Geologic hazards represent substantial danger to humans and their works. The hazards may exist as a consequence of natural events, but often they are the result of human activities. Slope failures, such as landslides and avalanches, can occur in almost any hilly or mountainous terrain, or offshore, often with a very frequent incidence of occurrence, and can be very destructive, at times catastrophic.

Geologic maps are among the basic tools used by anyone who wants to gain an understanding of the surface and shallow subsurface of the earth. They provide information about the types of materials that are present and the configuration of those materials in three dimensions.

The Carlin trend in northeastern Nevada forms the largest and most productive accumulation of gold deposits in North America. Teal and Jackson (1997b) reported a gold endowment that by the end of 1996 included past production, reserves, resources, and mineral inventory of over 107 million ounces (3,330 t [metric tons]). More than 40 separate deposits have been delineated since disseminated gold mineralization in carbonate host rocks was first discovered by Newmont geologists John Livermore and Alan Coope in 1961. From their original discovery, a classification for this style of gold mineralization has come to be referred to as “Carlin-type” deposits. By early 2002, more than 50 million ounces (1,560 t) of gold had been recovered on the Carlin trend from 26 separate operating or past producing mines. Open-pit mining began in 1965 at the Carlin Mine, and underground mining began in 1993 on the same deposit.

The scope of this paper is to present a regional geologic setting of the Carlin trend. As part of the concluding discussion, a spectrum of Carlin trend deposit types is categorized to illustrate the relative influence of structural and stratigraphic controls on each deposit.

The geological (endogenic and exogenic) processes operating in interior and exterior domains of earth are bringing dynamic changes in the lithospheric and geomorphic terrains of this planet since its origin. The interplay of magmatic, tectonometamorphic and metallogenic processes is continuously evolving new continental and oceanic plates (blocks) enriched with magmatic plume and economic minerals. The diverging and converging margins of these blocks were stressed and formed orogenic mobile belts and mountains.