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Geology topics

V.E. McKelvey

Publications and source records attributed to V.E. McKelvey.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS1955

Preliminary geologic map of the Paris-Bloomington vanadium area, Bear Lake County, Idaho

The Permian Phosphoria formation in the vicinity of the towns of Paris and Bloomington, Bear Lake County, Idaho, contains large tannages of vanadiferous mudstone and phosphorite. The area underlain by these rocks was mapped in 1943 as a guide to the exploration of the vanadiferous zone then being conducted by the Wyodak Coal and Manufacturing Company, agent for the Metals Reserve Company. Pending publication of the full data acquired during these studies, the geologic maps are made available here in preliminary form as an aid to any who contemplate mining in the area.

Idaho↗
USGS1953

Domestic phosphate deposits

Most of the worlds phosphate deposits can be grouped into six types: 1) igneous apatite deposits; 2) marine phosphorites; 3) residual phosphorites; 4) river pebble deposits; 5) phosphatized rock; and 6) guano. The igneous apatites and marine phosphorites form deposits measurable in millions or billions of tons; the residual deposits are measurable in thousands or millions; and the other types generally only in thousands of tons. Igneous apatite deposits have been mined on a small scale in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. Marine phosphorites have been mined in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Residual phosphorites have been mined in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Florida. River pebble has been produced in South Carolina and Florida; phosphatized rock in Tennessee and Florida; and guano in New Mexico and Texas. Present production is limited almost entirely to Florida, Tennessee, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Incomplete but recently partly revised estimates indicate the presence of about 5 billion tons of phosphate deposits in the United States that is minable under present economic conditions. Deposits too lean in quality or thickness to compete with those in the western and southeastern fields probably contain tens of billions of tons.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1952

The Permian phosphorite deposits of western United States

The Permian marine phosphorite deposits of the western United States were laid down in the Phosphoria formation and its partial stratigraphic equivalents over an area of about 135,000 square miles in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. The deposits in the eastern part of the field lie on the western margin of the structurally simple North American craton. The rocks there consist of a few thin, locally glauconitic, nodular phosphorites, generally containing less than 30 percent P 2 0 5 , interbedded with nodular limestones, calcareous mudstones, and sandstones. Eastward these marine beds tongue out into continental redbeds. The deposits in the western part of the field are a part of the complexly folded Cordilleran miogeosyncline. The facies there are of a deeper-water type and include thick phosphorite layers containing as much as 35 percent P 2 0 5 b lack phosphatic mudstones, limestones, and well-bedded black cherts. The phosphorite deposits are composed chiefly of colloform carbonate-fluorapatite, quartz, and clay. In addition to phosphorus, they contain several minor elements that are of potential economic interest. The most important of these are fluorine, vanadium, chromium, nickel, rare earths, zinc, and uranium.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1951

Stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation in Idaho

The first of a series of reports giving detailed stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation in the Western phosphate field as measured and described by the Geological Survey will be released as Circulars within the next few months. Because of the needs of industry for many of these data during the 1951 field season, and in view of the unavoidable delays attendant on publication, the tabular data to be included in these Circulars are hereby placed on open file in simple reproduction form (prepared by Ozalid from photographic negatives) and without explanatory text so that immediate use may be made of the data. The tables include data on sections in four states: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah; and the tables for each of these states are bound together as individual reports. The tables include name and location of section measured, brief description of geologic setting, acknowledgments for field and analytical work, abstract data on the sections (bed number, rock name, sample number, and thickness), and analytical data on the samples. The analytical data include reports on P 2 O 5 and acid insoluble for all samples and additional analyses, such as Al 2 0 3 , Fe 7 0 3 , loss on ignition, F, and V 2 O 5 , for selected samples. Spectrographic analyses for a large number of elements are included samples from selected localities, and special analyses have been made of a few samples. These reports are placed on open file at the offices of the Geological Survey in Washington, D. C., Spokane, Washington, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Montpelier, Idaho, and at the offices of the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, Moscow, Idaho, the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Butte, Montana, and the Wyoming Geological Survey, Laramie, Wyoming, and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Idaho↗
USGS1951

Stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation in Utah

The first of a series of reports giving detailed stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation in the Western phosphate field as measured and described by the Geological Survey will be released as Circulars within the next few months. Because of the needs of industry for many of these data during the 1951 field season, and in view of the unavoidable delays attendant on publication: the tabular data to be included in these Circulars are hereby placed on open file in simple reproduction form (prepared by Ozalid from photographic negatives) and without explanatory text so that immediate use may be made of the data. The tables include data on sections in four states: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah; and the tables for each of these states are bound together as individual reports. The tables include name and location of section measured, brief description of geologic setting, acknowledgments for field and analytical work, abstract data on the sections (bed number, rock name, sample number, and thickness), and analytical data or the samples. The analytical data include reports on P 2 O 5 and acid insoluble for all samples and additional analyses, such as Al 2 0 3 , Fe 7 0 3 , loss on ignition, F, and V 2 O 5 , for selected samples. Spectrographic analyses for a large number of elements are included for samples from selected localities, and special analyses have been made of a few samples. These reports are placed on open file at the offices of the Geological Survey in Washington, D. C., Spokane, Washington, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Montpelier, Idaho, and at the offices of the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, Moscow, Idaho, the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Butte, Montana, and the Wyoming Geological Survey, Laramie, Wyoming, and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Utah↗
USGS1951

Stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation in Wyoming

The first of a series of reports giving detailed stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation in the Western phosphate field as measured and described by the Geological Survey will be released as Circulars within the next few months. Because of the needs of industry for many of these data during the 1951 field season, and in view of the unavoidable delays attendant on publication, the tabular data to be included in these Circulars are hereby placed on open file in simple reproduction form (prepared by Ozalid from photographic negatives) and without explanatory text so that immediate use may be made of the data. The tables include data on sections in four states: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah; and the tables for each of these states are bound together as individual reports. The tables include name and location of section measured, brief description of geologic setting, acknowledgments for field and analytical work, abstract data on the sections (bed number, rock name, sample number, and thickness), and analytical data on the samples. The analytical data include reports on P 2 O 5 and acid insoluble for all samples and additional analyses, such as Al 2 0 3 , Fe 7 0 3 , loss on ignition, F, and V 2 O 5 , for selected samples. Spectrographic analyses for a large number of elements are included 2 5, for samples from selected localities, and special analyses have been made of a few samples. These reports are placed on open file at the offices of the Geological Survey in Washington, D. C., Spokane, Washington, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Montpelier, Idaho, and at the offices of the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, Moscow, Idaho, the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Butte, Montana, and the Wyoming Geological Survey, Laramie, Wyoming, and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Wyoming↗
USGS1948

Distribution of coastal black-sands in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, as mapped from an airplane

Black-sand beach concentrates are more widely distributed along the beaches of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia than has been recorded heretofore, as shown by a map prepared by airplane reconnaissance. The map shows also that the black sands diminish in abundance northward, that their distribution is in part related to the configuration of the shoreline, and that they are found only on beaches along the open sea.

Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina↗