This report talks about some of the current domestic and international research activities of the Office of Mineral Resources, Geological Division of the USGS.

Abstract: "This report presents a U.S. Bureau of Mines study that incorporates coal mining factors, cola recovery factors, and economic factors into the definition of an economically recoverable coal resource. The relationship between these factors to the Energy Information Administration's estimate of U.S. coal resources--the "Demonstrated Reserve Base"--is discussed. The Boltsfork 7 1/2-minute quadrangle in eastern Kentucky was selected as the stud area. Results indicate that of the original 280.2 M tons of resource in the quadrangle, only 99.8 M tons (35.6%) is recoverable at a mining cost of $25 per ton or less" (p. 1).

The use of high-temperature superconductors in current leads to reduce refrigeration power has been investigated by many groups in the past.

The following report presents detailed lethologic and conodont biostratigraphic data from four measured sections in the lower part of the Oquirrh Group in the Oquirrh Mountains of Utah and the Deep Creek and Samaria Mountains of Idaho.

A report about the Crummies Member of the Breathitt Formation which is a marine unit archaically called the Cannelton Limestone located in the Kanawha River valley of West Virginia.

From abstract: The report for document C is about the tectonic trends of the northern part of the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado, as derived from Landsat multispectral scanner imaging and geophysical and geologic mapping. The report for document D is about an uncontrolled X-band airborn radar-image mosaic that was compiled for the western three-fifths of the Moab 1° x 2° quadrangle of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado.

The following report presents geochemical data results of 34 elements in 951 samples of altered and mineralized rock samples from mines, prospects, dumps, and drillholes in the Tonopah quadrangle, Nevada.

The following report documents results taken from a reconnaissance geochemical survey that was conducted in the northwest-trending Alexander terrane, Gravina-Nutzotin overlap assemblage, and Taku terrane in southeast Alaska in the Craig and Dixon Entrance quadrangles and the western edges of the Ketchikan and Prince Rupert quadrangles.

A report about the geochemical and mineralogic study of the U.S. Virgin Islands indicates the presence of a previously undocumented Sn-Pb and precious metals.

From abstract: This report contains complete Bouguer anomaly, isostatic residual anomaly, and horizontal gradient anomaly gravity maps of the Powder River Basin and surrounding areas in southeastern Montana, northeastern Wyoming, and western South Dakota were compiled using gravity data from 21,528 stations. A total-intensity anomaly aeromagnetic map with 3 mile spaced east-west flight-lines is also presented. Also included is an analysis of these maps and data, focusing on gravity and aeromagnetic studies.

A report about the Marysvale volcanic field that lies at the east end of the Pioche-Marysvale igneous belt.

From introduction: This report describes the Delhi Pike area, which is an area of landsliding we believe to be representative of landslides in colluvium throughout the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The area has been the focus of several detailed studies reported in other chapters in this bulletin. The purpose of the report is to describe the physical setting and movement styles of the landslides and, thus, to provide a context for the more narrowly focused chapters that follow.

A report about benthic foraminiferal faunas in 18 borholes from the eastern Beaufort Sea shelf.

From introduction: "This report illustrates a method for delimiting prospective placer districts in the United States by use of National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) Hydrogeochemical Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (HSSR) geochemical data and adjunct airborne spectral gamma-ray radiation data."

OTTER (Organized Techniques for Theorem-proving and Effective Research) is a resolution-style theorem-proving program for first-order logic with equality. OTTER includes the inference rules binary resolution, hyperresolution, UR-resolution, and binary paramodulation. Some of its other abilities and features are conversion from first-order formulas to clauses, forward and back subsumption, factoring, weighting, answer literals, term ordering, forward and back demodulation, evaluable functions and predicates, and Knuth-Bendix completion. OTTER is coded in C, is free, and is portable to many different kinds of computer.

A report about dunes which are vegetated, inactive, and are made of quartz.

A report about metamorphic rocks exposed near Juneau, Alaska. The belt they are in had a complex history of deformation, metamorphism, and plutonism.

A report about lithologic, paleontologic, and paleomagnetic analyses of sediment cores from Northwind Ridge in the western Canada Basin which provides a stratigraphic framework for interpreting the upper Quaternary paleoceanographic records of the western Arctic Ocean.

A report about rockfalls and debris avalanches on the southern approach to Smuggles Notch in Vermont.

This document reports on the work done by the Separations Science and Technology Programs of the Chemical Technology Division, Argonne National Laboratory, in the period October 1991-March 1992. This effort is mainly concerned with developing the TRUEX process for removing and concentrating actinides from acidic waste streams contaminated with transuranic (TRU) elements. The objectives of TRUEX processing are to recover valuable TRU elements and to lower disposal costs for the nonTRU waste product of the process.

From Introduction: "This compilation is the fourth and final in a series revising and expanding U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) Bulletin 605, "Thermodynamic Properties of 65 Elements-Their Oxides, Halides, Carbides, and Nitrides," by C. E. Wicks and F. E. Block (532)."

In casting, fluidity is the measure of the distance a metal can flow in a channel before being stopped by solidification. During mold filling, the metal loses heat to the surrounding mold, thereby cooling and becoming more viscous until the leading portion solidifies and no further flow is possible. A coupled heat-transfer and fluid-flow modeling of a spiral, involving the use of thermophysical properties to determine material fluidity, has been conducted. Simulations of these experiments utilized the Casting Process Simulator (CaPS) software developed at Argonne National Laboratory. Two types of spiral geometries with different assumptions were considered: (1) a two-dimensional laterally stretched spiral and (2) a three-dimensional lateral spiral. The computer extent of mold filling is in good agreement with the experimental results. Time required by the metal/gas interface to attain specific positions in the spiral arm also compares favorably with the experimental results. The influence of process variables, especially pour time, is discussed. The CaPS software has been used as a computational tool to investigate the validity of the dimensionality assumptions and to evaluate the ability of CaPS to model fluidity adequately.

The radiolytic yields of hydrogen nitrogen, oxygen, nitrous oxide, and carbon monoxide from two batches of WHC-supplied samples of grouted simulated waste have been (gamma) irradiated at several dose rates (0.025, 0.63 and 130 krad/h for hydrogen and 130 krad/h for all other gases). In one batch, the liquid waste simulant that was added to the grout included the original components that were added to Tank 102-AP (labeled "virgin" waste.) The second batch included a similar liquid waste simulant that was preirradiated to 35 Mrad prior to incorporation into the grout. It is believed that the preirradiated samples more closely represent radioactive waste that was stored in the tank for several years. The lowest dose rate corresponds approximately to that expected in the grout; with the high dose rate, doses equivalent to about 85 years storage in grout vaults were achieved. Most of the results on the batch of virgin samples have been reported recently (Report ANL 93/42). Here we report the results from the batch of preirradiated grout samples and compare the results from the two batches. The radiolytic yields of hydrogen and nitrogen are lower in the preirradiated than in the virgin grout. On the other hand G(oxygen) …

Partial abstract: Frequent dredging requirements and scouring at the foundation of Ocean City Inlet's south jetty resulted in a study to determine the source of the shoaling and scouring. The study concluded that sand was being transported northward along Assateague Island, through and over the south jetty, and deposited inside the inlet. The sand was then transported north by ebb currents where it encroached on the Federal navigation channel. A rehabilitation program was initiated to create a littoral barrier to eliminate the shoaling problem and to repair the scour hold. Three headland breakwaters were constructed to stabilize Northern Assateague Island. The site was selected as part of the Monitoring Completed Coastal Projects (MCCP) Program to determine how well the rehabilitation project accomplished its design purpose.