophysical maps, are compiled at 1:100,000 scale. The map compilation presents new polygon (geologic map unit contacts), line (fault, fold axis, metamorphic isograd, dike, and caldera wall) and point (structural attitude) vector data for the NTS and vicinity, Nye, Lincoln, and Clark Counties, Nevada, and Inyo County, California. The map area covers two 30 x 60-minute quadrangles-the Pahute Mesa quadrangle to the north and the Beatty quadrangle to the south-plus a strip of 7.5-minute quadrangles on the east side-72 quadrangles in all. In addition to the NTS, the map area includes the rest of the southwest Nevada volcanic field, part of the Walker Lane, most of the Amargosa Desert, part of the Funeral and Grapevine Mountains, some of Death Valley, and the northern Spring Mountains. This geologic map improves on previous geologic mapping of the same area (Wahl and others, 1997) by providing new and updated Quaternary and bedrock geology, new geophysical interpretations of faults beneath the basins, and improved GIS coverages. Concurrent publications to this one include a new isostatic gravity map (Ponce and others, 1999) and a new aeromagnetic map (Ponce, 1999).

Open-File Report↗
USGS1999

The Silent Canyon caldera complex — A three-dimensional model based on drill-hole stratigraphy and gravity inversion

The structural framework of Pahute Mesa, Nevada, is dominated by the Silent Canyon caldera complex, a buried, multiple collapse caldera complex. Using the boundary surface between low density Tertiary volcanogenic rocks and denser granitic and weakly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks (basement) as the outer fault surfaces for the modeled collapse caldera complex, it is postulated that the caldera complex collapsed on steeply- dipping arcuate faults two, possibly three, times following eruption of at least two major ash-flow tuffs. The caldera and most of its eruptive products are now deeply buried below the surface of Pahute Mesa. Relatively low-density rocks in the caldera complex produce one of the largest gravity lows in the western conterminous United States. Gravity modeling defines a steep sided, cup-shaped depression as much as 6,000 meters (19,800 feet) deep that is surrounded and floored by denser rocks. The steeply dipping surface located between the low-density basin fill and the higher density external rocks is considered to be the surface of the ring faults of the multiple calderas. Extrapolation of this surface upward to the outer, or topographic rim, of the Silent Canyon caldera complex defines the upper part of the caldera collapse structure. Rock units within and outside the Silent Canyon caldera complex are combined into seven hydrostratigraphic units based on their predominant hydrologic characteristics. The caldera structures and other faults on Pahute Mesa are used with the seven hydrostratigraphic units to make a three-dimensional geologic model of Pahute Mesa using the "EarthVision" (Dynamic Graphics, Inc.) modeling computer program. This method allows graphic representation of the geometry of the rocks and produces computer generated cross sections, isopach maps, and three-dimensional oriented diagrams. These products have been created to aid in visualizing and modeling the ground-water flow system beneath Pahute Mesa.

Nevada↗
USGS1998

Evaluation of faults and their effect on ground-water flow southwest of Frenchman Flat, Nye and Clark counties, Nevada: a digital database

Ground-water flow through the region south and west of Frenchman Flat, in the Ash Meadows subbasin of the Death Valley ground-water flow system, is controlled mostly by faults which arrange the distribution of permeable and impermeable rocks. In addition, most permeability is along fractures caused by faulting in carbonate rocks. Large faults are more likely to reach the potentiometric surface as deep as 325 meters below the ground surface and are more likely to effect the flow path than small faults. This study concentrated on identifying large faults, especially where they cut carbonate rocks. Small faults, however, may develop as much permeability as large faults if they are penetrative and are part of an anastomosing fault_zone. The overall pattern of faults and joints at the ground surface in the Spotted and Specter Ranges is an indication of the fracture system at the depth of the water table. Most of the faults in these ranges are west-southwest-striking, high-angle faults, 100 to 3,500 meters long, with 10 to 300 meters of displacement. Many of them, such as those in the Spotted Range and Rock Valley are left-lateral strike-slip faults that are conjugate to the NW-striking right-lateral faults of the Las Vegas Valley shear zone. These faults control the ground-water flow path, which runs west-southwest beneath the Spotted Range, Mercury Valley and the Specter Range. The Specter Range thrust is a significant geologic structure with respect to ground- water flow. This regional thrust fault emplaces siliceous clastic strata into the north central and western parts of the Specter Range. These rocks act as a barrier that confines ground- water flow to the southern part of the range, directing it southwestward toward springs at Ash Meadows. These siliceous clastic aquitard rocks and overlying Cenozoic deposits probably also block westward flow of ground-water in Rock Valley, diverting it southward to the flow path beneath the southern part of the Specter Range.

Nevada↗
USGS1994

Relationship between the Porco, Bolivia, Ag-Zn-Pb-Sn deposit and the Porco Caldera

The Porco Ag-Zn-Pb-Sn deposit, a major Ag producer in the 16th century and currently the major Zn producer in Bolivia, consists of a swarm of fissure-filling veins in the newly recognized Porco caldera. The caldera measures 5 km north-south by 3 km east-west and formed in response to the eruption of the 12 Ma crystal-rich dacitic Porco Tuff. Well-defined topographic walls of the caldera are cut in Ordovician and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The mineralization is associated with, and is probably genetically related to, the 8.6 Ma Huayna Porco stock (elev 4,528 m); the deposit is part of a system of radial dikes, metal zonation, and alteration mineral patterns centered on the stock. The outflow Porco Tuff to the north underlies the 6 to 9 Ma ash-flow tuffs of the Los Frailes volcanic field.The Porco deposit consists of steeply dipping irregular and curvilinear veins that cut the intracaldera Porco Tuff about 1 km east of the Huayna Porco stock. Major veins are generally less than a meter wide and as much as 2 km long. Most of the veins, especially the most productive ones, together with a small stock, dike, and breccia pipe, are aligned along the structural margin (ring fracture) of the caldera. The ore deposit is zoned around the Huayna Porco stock--cassiterite is generally close to the stock, and base metals, mostly as sphalerite and galena, are farther away, along the ring fracture veins. The primary Ag minerals, chiefly pyragyrite, acanthite, and stephanite, are most abundant in the upper parts of the veins.Fluid inclusions in sphalerite stalactites have homogenization temperatures of about 225 degrees C and salinities of about 8 wt percent NaCl equiv. The stalactites and the presence of sparse vapor-rich inclusions suggest deposition of sphalerite under boiling conditions. Modeling the depth of formation below the water table indicates that the present ground surface is close to the surface that existed at the time of mineralization.

Economic Geology↗
USGS1982

Mineral resource potential map of the Mokelumne Wilderness and contiguous roadless areas, central Sierra Nevada, California

Under the provisions of the Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577, September 3, 1964) and the Joint Conference Report on Senate Bill 4, 88th Congress, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines have been conducting mineral surveys of wilderness and primitive areas. Areas officially designated as "wilderness," "wild," or "canoe" when the act was passed were incorporated into the National Wilderness Preservation System, and some of them are presently being studied. The act provided that areas under consideration for wilderness designation should be studied for suitability for incorporation into the Wilderness System. The mineral surveys constitute one aspect of suitability studies. The act directs that the results of such surveys are to be made available to the public and be submitted to the President and the Congress. This report discusses the results of a mineral survey of the Mokelumne Wilderness, El Dorado National Forest, Amador, Calaveras and Alpine Counties, California and Caples Creek, Raymond Peak, and Tragedy-Elephants Back Roadless Areas, Alpine, Amador, Ca 1 aver as, and El Dorado Counties, California. The Mokelumne Wilderness was established by Public Law 88-577, September 3, 1964, the Roadless Areas were classified as further planning areas during the Second Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE II) by the U.S. Forest Service, 1979.

California↗
USGS1982

Preliminary report on the geology and gold mineralization of the Gold Basin-Lost Basin mining districts, Mohave County, Arizona

The Gold Basin-Lost Basin mining districts are adjacent to each other in northwestern Arizona, south of Lake Mead, and just west of the Grand Wash Cliffs. Most recorded production from lode deposits is credited to mines in the Gold Basin district, which is in the southern White Hills, whereas the bulk of the placer production has been from placers worked along the eastern flank of the Lost Basin range, about 16 km to the northeast across Hualapai Valley. Gold in quartz veins apparently was first discovered in the 1870's. Recorded production from the districts between 1901 and 1942 includes 13,508 oz gold and 6,857 oz silver, and this recorded production has a dollar value of about $359,000 of which 98 percent is credited to gold. Most known occurrences of lode gold in the districts are associated with widespread quartz-cored pegmatite-vein systems, presumably emplaced episodically during Proterozoic X, Proterozoic Y, and Late Cretaceous time into Proterozoic X metamorphic and igneous rocks. The bulk of the veins apparently were emplaced during the Late Cretaceous, and they were localized along both high- and low-angle structures in the Proterozoic X terrane. These veins appear to be associated genetically with presumably Late Cretaceous, two-mica magmatism. A Late Cretaceous two-mica monzogranite crops out in an approximately 4 to 5 km 2 area in the southern part of the Gold Basin district and includes some facies of episyenite. Some gold is found also in small episyenitic alteration pipes, or in veins caught up tectonically along a regionally extensive, low-angle detachment surface which crops out prominently in the southern White Hills, and has been traced for at least 30 km along the western flank of the White Hills. Hydrothermal micas from selected veins in the districts give K-Ar ages of 822, 712, 69, 68, and 65 m.y. (million years), and from the pipes, ages of 130 and 127 m.y. The oldest ages (822 and 712 m.y.) presumably reflect resetting of veins that probably were emplaced penecontemporaneous with emplacement of the 1,400-m.y. granite of Gold Butte, which crops out just to the north of Lake Mead. The latter ages (130 and 127 m.y.) must reflect either the presence of excess radiogenic argon in the hydrothermal environment of the evolving pipes, or contamination of the dated mineral separates by Proterozoic mica and (or) feldspar. Primary white mica from the two-mica monzogranite gives a K-Ar age of 72 m.y.. Most occurrences of gold in the veins and pipes probably reflect either remobilization of gold from gold-bearing, near-surface Proterozoic source areas, or anatectic incorporation of gold into Late Cretaceous, two-mica magmas from very deep gold-bearing Proterozoic sources. Deposition of gold occurred in a mesothermal environment during the galena-, chalcopyrite-, ferroan-carbonate-bearing stages of the veins. Homogenization studies of fluid inclusions prominent in the veins and pipes yield temperatures mostly in the range 150 to 280°C. Early-stage, trapping temperatures at the pipes probably were about 330°C and pressures in the range 500 to 700 bars can be inferred. Fluids were moderately saline, mostly 4 to 16 weight percent NaC1 equivalent, nonboiling, and also contain appreciable amounts of carbon dioxide and, in places, fluorine. Such fluids associated with the deposition of gold in these districts largely bridge the fluid composition interval between many other epithermal precious-metal and porphyry coper deposits. Approximately 350 compositional analyses obtained from native-gold samples from 20 mines in the Gold Basin district and 48 veins in the Lost Basin district show silver contents that range from 6 to approximately 50 weight percent, and copper from 0.01 to 0.5 weight percent. Metal zonation and possible relation to a porphyry copper system at depth can be inferred from some of these chemical data. The differences in the composition of placer gold from 24 occurrences in the Lost Basin district from that of nearby lode sources suggest that other sources contributed gold to the placers or that locally derived grains were enriched by oxidation and weathering of the lodes.

Arizona↗