Understanding the relations between faults and the flow of thermal fluids is key to successful exploration for new geothermal resources in Dixie Valley and other Basin and Range geothermal systems. Mapping fault patterns within these basins and recognizing their connections at depth are key to improving this understanding. However, most of the faults are shallowly buried, making them difficult to locate and map. Moreover, drill holes and seismic profiles cannot give a comprehensive view of fault attitudes and patterns because the information they provide is only for limited areas.

The U.S. Congress directed the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to develop a program plan for its mineral-resource activities. In 1995, the USGS completed the Mineral Resource Surveys Program (MRSP) plan requested by Congress (Appendix A). To obtain an independent review of the five-year MRSP plan, the U.S. Geological Survey, in a letter from Dr. Willis H. White, the Chief of the USGS Office of Mineral Resources, requested in July, 1995, that the National Research Council (NRC) evaluate the MRSP plan and recommend improvements.

Exceptional oblique-dip exposures of submarine fan complexes of the Brushy Canyon Fm. allow reconstruction of channel geometries and reservoir architecture from the slope to the basin floor. The Brushy Canyon conslsts of 1,500 ft. of basinally restricted sandstones and siltstones that onlap older carbonate slope deposits at the NW margin of the Delaware Basin.

The geologic story of North America is a fascinating one. It’s also more than 4 billion years long—much more than we could ever hope to cover here. However, if you’re curious about the world around you, enjoy the big-picture perspective, and are interested in some of the processes that are constantly reshaping our planet, here’s a crash course on the basics. It’s a good place to start on your aerial tour of the continent’s most breathtaking landforms.

Macroseismic effects of the principal earthquakes occurring in the United States from 1568 through 1989 are described. Principal earthquakes are defined as those of Modified Mercalli intensity > VI or Richter magnitude > 4.5. Exceptions are the State of Alaska and the offshore areas of California, Oregon, and Washington, where the magnitude cutoff is > 5.5.

Since the arrival of European colonists in New York, the extraction of mineral wealth has been an important societal goal. Mining, then and now, provides the raw materials for consumer goods. Iron was used for cooking utensils and stoves, among other things. It was the basis for many construction projects. The availability of “hydraulic” cement was as important in the success of the Erie Canal as it is to the maintenance of the New York State Thruway. Mines provided materials to improve the standard of living of the populace. Late nineteenth century clay mines in the Hudson River Valley provided clay to make literally billions of bricks used to replace the highly flammable wooden building materials of New York City. The State of New York has, since the 1980s, ranked about fifteenth in the nation in terms of mineral value extracted annually.

Duane Allan Smith has been called many things, but no one can deny he is Colorado’s most prolific historian, surpassing even the late, great LeRoy Hafen. The Trail of Gold and Silver is Smith’s fiftieth book. The University Press of Colorado’s Timberline Books series, which features the best current work on Colorado as well as classic reprints, proudly presents this master historian’s survey of 150 years of Colorado gold and silver mining. <...>

The quaternary of the United States THE QUATERNARY PERIOD of geologic time encompasses the last ice age proper (Pleistocene Epoch) and subsequent time (Holocene or Recent Epoch). The Quaternary is unique among the geologic periods for the relative perfection of its stratigraphic record—and thus for the unmatched opportunity it affords to decipher historical details with an accuracy impossible for earlier periods. The framework of the continents even in early-Quaternary time resembled that of the present so closely that major relations of land and sea and their effects on the general circulation of the atmosphere were probably very like those of the present, except perhaps when world-wide lowering of sea level exposed continental shelves or created significant land bridges between continents and arctic islands. Reconstructions of past conditions therefore may be controlled by a geographic framework relatively easy to visualize. <...>