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Research about Nevada, Utah

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Nevada, Utah.

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Helium concentrations in soil gas of the Ely and Delta 1° x 2° quadrangles, Basin and Range Province

A reconnaissance soil-gas helium survey was made of the Ely, Nevada and Delta, Utah 1? x 2? quadrangles in the Basin and Range Province. Helium concentrations in 510 samples ranged from -147 to 441 ppb He with respect to ambient air. The median helium value for the study area was 36 ppb. Concentrations of more than 100 ppb He, and less than -20 ppb He, occur more commonly in the Ely Quadrangle and are especially numerous in the western one-half of this quadrangle. The data are presented both in figures and tables, and some of the geologic factors that may affect the helium distribution are discussed.

Nevada, Utah

Hydrologic reconnaissance of Pilot Valley, Utah and Nevada

This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights, is the twelfth in a series of reports that describe the water resources of the western basins of Utah. (See fig. 1.) Its purpose is to present available hydrologic data on the Pilot Valley area, to provide an evaluation of the potential for water-resource development in the area, and to identify studies that would improve understanding of the area's water supply.

Nevada, Utah

Paleomagnetic correlations and Potassium-Argon dating of Middle Tertiary ash-flow sheets in the eastern Great Basin, Nevada and Utah

Directions of natural remanent magnetization are used to identify and correlate individual cooling units in the middle Tertiary ash-flow province in central and eastern Nevada and western Utah. Potassium-argon dating indicates that the minimum time between eruptions of individual but genetically related ash-flow cooling units is on the order of 0.8 m.y. As this interval is long in comparison with the secular variation of the direction of the geomagnetic field, in a given volcanic province the direction of natural thermoremanent magnetization is a unique characteristic of each cooling unit. Ash-flow sheets investigated include the Stone Cabin Formation, the tuff of Pancake Summit, the Windous Butte Formation, the Needles Range Formation, the Bates Mountain Tuff, and the tuff of Clipper Gap, of Oliogcene to early Miocene age. The original areas of individual ash-flow cooling units are as great as 8,000 km 2 ; the volumes, 1,300 km 3 . The paleomagnetic correlations, made over distances up to 200 km, confirm most of the previously made lithologic correlations and allow more accurate delineation of single cooling units. These correlations are particularly useful in those parts of the Basin and Range province where the Tertiary stratigraphic section consists mainly of ash-flow sheets, and the outcrops are confined to mountain ranges that are separated by alluvium-filled valleys.

Nevada, Utah

Hydrologic reconnaissance of Deep Creek valley, Tooele and Juab Counties, Utah and Elko and White Pine Counties, Nevada

This report, the fourth in a series by the U. S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights, describes water resources of the western basins of Utah. Its purpose is to present available hydrologic data on Deep Creek valley, to provide an evaluation of the potential water-resource development of the valley, and to identify needed studies that would help provide an understanding of the valley's water supply.

Nevada, Utah

Preliminary geologic section from Pahute Mesa, Nevada Test Site, to Enterprise, Utah

The 154-mile long geologic cross section trends nearly perpendicular to the structural grain of the Basin-Range province in Nevada, and in Utah extends eastward into the transition zone between the Basin-Range and Colorado Plateau provinces. The structure is characterized by complex thrust: faults, involving uppermost Precambrian to lower Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, and normal faults which cut: the thick sequence of Tertiary volcanic rocks as well as older rocks. Some of the normal faults are the result of caldera collapse. The principal normal faults trend northerly west: of Delamar, Nev., and form north-trending basins and ranges. Farther east the principal faults trend northwesterly, and form a moderately rugged highland rather than distinct basins and ranges. The uppermost Precambrian-Paleozoic strata thin markedly eastward across the region. The pre-Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks vary from 32,500 feet: in thickness at the Nevada Test: Site (Harley Barnes, E. N. Hinrichs, F. A. McKeown and P. P. Orkild, written commun., 1963) to 4,500 feet: in the Beaver Dam Mountains in western Utah (Cook, 1960). Thick Mesozoic deposits, similar to those of the Colorado Plateau, are present in western Utah, but are represented in eastern Nevada by only thin patches of Triassic rock.

Nevada, Utah

Water-resources appraisal of the Snake Valley area, Utah and Nevada

The Snake Valley area is a north-trending narrow depression that extends about 135 miles along the central Nevada-Utah border. The area covers about 3,480 square miles. Within the area, the principal ground-water reservoir is in the unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary and Tertiary age that underlie about 1.2 million acres. Carbonate rocks of Paleozoic age may form another reservoir system and locally may control the movement of groundwater.

Nevada, Utah

Lower Permian stratigraphy of east-central Nevada and adjacent Utah

The Permian section near Ely, Nevada, consists of, in ascending order: Riepe Spring Limestone, a bluff-forming limestone with abundant corals, and Reipetown Sandstone, a buff to red very coarse-grained siltstone with minor carbonates, both formations of Steele (1960); Arcturus Formation, divisible into a Lower Member composed of alternating medium-bedded limestone and buff siltstone, and an Upper Member composed of alternating thin-bedded limestone and buff to red siltstone and gypsum; and Kaibab Limestone, a massive bioclastic limestone. The Wolfcamp-Leonard boundary occurs within the Arcturus Formation. West of Ely the Riepe Spring Limestone and Reipetown Sandstone thin and change into thin-bedded cherty limestone. These beds, plus the basal part of the Arcturus Formation, form the Carbon Ridge Formation at Dry Mountain at Eureka. At Dry Mountain, minor clastic chert occurs in the Arcturus Formation, and beyond to the west clastic chert replaces most of the limestone to form the conglomeratic Garden Valley Formation. The cherty limestone at the base of the Garden Valley is apparently equivalent to the upper part of the Carbon Ridge Formation at Carbon Ridge. Eastward in Utah the Riepe Spring Limestone is recognizable in the Confusion Range, but is almost unrecognizable in the Needle Range. The dolomite content in the Reipetown Sandstone usually increases to 25 percent of the formation in the Confusion and Needle ranges. The Arcturus Formation thins and undergoes moderate lithologic changes. It is equivalent to the rocks above a horizon 300 feet below Bed A of the Arcturus Formation as mapped in the Confusion Range by Hose and Repenning (1959, 1963).

Nevada, Utah