Geology Reports⌕ Search

SEARCH · Geology Reports

Results for “Geological Society of America Bulletin”

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

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
USGS1964

Pre-tertiary orogenic and plutonic intrusive activity in central and northeastern Oregon

Pre - Tertiary rocks of the Blue Mountain region of central and northeastern Oregon comprise three major sedimentary and volcanic sequences and two distinct intrusive magma series. The ages of the sedimentary-volcanic sequences are Paleozoic, Late Triassic-Late Jurassic, and middle Cretaceous (Albian to Cenomanian), respectively. The earlier intrusive magma series ranges in composition from peridotite to albite granite and was emplaced during the major orogeny in the Blue Mountain region between earlier Permian and Late Triassic time. The later intrusive magma series is related to the Idaho batholith proper, ranges from gabbro to granodiorite, and probably was emplaced during the earlier half of Cretaceous time. The emplacement of a major intrusive magma series during Permian and Triassic time suggests a much closer relationship to the northern part of the Cordillera, in Canada and Alaska, than to the southern part in southwestern Oregon and California.

Oregon↗
USGS1964

Relation of temperature distribution to ground-water movement in carbonate rocks of central Israel

The Cenomanian-Turonian formations of central Israel constitute a highly permeable dolomite and limestone aquifer. In this area it is on the west limb of an anticlinorium that trends north-northeast, and it contains water under artesian pressure. A graph of water temperatures and well depths suggests that there is a very small vertical temperature gradient in local segments of the aquifer. The small gradient is believed to result from a large vertical component of flow that tends to equalize the vertical temperature distribution . On a regional scale the apparent horizontal temperature distribution indicates a westward increase with increasing depth of the aquifer, suggesting a manifestation of the regional geothermal gradient. The westward increase in temperature also implies that the lateral component of flow may be in the normal range for artesian carbonate - rock aquifers whose pores consist mainly of solution cavities. Locally, pumping appears to have affected the temperature distribution by modifying the natural flow pattern. In parts of the most intensively developed area, the aquifer is hydraulically connected with overlying coastal-plain deposits, and some cooler water has been induced to move into the aquifer from this source. At three other areas, pumping has resulted in an apparent horizontal shift of the isotherms on a temperature - distribution map. The data suggest that the spatial distribution of temperature may be used to determine some of the flow characteristics of carbonate - rock aquifers.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1964

Boulder train of silicified paleozoic wood, southeastern Massachusetts

Pebbles of silicified gymnospermous wood occur widely in the drift of southeastern Massachusetts. An investigation of the distribution of these pebbles shows the bedrock source of the wood to be tuffaceous beds that apparently overlie older granite in the Middleboro-Plympton area, Massachusetts, and are at the base of the Carboniferous rocks of the Narragansett Basin. A second center of distribution of the wood may lie offshore, north of Cape Cod. It is estimated that many thousands of large logs were broken up and carried away from the outcrop by Pleistocene ice sheets in the production of the boulder train. © 1964, The Geological Society of America, Inc.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1964

Officer's cave, a pseudokarst feature in altered tuff and volcanic ash of the John Day formation in eastern Oregon

Officer 's Cave is the uppermost of four rapidly eroding cave levels constituting a cavern complex about 700 feet long developed chiefly in clay and silt. Its outer room is 35 feet by 43.5 feet by 100 feet and slopes about 45° east into the western end of a narrow linear hill called Officer 's Cave Ridge. Dry valleys, blind valleys, hanging valleys, sinkholes, pipes, caves, and natural bridges are abundant. These, together with subterranean drainage, give the area a karstlike development. For such terrains the term " pseudokarst " is applied. These pseudokarsts are the product of piping and are fairly widespread over the world's drylands.

Oregon↗
USGS1964

Late quaternary sea-level change and crustal rise at Boston, Massachusetts, with notes on the autocompaction of peat

The compression of peat beneath its own weight (autocompaction) is discussed, and it is shown that because of this process radiocarbondated samples of salt-marsh peat or peaty sediment, other than very thin samples cut from the base of the deposit, cannot be correlated with sea level without construction of a sea-level change curve from other types of data. With rising sea level there is a maximum thickness of salt-marsh peat for any given productivity of marsh grass. Because of this limitation, most marshes older than about 5500 years B.P. have been drowned. An important effect of peat autocompaction is the intrusion of wood into older peat horizons and the juxtaposition of wood of different ages. Wood, therefore, should be avoided in the dating of peat profiles. The roots of salt-marsh plants generally descend a foot or more beneath the rhizomes, contaminating older horizons insofar as radiocarbon dating is concerned. This contamination tends to make dates from marsh samples err on the young side. Sixteen radiocarbon dates from the Boston area are used to construct a sea-level curve going back to 14,000 years B.P. Relative sea level was at +60 feet or higher 14,000 years B.P., dropping sharply to approximately -70 feet about 10,000 years B.P. From a low of -70 feet, sea level rose steadily to about -2 feet approximately 3000 years B.P. Since then sea level appears to have kept close to its present level, probably fluctuating about a foot during the course of the stillstand. A crustal movement curve, based on the relative sea-level curve for Boston and the eustatic curve, indicates that about 290 feet of crustal rise occurred between 14,000-6000 years B.P., with a maximum rate of uplift of about 0.2 foot per year at 12,750 years B.P., and that from 6000 to 3000 years B.P., crustal subsidence occurred at Boston. © 1964, The Geological Society of America, Inc.

Massachusetts↗
USGS1965

Osmotic equilibrium and overthrust faulting

The two principal suggested modes of facilitating overthrust faulting are (1) lubrication at the sole by evaporite beds or micaceous shales and (2) flotation due to anomalously high (> hydrostatic) pore-water pressures. Past rapid sedimentation and tectonic compression have been suggested as important causes of anomalously high water pressure (Hubbert and Rubey, 1959). We suggest osmosis as another important possibility. Field data on shale beds and experimental studies on compacted clays show that such material can act as semipermeable membranes that greatly retard passage of dissolved electrolytes relative to H 2 O. Equilibrium osmotic pressure, π, across an ideal membrane is given by (a, activity; V H2O 0 1 , molar volume of distilled water). At 80°C, π is 470 bars between saturated halite solution and distilled water; it is 360 bars between saturated and 10 per cent solutions. At 25°C the values are 20 per cent lower. Other dissolved components, if present in similar proportions, will enhance the effect. Anomalous water pressures of at least 400 bars above hydrostatic have been measured in oil wells; many of these wells penetrate evaporites and/or shales which separate formation waters of differing salt concentrations. These pressures are explicable by assuming osmotic equilibrium across a membrane which separates saturated halite solution from solutions up to 10 weight per cent NaCl. Thus, osmotic equilibrium may be an important mechanism for floating thrust sheets. Lubrication of thrust sheets by shales or evaporites and flotation by anomalously high pressures may be simply different manifestations of the same geologic milieu. © 1965, The Geological Society of America, Inc.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1965

Stratigraphy and heavy minerals of the bays formation, Bays Mountain synclinorium, northeast Tennessee

The Bays Mountain synclinorium is in the Valley and Ridge province in northeast Tennessee , southwest of Kingsport and west of Greeneville. The more clastic part of the Bays formation lies in the east section of the synclinorium . The thickness of the Bays decreases from about 870 feet on the east to about 600 feet on the west. Presumably, the red beds and primary features of the Bays formation formed under deltaic conditions. A Camarocladia Zone near its base indicates a time-transgression of the Bays . The Bays is older at the base to the east than at its base to the west. The heavy minerals of the Bays were compared with those of the Cambrian and Precambrian(?) sediments, volcanic rocks, and accessory minerals of the crystalline complex which now comprise the Blue Ridge. The minerals identified include nearly all those in the Cambrian and Precambrian(?) sediments as well as additional minerals not found in these older sediments but that are in the crystalline complex. Such minerals indicate that at least a part of the crystalline complex was above sea level during the Middle Ordovician.

Tennessee↗
USGS1965

Structural geology of aconcagua province and its relationship to the central Valley Graben, Chile

Aconcagua Province is herein divided into three major structural provinces which, for the sake of simplicity, are named the Coastal Cordillera, Central Valley graben , and Andean Cordillera structural provinces to correspond to the three geomorphic provinces recognized farther south. The coastal structural province includes the Coastal Cordillera which is underlain mainly by layered sedimentary and effusive rocks that strike north and dip homoclinally to the east, range from Triassic to Late Cretaceous in age, and are intruded by Cretaceous granodioritic and dioritic rocks. Igneous and metamorphic rocks largely of Paleozoic age comprise the western coastal margin, Along the eastern edge of the province is the Los Angeles fault zone, a wide, poorly defined band of semiparallel, arcuate faults which show downward displacement to the east and which appear to have resulted mainly from intrusion and uplift on the west. The Coastal Cordillera, therefore, may be considered a large horst with an intrusive granodiorite core. The Central Valley graben is bounded on the west by the Los Angeles fault zone and on the east by the Pocuro fault zone. Between these two fault zones is an area 20-30 km wide in which volcanic rocks of Late Cretaceous age are flat lying to gently folded and block faulted. In places, pipelike stocks of andesitic to dioritic igneous rock intrude the area. The Pocuro fault zone is a prominent lineament that marks the eastern limit of the Central Valley at Santiago and has been traced northward for 150 km. It may, however, have a mappable length of more than 1200 km. Vertical displacement downward to the west has been measured near Los Andes to be at least 2000 m. Consequently, this fault zone may rank among the major faults of the world. The Andean structural province is subdivided into the Las Ollas and Juncal subprovinces. The Las Ollas is a mountainous front range that lies east of the Pocuro fault and extends eastward for about 25 km. Upper Cretaceous volcanic strata are gently warped into broad, open, north-trending folds, with local sharp flexures and faulted mainly by normal faults. The eastern part of the subprovince is cut by a narrow belt of Tertiary plutonic rocks, some of which are associated with porphyry copper deposits. The Juncal structural subprovince extends eastward into Argentina. It is typified by close, overturned folding, vertical bedding, and thrust faulting. In general, structural deformation increases in intensity from west to east, with imbricate overthrusting to the east in Argentina. Present evidence indicates that major graben formation began during early Tertiary (pre-Miocene) time as a result of tensional stress developed by strain release of earlier compressional forces that folded the Andes. Post-Miocene uplift of the central Andean region renewed tensional stress and opened deep-seated, north-striking fractures and reinitiated volcanism. Most of the active volcanos of Chile may be aligned along such fractures.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1965

Chemical characteristics of oceanic basalts and the upper mantle

Tholeiitic basalts ( oceanic tholeiites) that form most of the deeply submerged volcanic features in the oceans are characterized by extremely low amounts of Ba, K, P, Pb, Sr, Th, U, and Zr as well as Fe 2 O 3 /FeO < 0.2 and Na/K > 10 in unaltered samples. Oceanic tholeiites also have rare earth abundance-distribution patterns and ratios of K/Rb (1300) and Sr 87 /Sr 86 (0.702) similar to or overlapping those of calcium-rich (basaltic) achondritic meteorites. The close compositional similarities between the oceanic tholeiites and calcium-rich achondrites indicates the relatively primitive nature of the oceanic tholeiites. In contrast, the alkali-rich basalts that cap submarine and island volcanoes are relatively enriched in Ba, K, La, Nb, P, Pb, Pb 206 , Rb, Fe 2 O 3 , Sr, Sr 87 , Ti, Th, U, and Zr; i.e. in the same elements and isotopes that are concentrated in the sialic continental crusts by factors of 5 to 1000 more than the amounts readily inferred in the upper mantle . These analytical data coupled with the field relationships indicate that the alkali-rich basalts are derivative rocks, fractionated from the oceanic tholeiites by processes of magmatic differentiation, and that the oceanic tholeiites are the principal or only primary magma generated in the upper mantle under the oceans. Studies of the abundances and compositions of continental basalts show that essentially identical tholeiitic lavas, contaminated with Si, K, and the chemically coherent trace elements and radiogenic isotopes from the sial, also have been the predominant or only magma generated in the mantle under the continents. The chemical properties of oceanic tholeiites suggest that the upper mantle probably contains less than (in parts per million): Ba, 10; K, 1000; Pb, 0.4; Rb, 10; Th, 0.2; and U, 0.1. The Sr 87 /Sr 86 must be less than 0.7015; Th/U about 2; K/Rb about 1500-2000; and Fe 2 O 3 /FeO less than 0.1. The integration of field and petrochemical data with seismic, density, and shock-wave studies suggests that the oceanic tholeiites are either complete melts of the upper mantle or are generated from a mix of this tholeiite and a magnesium-rich peridotite or dunite in proportions up to perhaps 1:4. The Mohorovičić discontinuity under the oceans appears to mark the transition downward from a largely tholeiitic oceanic crust to either tholeiite reconstituted to blueschist or greenschist or to the ultramafic residue left after expulsion of oceanic tholeiite.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1965

Structure, metamorphism, and plutonism in the south-central Klamath Mountains, California

In the south-central Klamath Mountains 50 miles of the the north-trending central metamorphic belt and adjacent parts of the eastern Paleozoic and western Paleozoic and Triassic belts have been mapped and studied in detail. Within the central metamorphic belt a sequence of three lithologically distinctive metamorphic units has been recognized (from bottom to top): (1) siliceous metasedimentary rocks and greenstones of the Stuart Fork Formation; (2) the Salmon Hornblende Schist; and (3) siliceous, calcareous, and amphibolitic rocks, predominantly metasedimentary, of the Grouse Ridge Formation. The age of these metamorphic rocks is uncertain; they are known only to predate intrusion of Late Jurassic (Nevadan) granitic rocks. Ultramafic rocks, mainly alpine-type peridotites, were emplaced before the granitic rocks and occur primarily in a single large sheetlike body which separates the central metamorphic belt from the eastern Paleozoic belt. Granitic plutons, including quartz diorites, trondhjemites, granodiorites, diorites, and gabbros, in decreasing order of abundance, range in size from less than 1 to about 80 square miles in area. Two orogenic phases in the central metamorphic belt have been distinguished by structural and textural features. A late deformation uniformly affected the metamorphic terrane and the ultramafic rocks but predated granitic rocks. It was accompanied by some metamorphism in the lower to middle greenchist facies and produced upright folds that trend south and plunge gently. An earlier phase affected the various rock units differentially; it produced widespread recumbent folding and upper greenschist- to amphibolite-facies metamorphism in Salmon and Grouse Ridge rocks, but involved the underlying Stuart Fork Formation less severely, producing at least local recumbent folding and lower greenschist-facies metamorphism. The preferred interpretation of this upward increase in structural complexity and metamorphic grade is that the Salmon-Grouse Ridge sequence is a thrust sheet which overrode the Stuart Fork rocks concurrently with emplacement of the ultramafic rocks during the culmination of early recumbent folding and metamorphism. Thrusting was then followed by upright folding during the waning stages of regional metamorphism. The first deformational phase, and possibly the second, occurred during late Paleozoic time as indicated by recent isotopic ages of Salmon Hornblende Schist.

California↗
USGS1966

Evidence for an early recent warm interval in northwestern Alaska

A warm interval that began at least 10,000 years ago and lasted until at least 8300 years ago is recorded in the coastal tundra covered area of northwestern Alaska by the presence of fossil wood of tree size or tree species, fossil beaver-gnawed wood found beyond the modern range of beaver, evidence of ice-wedge melting, buried soils, and soils that extend below the top of modern permafrost. Dating of the warm interval is based on eight radiocarbon dates. Although these do not provide tight control for either the beginning or the end, they permit the interpretation that the warm event began at the start of the worldwide, postglacial warming and that it ended at the time of the Anivik Lake glacial readvance in the Brooks Range. If this is correct, the early Recent warm interval and the "postglacial thermal maximum" recognized by Livingstone in the Brooks Range were separated by a period of cooler climate. Deposits 7200 and 3600 years old also record moments when the climate was warmer than at present in coastal northwestern Alaska . Although these may record a continuation of the early Recent warm period, it seems more likely that they represent later and separate brief intervals of warmer climate. A postglacial thermal maximum between 6000 and 3000 years ago is recorded by pollen profiles in the Brooks Range, but is not clearly recorded in the coastal areas of northwestern Alaska . We suggest that as sea level rose to near its present position, the accompanying maritime climate lowered summer temperatures in this coastal area during the time at which areas farther inland were experiencing the high temperatures of the postglacial thermal maximum.

Alaska↗
USGS1966

Geochronology of the St. Kevin granite and neighboring precambrian rocks, northern Sawatch Range, Colorado

Radiometric ages have been measured on rocks of a crystalline terrane that includes ancient gneisses and migmatites, two granitic batholiths ( St . Kevin Granite and granite of Cross Creek), and various minor intrusive rocks . A whole- rock Rb-Sr isochron age on the St . Kevin Granite establishes it as 1390 ± 60 m.y. old. Mineral ages on the St . Kevin and numerous other rocks are either about the same as the St . Kevin whole- rock age or younger by as much as 200 m.y., even where the relative age is known to be older. Some minor Precambrian intrusive masses that are probably younger than St . Kevin Granite yield mica ages within analytical error of the St . Kevin age, indicating that these rocks can be younger than the granite by only a few tens of millions of years. The mica ages, both Rb-Sr and K-Ar, are thought to be minimal, but a K-Ar age of 2020 m.y. on horn-blende probably reflects excess argon. Mica ages from all rocks known geologically to be older than St . Kevin Granite are low and are interpreted as heating ages reflecting intrusion of the granite , in some cases modified further by heating during Laramide time. In this area, Precambrian intrusion and deformation had largely ended by 1200 or 1300 m.y. ago. Plutonism, represented here by the St . Kevin Granite and elsewhere by the Silver Plume and other granites, probably accounts for the numerous mineral ages of about 1300 m.y. previously reported from Colorado although weak regional metamorphism may also have been a factor.

Coloradao↗
USGS1966

Jura tectonics as a décollement

For many years the structure of the Jura Mountains was interpreted as a décollement whose origin was related to the Alps; in recent years, however, this mode of origin has been questioned. Most of the alternative explanations recognize a décollement to some extent, but attribute it to movement of the basement beneath. Surface and subsurface data are here reviewed to show that the Jura deformation was produced in a gliding sheet, in which the forces of gravity and inertia were generated within the total moving mass. Features of the folded Jura which support the décollement hypothesis are: (1) Nowhere are rocks older than Middle Triassic exposed, which strongly suggests that the folding does not extend to the older rocks. (2) Subsurface data in the Lons-le-Saunier region clearly show that the external border of the Jura has moved northwestward over the eastern margin of the Bresse Basin. (3) Lower Jurassic rocks rest on Upper Jurassic along a horizontal fault 1234 m deep in the Risoux well near the middle of the Jura. (4) The tabular areas, with their absence of folds, are expectable in a décollement. (5) High-angle tear faults, interpreted as not extending into the basement, are normal features of a décollement sheet. A continuous décollement around the southwestern end of the Swiss Plain can reasonably be inferred, connecting the internal Jura, the Salève, and the Subalpine folds as part of the décollement mass. Elsewhere, the internal border of décollement extends southeastward into the Molasse basin for an unknown distance and probably underlies the entire basin; if it does, a causal relation to the Alps is indicated. © 1966, The Geological Society of America, Inc.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1966

Crustal study of a continental strip from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains

Twenty aeromagnetic profiles over a 100-mile-wide strip along the arc of a great circle passing through Denver, Colorado, and Washington, D. C, reveal large anomalies of major crustal significance. Contoured data disclose several areas of distinct magnetic patterns reflecting basement lithology and structure. The mafic rocks of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont and the Keweenawan mafic belt in Iowa and Nebraska give rise to strong linear trends. Areas with a more random pattern of closely spaced magnetic anomalies appear in central Ohio, eastern Iowa, and central and western Nebraska. Except in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont areas, crystalline basement rocks are covered by a thick blanket of virtually nonmagnetic sedimentary rocks, and lithology must be inferred from correlations of the magnetic data with scattered drill-hole data and regional gravity data. The area of highly magnetic rocks in central Ohio has a sharp western boundary that coincides with the western limit of metamorphism associated with the probable extension into Ohio of the Grenville province of Canada. This area and a similar one in eastern Iowa are linked by an arcuate, nearly continuous belt of positive gravity anomalies that extends north into Wisconsin and northern Michigan and then swings southeast across central Michigan. This horseshoe-shaped feature is associated with lithologically diverse but highly magnetic basement rocks. A group of linear magnetic anomalies in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska correlates with the well-known midcontinent gravity high. In Nebraska the magnetic data provide a basis for grouping the extremely complex drill-hole data into three over all lithologic terranes. An analysis of the long-wavelength (>40 miles) variations of the profiles shows that they form a number of large coherent anomalies, many of which show little relation to the major tectonic trends and lithologic patterns of the basement surface. The very broad and less numerous anomalies in the east, which have more or less north-south trends, are significantly different from the more numerous anomalies in the western part of the strip , which tend to trend east-west. One linear anomaly extends for nearly 500 miles across Nebraska and Iowa and may mark a zone of rifting. Heat-flow data show that rocks at the Curie point, which determines the depth below which rock magnetization cannot occur, may be deep enough, at least in shield and other stable parts of the continent, to include a part of the upper mantle. The concentration of the large magnetic features in Iowa and Nebraska may indicate that the thickness of magnetized rock is greater in this area and that perhaps some of these features originate in the upper mantle.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1966

Rhizoconcretions in vitric ash-fall tuff, Nye County, Nevada

Small, vertically elongate concretionlike structures, here called rhizoconcretions , are found in scattered localities in and near the southern part of the Belted Range of Nye County , Nevada . The rhizoconcretions occur within a stratigraphically restricted zone in bedded vitric ash - fall tuff of late Tertiary age. The rhizoconcretions differ in mineralogy from their host rock in that they are cemented by a binder of undetermined composition, possibly a zeolite, whereas the host tuffs are un-cemented. These structures appear to have formed during diagenesis of the tuff by means of capillary movement of subsurface waters that reacted with volcanic glass within the conduits to form the cementing material.

Nevada↗
USGS1966

Hydration of natural glass and formation of perlite

The hydration rate of rhyolitic glass has been determined at temperatures ranging from 5° C to 100° C. The relationship between the depth of hydration, x, and time, t is x 2 = kt; k varies from 0.4 μ 2 /10 3 years at 5° C to 10 4 μ 2 /10 3 years at 100° C; k is independent of the water pressure from a few hundredths of a centimeter to 1 atm. water pressure. The activation energy of hydration is about 20 kcal/mole. The determined hydration rates are consistent with the observation that perlite commonly forms by the hydration of shattered rhyolitic glass, either during the late cooling of a deposit or after the deposit has cooled to a surficial temperature.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1966

Large-scale basin-and-dome pattern resulting from the interference of major folds

The geometry of individual major folds from the Glen Cannich area in the Northern Highlands of Scotland is described. The major folds are isoclinal, and their axial planes and fold limbs strike north or northeast and dip steeply; the fold axes plunge steeply toward the south or southeast. If pairs of individual folds are joined along a common axial-plane trace they form basins, domes, or other unusual culmination structures which resemble intensely flattened cylinders. As a group, the basins and domes form a continuous pattern , which covers an area of approximately 27 square miles, with possible extension into surrounding areas. This pattern has resulted from the interference of two sets of major folds , whereby the movement direction of the second fold set lay close to the axial plane of the first fold set. The geometrical conditions and /or intensity of the second folds that obtained during the second folding have rendered the first fold set unmappable, because the basins and domes are elongated entirely in the direction of the second fold set. The probable orientation of the first- fold axial plane is suggested by joining the culminations or depressions of the basm- and - dome pattern . Subsequent deformations have substantially altered the basin - and - dome pattern from its probable original form.

Scotland↗
USGS1966

Microrelief of the continental margin south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina

On the basis of recorded microrelief data, the continental margin between Cape Lookout , North Carolina , and the Bahama Islands may be divided into the following domains: (1) smooth - lacking any microrelief ; (2) undulating - containing sand swells; (3) rough - characterized by numerous low, conical hills; and (4) blocky - broken by rectangular depressions.

North Carolina↗