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Results for “Rocks & Minerals”

Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

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At least 1,135 records · Page 63Linked to original sources
USGS2014

Comparative mineral chemistry and textures of SAFOD fault gouge and damage-zone rocks

Creep in the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) drillhole is localized to two foliated gouges, the central deforming zone (CDZ) and southwest deforming zone (SDZ). The gouges consist of porphyroclasts of serpentinite and sedimentary rock dispersed in a foliated matrix of Mg-smectite clays that formed as a result of shearing-enhanced reactions between the serpentinite and quartzofeldspathic rocks. The CDZ takes up most of the creep and exhibits differences in mineralogy and texture from the SDZ that are attributable to its higher shearing rate. In addition, a ∼0.2-m-wide sector of the CDZ at its northeastern margin (NE-CDZ) is identical to the SDZ and may represent a gradient in creep rate across the CDZ. The SDZ and NE-CDZ have lower clay contents and larger porphyroclasts than most of the CDZ, and they contain veinlets and strain fringes of calcite in the gouge matrix not seen elsewhere in the CDZ. Matrix clays in the SDZ and NE-CDZ are saponite and corrensite, whereas the rest of the CDZ lacks corrensite. Saponite is younger than corrensite, reflecting clay crystallization under declining temperatures, and clays in the more actively deforming portions of the CDZ have better equilibrated to the lower-temperature conditions.

California↗
USGS1989

Mineral occurrence and drill-hole location map of the International Falls 1 degree by 2 degrees quadrangle, Minnesota and Ontario

A project to assess the mineral potential of the U.S. part of the International Fall 1° x 2° quadrangle was undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in the early 1984, as part of the Conterminous United States Mineral Assessment Program (CUSMAP). Because glacial drift covers most of the basement rocks south of the U.S.-Canada border and mineral production in this part of Minnesota has been virtually nonexistent, data from the adjacent part of Ontario has been used to understand the geologic framework and to evaluate mineral-deposit models relevant to the assessment of the U.S. part of the International Falls quadrangle. This map and accompanying tables show the locations of mineral occurrences, prospects and mines in both Canada and the United States, and summarize their lithologic association and the characteristic metals found in them. Locations of drill holes within the United States and completed before 1987 are also included on the map.

Minnesota, Ontario↗
USGS2015

Second Projet de Renforcement Institutionnel du Secteur Minier de la République Islamique de Mauritanie (PRISM-II) Phase V

In 1996, at the request of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists produced a strategic plan for the acquisition, improvement and modernization of multidisciplinary sets of data to support the growth of the Mauritanian minerals sector and to highlight the geological and mineral exploration potential of the country. In 1999, the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania implemented a program for the acquisition of the recommended basic geoscientific information, termed the first Projet de Renforcement Institutionnel du Secteur Minier (Project for Institutional Capacity Building in the Mining Sector, PRISM-I). As a result of the PRISM-I efforts, a great deal of new geological, geophysical, geochemical, remote sensing, and hydrological data became available for evaluation and synthesis. However, the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines recognized that additional work was required to extract the full benefit of the data before it could be of greatest use to the international community and of benefit to the Mauritanian minerals and development sector. To achieve this benefit, the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines implemented a second Projet de Renforcement Institutionnel du Secteur Minier (PRISM-II) in 2006 to consolidate, synthesize, and interpret all of the existing data, create a new 1:1,000,000 scale geologic map, and define the mineral resource potential of the country. A consortium in which the USGS was the lead scientific agency carried out the majority of the PRISM-II work. In 2008, the USGS Mauritania Minerals Project was interrupted due to political changes in Mauritania. PRISM-II work resumed in 2011, and was completed in 2013 with the delivery of over 40 separate written reports and plates, an access file containing the Mauritanian National Mineral Deposits Database, and an interactive GIS containing all of the multi-disciplinary data and interpretive areas of mineral resource potential in Mauritania. This report contains the USGS results of the PRISM-II Mauritania Minerals Project and is presented in cooperation with the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. The Report is composed of separate chapters consisting of multidisciplinary interpretive reports with accompanying plates on the geology, structure, geochronology, geophysics, hydrogeology, geochemistry, remote sensing (Landsat TM and ASTER), and SRTM and ASTER digital elevation models of Mauritania. The syntheses of these multidisciplinary data formed the basis for additional chapters containing interpretive reports on 12 different commodities and deposit types known to occur in Mauritania, accompanied by countrywide mineral resource potential maps of each commodity/deposit type. The commodities and deposit types represented include: (1) Ni, Cu, PGE, and Cr deposits hosted in ultramafic rocks; (2) orogenic, Carlin-like, and epithermal gold deposits; (3) polymetallic Pb-Zn-Cu vein deposits; (4) sediment-hosted Pb-Zn-Ag deposits of the SEDEX and Mississippi Valley-type; (5) sediment-hosted copper deposits; ( 6) volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits; (7) iron oxide copper-gold deposits; (8) uranium deposits; (9) Algoma-, Superior-, and oolitic-type iron deposits; (10) shoreline Ti-Zr placer deposits; (11) incompatible element deposits hosted in pegmatites, alkaline rocks, and carbonatites, and; (12) industrial mineral deposits. Additional chapters include the Mauritanian National Mineral Deposits Database are accompanied by an explanatory text and the Mauritania Minerals Project GIS that contains all of the interpretive layers created by USGS scientists. Raw data not in the public domain may be obtained from the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Open-File Report↗