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At least 379 records · Page 21Linked to original sources
USGS1963

Preliminary report on the geology and hydrology of Mortandad Canyon near Los Alamos, New Mexico, with reference to disposal of liquid low-level radioactive waste

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, selected the upper part of Mortandad Canyon near Los Alamos, New Mexico for a site for disposal of treated liquid low-level radioactive waste. This report summarizes the part of a study of the geology and hydrology that was done from October 1960 through June 1961. Additional work is being continued. Mortandad Canyon is a narrow east-southeast-trending canyon about 9? miles long that heads on the central part of the Pajarito Plateau at an altitude of about 7,340 feet. The canyon is tributary to the Rio Grande. The drainage area of the part of Mortandad Canyon that was investigated is about 2 square miles, and the total drainage area is about 4.9 square miles. The Pajarito Plateau is capped by the Bandelier Tuff of Pleistocene age. Mortandad Canyon is cut in the Bandelier, and alluvium covers the floor of the canyon to depths ranging from less than 1 foot to as much as 100 feet. The Bandelier is underlain by silt, sand, conglomerate, and interbedded basalt of the Santa Fe Group of Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene(?) age. Some ground water is perched in the alluvium in the canyon; however, the top of the main aquifer is in the Santa Fe Group at a depth of about 990 feet below the canyon floor. Joints in the Bandelier Tuff probably were caused by shrinkage of the tuff during cooling. The joints range in width from hairline cracks to fissures several inches wide. Water can infiltrate along the open joints where the Bandelier is at the surface; however, soil, alluvial fill, and autochthonous clay inhibit infiltration on the tops of mesas and probably in the alluvium-floored canyons also. Thirty-three test holes, each less than 100 feet deep, were drilled in 10 lies across Mortandad Canyon from the western margin of the study area to just west of the Los Alamos-Santa Fe County line. Ten of the holes were cased for observation wells to measure water levels and collect water samples from the alluvium. Twenty-three of the holes were cased to seal out water and were used as access tubes to accommodate a neutron-neutron probe for determining the moisture content of the alluvium and tuff. The source of recharge for the perched ground-water body in the alluvium in Mortandad Canyon is the precipitation in the drainage area of the canyon. During the winter of 1960-61, a snowpack 1-2 feet thick accumulated in the narrow shaded upper part of the canyon. The alluvium below the snowpack received some recharge because of diurnal melting during the winter. In March 1961 the snowmelt water saturated most of the thin alluvium in the upper part of the canyon, and a surface stream began to flow on the alluvium. The maximum flow of the stream was about 250 gpm (gallons per minute). Water from the stream infiltrated the alluvium at the front of the stream and in the reach upstream from the front. A ground-water mound was formed beneath the channel by water infiltrating from the stream. The front of the stream and the front of the ground-water mound advanced eastward to about the middle of the area studied. From this point eastward, the alluvium was thick enough to absorb and transmit the amount of flow in 1961. Late in April the front of the stream retreated, and by the first of May the flow stopped. During and after this period the ground-water mound decayed, and ground-water levels declined in the upper part of the canyon as water drained into the channel and downgradient through the alluvium. The amount of recharge was small in the wide lower part of the canyon during the period of study. The rise in ground-water levels and the increase in moisture content of the alluvium in the lower part of the canyon indicate that water moved downgradient by underflow through the alluvium from the recharge area in the upper part of the canyon. Moisture measurements indicate that only a little water moved into the underlyin

Open-File Report↗
USGS1963

Large uraniferous springs and associated uranium minerals, Shirley Mountains, Carbon County, Wyoming -- A preliminary report

Ten springs along the southeast flank of the Shirley Mountains, Carbon County, Wyoming, have water containing from 12 to 27 parts per billion uranium, have a total estimated flow of 3 million gallons of clear fresh water per day, and have a combined annual output that may be as much as 166 pounds of uranium. These springs emerge from Pennsylvanian, Permian, and Triassic rocks on the east flank of a faulted anticlinal fold. In the vicinity of several springs, metatyuyamunite occurs locally in crystalline calcite veins averaging 3 feet in width but reaching a maximum of 24 feet. The veins are as much as several hundred feet long-and cut vertically through sandstones of Pennsylvanian age overlying the Madison Limestone (Mississippian). This limestone is believed to be the source of the calcite. A 3-foot channel sample cross one calcite vein contains 0.089 percent uranium. Lesser amounts of uranium were obtained from other channel samples. Selected samples contain from 0.39 to 2.2 percent uranium and from 0.25 to 0.86 percent vanadium. Three possible sources of the uranium are: (1) Precambrian rocks, (2) Paleozoic rocks, (3) Pliocene(?) tuffaceous strata that were deposited unconformably across older .rocks in both the graphically high and low parts of the area, but were subsequently removed by erosion except for a few small remnants, one of which contains carnotite. There is apparently a close genetic relation between the uraniferous springs and uranium mineralization in the calcite veins. Data from this locality illustrate how uraniferous ground water can be used as a guide in the exploration for areas where uranium deposits may occur. Also demonstrated is the fact that significant quantities of uranium are present in water of some large flowing springs.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1964

Preliminary report on the geologic and geophysical investigations of the Loveland Basin landslide, Clear Creek County, Colorado

Geologic and geophysical investigations of the Loveland Basin landslide, which formed at the cut for the east portal of the Straight Creek tunnel, were made by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Public Road and the Colorado Department of Highways. The investigations indicate that the slide has a probable minimum volume of 500,000 cubic yards weighing 1,000,000 tons and probable maximum volume of 770,000 cubic yards weighing 1,600,000 tons.

Colorado↗
USGS1964

Preliminary report on tests of the application of geophysical methods to Arctic ground water problems

Seismic refraction and electrical resistivity surveys were made during the summer and fall of 1952 in the Tanana Valley near Fairbanks, Alaska, as part of the studies of the application of geophysical techniques to ground-water problems in Alaska instigated in 1951 by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Laboratories. Work centered around the highway junctions at Fairbanks, Big Delta, and Tok. It was found that both survey methods defined the horizontal extent of the frozen ground and both were capable of determining the depth to the top of the permafrost but neither regularly yielded reliable information on the material beneath the top of the permafrost. The greatest need at present is for a thorough examination of data obtained in the field seasons of 1948 and 1952. Two fundamental theoretical investigations are desirable: (1) examination of the attenuation of longitudinal waves traveling through a thin layer, and (2) further development of the theoretical multilayer resistivity interpretation of problems in which the second layer has a very high resistivity. Further field work should include: (1) tests of the U.S. Geological Survey's new shallow-reflection seismograph; (2) a brief test of electromagnetic equipment; (3) additional resistivity measurements with commutated current; and (4) both seismic and resistivity measurements in areas where the bedrock possesses different physical properties from the schist usually found in interior Alaska. It is doubtful that geophysical techniques are sufficiently developed to be valuable for use by Army personnel in prospecting for ground water in areas of thick permafrost.

Alaska↗
USGS1965

Preliminary report on investigation of salt springs and seeps in a portion of the Permian Basin in Texas

The Permian Basin (fig. 1) comprises a large area in the southern midcontinent region and includes major portions of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Within this basin brine springs and seeps discharge more than 20,000 tons per day of sodium chloride (common table salt). This brine contaminates many streams greatly impairing the utility of their waters. The water in some streams is of such poor quality it cannot be used for municipal and industrial purposes and for irrigation. Nor is the problem limited to the Permian Basin. The contaminated streams leaving the Permian Basin bring salty water to downstream areas of Arkansas and Louisiana, as well as to other parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. In no comparable area of the interior United States are natural sources of salt water so widespread or deleterious to the fresh water supply of so large a segment of the nation's population and industry. The Brazos River traverses the eastern part of the Permian Basin, and is potentially one of the principal sources of water in Texas. It carries an average daily load of 1,650 tons of sodium chloride (common table salt) into Possum Kingdom Reservoir, about 110 miles west of Dallas. More than 85 percent of this salt is contributed by the Salt Fork Brazos River, and more than one-half originates from Springs and seeps in Croton and Salt Croton Creeks, tributaries to the Salt Fork Brazos River. The undesirably high chloride content of the water impounded in Possum Kingdom Reservoir limits the utility of this water, although it is used for irrigation and by some industries. Understanding of the origin and hydrology of the natural brine is fundamental to consideration of engineering measures to control the flow of salt water to streams, or to general plans to alleviate the situation in any way that includes altering the brine-discharge system. Previous investigations of natural brine features have been directed toward describing the local details of individual problem areas. Thus the occurrence of brine features has been described strictly in terms of the local environment. The origin and discharge of brine have been ascribed invariably to local sources and to local hydraulic controls. The case for local origin of the brine has been stated by Ward and Leonard (1961). According to their hypothesis brines evolve in the circulation of ground water in local hydraulic systems which feature the following conditions: (a) halite deposits or halite-bearing rocks at relatively shallow depth; (b) ground water that circulates to the halite-bearing zones; and (c) a local topographically low area where the water can emerge as a mineral spring. An alternate hypothesis (Greenman and Stevens, 1963) is that the salt springs originate as outcrops of a regional body of brine and that the primary factors determining their distribution are regional hydrologic controls, such as physiography, geology, and climate. The precise location of springs, the nature and amount of discharge, as well as their salinity, depend on secondary hydrologic factors, such as local geologic conditions, local topography that governs the movement of the overlying fresh water, and the hydrologic environment in the vicinity of the springs, which determines the amount of mixing of the brine and the fresh water at each locality. In general, the brine is a water body separate and distinct from the overlying fresh water. The salinity of individual springs is determined by the amount of mixing of the brine with the fresh water not by solution of salt-bearing materials in local hydraulic systems. The geographic zone in which all of the brine springs and seeps occur is determined by regional topographic and perhaps climatic conditions. If the regional hypothesis is true, remedial measures must take into account a set of hydraulic and hydrologic circumstances that is fundamentally different from that postulated previously.

Texas↗