Report discussing earthquake activity in the United States during 1938. The report is broken down by regions and has sections for specific earthquakes.

A report about the potentials and resources available in regards to Alaska's mineral industry.

From introduction: The history of glaciation in Alaska offers a fascinating field for study. Because of the remarkable development and easy accessibility of valley and piedmont glaciers in the coastal mountains, Alaska has long been popularly conceived as a land of ice and snow, a concept that is only slowly being corrected. To the student of glaciation, however, Alaska affords a unique opportunity to observe the formation, movement, and dissipation of the many living glaciers, to examine the results of glacial erosion on a gigantic scale, and to discover and work out the sequence of Pleistocene events as shown by the topographic forms in both glaciated and unglaciated areas and by the deposits left by ice and water during earlier stages of glaciation.

A report on the exploration and survey of the Chakachamna-Stony Region of Alaska.

From abstract: Kodiak Island, although the site of the earliest white settlement in Alaska and the center of a vigorous fishing industry, is still largely unexplored, except for a strip immediately adjacent to the shores. The heavy growth of vegetation makes access to the interior of the island difficult, and few trails penetrate far from the coast. Mining activity in the past has been confined to somewhat desultory exploitation of beach sands, which in places carry gold, though some gold-bearing lodes have been staked, and a few unsuccessful attempts at lode mining have been made.

From introduction: Two field parties, one topographic, the other geologic, were engaged in making surveys in the section of the Alaska Range between the Nabesna and Big Tok Rivers in 1934. Most of the area surveyed was on the northeast side of the range, within a drainage area that is tributary to the Nabesna and Tanana Rivers, but it also included a small part of the Copper River Basin.

From introduction: The present report states the results of an exploratory survey of the Kaiyuh Hills during the summer of 1934.

From introduction: The record of the Alaska mineral industry for 1935, here presented, is supplemented by records for earlier years, because in that way certain trends may be recognized which are not only of historical significance but are also useful in suggesting the course that the industry is likely to take in the future. This is a continuing service that has been rendered by the Geological Survey from almost the earliest years of active mining in Alaska, and the present report is the thirty-second of the series.

From abstract: The Kodiak group of islands, having an area of 4,900 square miles, lie on the Pacific Ocean side of the base of the Alaska Peninsula. Although the town of Kodiak is the oldest continuously occupied white settlement in Alaska, the interior of many of the islands is still little explored and unmapped, for the heavy growth of vegetation makes inland travel difficult, and few trails penetrate far from the coast.

The coal deposits in the vicinity of Eska Creek, a small tributary from the north to the Matanuska River, are a part of the Matanuska coal field. One of the two commercial coal-producing districts in Alaska, this field is in the southcentral part of the Territory, at the head of Cook Inlet. It is 170 miles from Seward, the ocean terminus of the Government-owned and -operated Alaska Railroad, and is served by a branch line of that railroad.

From abstract: The Chitina Valley and adjoining area form part of a rugged alpine region in the southeast corner of the main body of Alaska and include a portion of the Chugach Mountains and most of the southern half of the Wrangell Mountains, to the north. The Chitina River is an eastern branch of the Copper River and rises in ice fields and valley glaciers occupying most of the country near the international boundary north of Mount St. Elias. The adjoining area described in this report includes the Hanagita and Bremner River district and the westward continuation of the north side of the Chugach Mountains as far as Valdez Arm and Klutina Lake. In addition, the geology of the upper White River district is described because of its relation to that of the Chitina Valley.

From abstract: The Girdwood district has been known for about 35 years to contain placer gold, but the source of the gold in veins was not discovered until about 1909. When the Alaska Railroad was completed through Girdwood it was hoped that the improved transportation facilities would enable the lode mines to operate at a profit and also to furnish tonnage to the railroad. Production from the quartz veins, however, has been negligible, although one placer mine has been operating steadily for several years.

From abstract: The Valdez Creek mining district was one of those visited in 1931 in connection with the study of the mineral resource of the region tributary to the Alaska Railroad. It is underlain by argillite, schist, tuff, tuffaceous conglomerate, limestone, and greenstone, listed in approximate stratigraphic order beginning with the youngest.

"To the end of 1930 Alaska, according to the records of the Geological Survey, had produced placer gold to the value of $258,962,000 from mines widely scattered throughout its length and breadth. The distribution of the placers from which the gold was recovered has been stated in more or less detail in the annual summaries published by the Geological Survey on the mineral industry of Alaska and also in its more complete reports on many of the individual mining districts. Although these summaries and reports have furnished information regarding the larger regions, they have not always given specific details regarding the smaller districts. Furthermore, there has been no recent attempt to assemble and publish in one place the scattered statistics regarding the placer-gold production by years and by regions and districts. The purpose of the present report is to set forth in condensed but comprehensive form a summary of the placer-gold production of Alaska so far as it can be determined from the available official records."

From abstract: The Curry district lies on the south flank of the Alaska Range, on the southeast side of Mount McKinley. Most of it is west of the Alaska Railroad. The eastern portion can be easily reached from several points along the railroad route, but the western portion is much more difficult of access, owing to the numerous glacial streams and the rugged topography. The relief of the area is great, the elevation ranging from 500 feet along the Chulitna River to 20,300 feet at Mount McKinley. The Chulitna River, a tributary of the Susitna River, drains the larger part of the area described. It flows in a broad valley in the eastern part of the district, and here the maximum relief is about 3,000 feet. The western part of the district is very rugged, with numerous peaks over 6,000 feet in elevation which have sheer slopes and almost unscalable pinnacles. Winding down through this maze of rugged mountains are four major valley glaciers-Eldridge, Buckskin, Ruth, and Tokichitna-and many tributary and smaller glaciers. Practically the entire district, with the exception of the higher peaks and ridges, has been glaciated. Timber grows along the main streams and extends to an elevation …

Abstract: During the spring of 1932 an opportunity was offered by the United States Navy for a geologist to accompany an expedition organized to make a reconnaissance of the western part of Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. This expedition visited several localities the geology of which was little known. It was found, as had already been expected, that the islands west of Unimak Pass are composed mainly of basic volcanic lavas and fragmental materials, into which have later been injected dikes, sills, and considerable masses of intrusive rocks, some of which are of acidic types and of granitic texture. These westward islands are bordered both to the north and south by depressions 2,000 fathoms or more in depth, and the islands have apparently been built up from that depth by the ejection and extrusion of volcanic materials since early Tertiary time. No rocks of proved pre-Tertiary age were seen, and the only sedimentary materials present may well have been derived from the erosion of the volcanic islands after they were built up above sea level. On the Alaska Peninsula pre-Tertiary sediments through which the volcanic materials broke to the surface are abundantly present. There is evidence that all the …

From abstract: The Mount Eielson district lies in south-central Alaska, on the north side of the Alaska Range, about 30 miles east of Mount McKinley. The most widely distributed rocks of the district include a thick series of thin-bedded limestone, calcareous shale, and graywacke of Paleozoic, probably Devonian, age. These sediments are cut by a mass of granodiorite which forms most of Mount Eielson and which was intruded probably in late Mesozoic time. The intrusive has sent a multitude of dikes and sills into the associated sediments.

From abstract: The area in the vicinity of the West Fork of the Chulitna River, Alaska, one of those examined in 1931 in connection with the study of mineral resources in districts tributary to the Alaska Railroad, contains numerous prospects but, as yet, no productive mines. Its placer deposits are negligible but some of its lodes may prove valuable for gold and silver and perhaps also for copper and arsenic.

From abstract: The Kantishna mining district is about 90 miles west of McKinley Park station on the Alaska Railroad. The part of the district covered by this report comprises an area of about 72 square miles in the form of a strip 6 miles wide and 13 miles long. The bedrock is mainly a metamorphic series of rocks which within the area has been differentiated into a quartz-muscovite schist and a calcareous faces that ranges from limestone to chlorite schist. A few small dikes of quartz porphyry and diabase intrude the schist. The general structure trends N. 700 E., and from an axis that extends from Eldorado Creek northeastward to Spruce Peak the schistosity dips to the northwest and southeast. It is along this axis that the heaviest mineralization has occurred.

This report provides and in-depth description of the Moose Pass-Hope District in Alaska, including on overview of the general area, physical geology, and economic geology.

From abstract: To help the mining industry of Alaska and to assist in the development of the mineral resources of the Territory have been the prime motives of the Geological Survey's investigations in Alaska during the past 35 years, in which nearly one half of the Territory has been covered by its reconnaissance and exploratory surveys. It was natural, therefore, that the Alaska Railroad, when it undertook intensive consideration of the problem of finding tonnage that would increase its revenues, should look to the Geological Survey to supply technical information as to the known mineral deposits along its route and to indicate what might be done to stimulate a larger production of minerals and induce further mining developments and prospecting that would utilize its service.

From abstract: The gold quartz veins of the Willow Creek district belong to the type of ore deposits that may be expected to continue downward for several thousand feet below the present surface. The veins occur in an essentially homogeneous quartz diorite intrusive mass, batholithic in form ; therefore, the composition of the wall rock plays practically no significant part in the distribution of gold within the veins. The veins were formed partly as fissure fillings and partly by replacement of the wall rock along fractures and of fragments of wall rock caught between the fracture walls. Structurally the deposits are essentially composite lodes, although quartz lenses of considerable size have also been formed.

From Introduction: "The value of its mineral resources has long been recognized as a matter of concern in the welfare of every nation, and all wise governments almost from time immemorial have taken steps to find out about, utilize, and safeguard such of these natural resources as lie within their own boundaries or to acquire rights in those they need that lie outside those boundaries. Obviously one of these lines concerns itself with the record of present performance-how much of the different mineral commodities is the country at present producing, where does this production come from and what are the facts as to the current developments in the industry? To answer some of these questions authoritatively is part of the work of the Alaskan branch of the Geological Survey, and answers to those questions for the year 1934 are given in the accompanying report."

From introduction: The presentation of a yearly record of the Alaska mineral industry is a continuing service that has been rendered by the Geological Survey from almost the earliest years of extensive mining in Alaska, and the present report, for 1938, is the thirty-fifth of this series. 2 Such a record, especially when supplemented by the statistics for the preceding years, not only affords an authoritative summary of current 'and past conditions but also indicates trends that are of significance in suggesting the lines along which future developments of the industry are likely to proceed. These reports therefore serve miners, prospectors, and businessmen concerned with Alaska affairs as useful historical records, statements of contemporary conditions, and starting points on which some conjectures concerning future operations may be predicated.