Tag: Nevada

Nevada Geology Calendar 2017—Available at Open House!

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This 12-month calendar was designed by Jack Hursh, Jennifer Vlcan, Chris Henry, and Nick Hinz and features a different geologic topic each month (January through December 2017):

Desatoya Mountains, Sand Mountain, McDermitt Caldera, The Sump, Santa Rosa Range, Northern Nevada Orogenies, Mount Rose Glaciation, Basin and Range National Monument, Virginia Mountains, Old Soil Horizons, Pequop Mountains, Little Finland—plus interesting facts about Nevada and the geology of the state.

A limited number of calendars will be available on special 20% off sale for Open House visitors only on Saturday October 15. Regular sales will begin on October 18.

Click here to get a sneak peak of the calendar:
http://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Nevada-geology-calendar-2017-p/cal2017.htm

Free campus delivery: For those on the University of Nevada, Reno campus who would like free delivery, you may select “Pick up” on the shopping cart so you will not be charged for shipping and then under “instructions” type “UNR campus mail delivery.” Please be sure to give us your campus mail stop and department name.

Quantity discount: If you buy 10 or more calendars per order, you will receive a 20% discount.

Free Spanish for Mining Classes at UNR

Please see the message below regarding the free Spanish for Mining classe at UNR:

“Good morning. My name is Adriana Flecha, I’m a Fulbright FLTA Scholar from Argentina, currently working at the Latino Research Center (Edmund J. Cain Hall, room 100).

We are offering again our free Spanish for Mining classes for September, 26th to December, 15th.

The course will consist on developing language skills for the mining industry, focusing on building vocabulary, understanding technical texts, and enhancing oral interaction. The lessons will last an hour each, twice a week.

We are trying to set up a time for the classes, the days and times available are during Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 to 12:00, or Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 to 1:00. Please let me know what time would suit you best.

I would also appreciate if you can spread the word about the course, so we can get to the majority Mining community.

If you are interested, you can contact me via e-mail (adriana.j.flecha@gmail.com), or call me at (775) 682-9041.”

NBMG Earth Science Week Field Trip—Sunday

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NBMG Earth Science Week Field Trip 2016:
A River Runs Through It—Geology along the Truckee River Valley from Reno to Pyramid Lake

NBMG participates in National Earth Science Week by coordinating annual geologic field trips for the general public.
The field trip is free to the public!

You must sign up online prior to the trip and sign a waiver form. Please print out a paper copy, sign and date, and submit prior to the field trip or bring to the field trip starting point.

Please click here for more information. The field trip guide and details will be posted soon.

Kennedy Mining District—New Book by Alan Wallace

The story of the Kennedy mining district, Pershing County, Nevada: The people, mining, and economy
Author: Alan R. Wallace
Year: 2016—just released!
Format: 306 pages, spiral-bound
Details / order here: http://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/The-story-of-the-Kennedy-mining-district-p/aw1.htm

Mining was one of the state’s major industries in the first sixty years of Nevada’s history, and it continues to play a major role today. Over time, miners established more than five hundred mining districts in the state, and gold and silver were produced from many of them (Fig. 1-1; Tingley, 1992). Some districts, including the well-known mining centers at Virginia City, Tonopah, Goldfield, Eureka, and Pioche, produced enormous quantities of metals, and each was home to thousands of residents. They had impacts that extended far beyond Nevada’s borders, and their residents came from all corners of the country and the world. The great quantities of metals that came out of the districts produced instant fortunes for some, successful political careers for others, and, in the case of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, statehood for Nevada. Each major district has been the subject of extensive research and countless publications, and their rich and fascinating mining histories still draw tourists to relive that glorious past.

Take away that handful of truly spectacular mining districts, and one is left with hundreds of other mining camps that were much smaller, produced much less ore, and came and went in a matter of a few years to, at best, a decade (Fig. 1-1). As described by Allen Bragg, the early 1900s editor of the Silver State newspaper in Winnemucca, these smaller mining districts “came up like a wind storm and went down like a whirlwind” (Bragg, 1905). Little is known about most of them, and their “tourism” usually is limited to a few people in search of ghost towns. Yet, each mining camp was home to people and businesses for as long as the veins held out. Their impacts, rather than national or global, instead were more at the county scale, and the constant migration of people and money from one camp to another over the years was an essential part of life in rural Nevada through much of its early history. One might call these smaller districts unimportant, but they were very significant for both the people who were there and the surrounding communities that they supported.

This is a story about the Kennedy mining district, in what now is eastern Pershing County, which was one of those “typical” smaller mining districts (Fig. 1-2). You are not alone if you never heard of it. The Kennedy mining district began in 1891, boomed in the mid 1890s, and then went through a series of similar but increasingly smaller booms and busts until World War II. Its discovery and boom coincided with the Panic of 1893 and the nadir of Nevada’s mining industry and economy. Kennedy was a big deal for both Humboldt County and northern Nevada, and it gave hope to the five hundred people who were there in 1894. The money that came out of the district filtered into the Humboldt County and nearby economies and provided a much-needed boost that extended far beyond the confines of Kennedy.

Unraveling the history and details of Kennedy provides a snapshot of how these smaller districts functioned, from the mining to the stores to the people who came and went through the years. Kennedy was not unique, by any means, and the story in this remote mining camp probably repeated itself many times over at the hundreds of other similar districts throughout Nevada.

About the Author:
Alan Wallace was a research geologist in the Mineral Resources Program of the U.S. Geological Survey for 31 years. Much of his geologic work focused on the geology of old mining districts in Nevada, Colorado, and other parts of the West. He has turned his interests to the broader history of those mining districts and the related early history of rural northern Nevada. He lives in Reno, Nevada.

AAPG Joint Section Meeting, Las Vegas, October 2–5

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What: American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Pacific and Rocky Mountain Sections Joint Meeting
When: October 2–5, 2016
Where: Paris Las Vegas Hotel

“Join us in Vegas for everything petroleum from Jackpot Sessions, Field Trips, Short Courses, Guest Events, a GIS Map Gallery, and so much more.”

Register now for the Las Vegas Joint Meeting here: https://www.psaapg.org/2016convention/

Media Coverage of the Earthquake Forum

Earthquake report spurs retrofitting of old buildings in Nevada
Story from Reno Gazette Journal, April 25, 2016
By Scott Sonner, Associated Press

“A new report raising the likelihood of a destructive earthquake striking Salt Lake City in the next half-century has underscored the urgency to retrofit more than 30,000 older brick homes and other unreinforced buildings at high risk of collapsing.

It’s also getting attention in neighboring Nevada, where a significant quake is overdue along the Sierra. Nevada officials are anxious to see if Utah succeeds in a first-in-the-nation attempt to secure federal disaster funds for private homeowners to aid in such efforts.”…

“He [Craig dePolo] estimates there are 1,400 unreinforced buildings in Reno, Sparks and Carson City above a series of Sierra-front faults where earthquakes of 6.5 hit on average every 30 years but haven’t struck in more than 60 years.
‘Thirty to 40 percent of those will partially or totally collapse during strong shaking,’ dePolo said.”
You can read the entire article with quotes from Craig dePolo (Research Geologist at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology) and Graham Kent (Director of the Nevada Seismology Laboratory) here.

Related publication: Preliminary assessment of potentially unreinforced masonry buildings in Nevada

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Sierra overdue for earthquake
Nevada Appeal, April 19, 2016

“The Sierra’s eastern front is long overdue for a large earthquake along the California-Nevada line, where a magnitude-7 event expected on average every 30 years hasn’t occurred in six decades, scientists said Tuesday.

Nevada Seismological Laboratory Director Graham Kent said the region’s earthquake “drought” is likely one of the reasons the public has a misconception there’s a low risk a serious quake will strike.”…

“Rich Koehler, an assistant professor of geology at Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, said a magnitude-7 earthquake could potentially hit anytime, anywhere along the California-Nevada border.”

You can read the story here.

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Global experts to inform region on economic recovery after devastating earthquakes: Earthquake Economic Resiliency Forum for public, economic leaders and disaster officials
Nevada Today, April 12, 2016, by Mike Wolterbeek
http://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2016/earthquake-economic-resiliency-forum

GSN April Meeting—April 15—RSVP by April 13

GSN logoStudent Posters and Oral Presentations Night, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering

GSN Friday, APRIL 15, 2016 Membership Meeting
STUDENT POSTERS & ORAL PRESENTATIONS NIGHT
MACKAY SCHOOL OF EARTH SCIENCES & ENGINEERING

For dinner reservations, please e-mail gsn@gsnv.org or call Laura Ruud at 775-323-3500 by 5:00 p.m. on WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13TH
Social Hour and Poster Presentations begin @ 6:00 pm; Dinner @ 7:00 pm; Two Student Speakers to Follow @ 7:45 pm
Location:  RENO ELKS LODGE, 597 KUMLE LANE (across from the Convention Center)
DINNER COST—$25.00 per person (Reservation no-shows will be invoiced.)

Two Student Oral Presenters:  Chad Carlson and Steven Howell

“Enigmatic Walker Lane Dextral-Shear Accommodation: Paleomagnetically-Determined Vertical-Axis Rotation of Crustal Blocks between the Central Walker Lane and Sierra Nevada Frontal Fault System”
Chad W. Carlson, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno
James E. Faulds, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno
SPEAKER ABSTRACT: Located west of dextral fault systems of the central Walker Lane and east of the Sierra Nevada frontal-fault system is a region of north-striking normal faults and asymmetric basins, where geodetic studies define ~5 mm/yr of northwest-directed dextral strain. As this region is devoid of major strike-slip fault systems, how this strain is accommodated is poorly understood. To elucidate the long-term tectonic development of this region, paleomagnetic data from late Oligocene ash-flow tuffs are used to determine magnitudes of vertical-axis rotation of crustal blocks, as a potential mechanism for accommodation of dextral shear.
Paleomagnetic directions collected from multiple locations across the region define domains of vertical-axis rotation of varying magnitudes. Preliminary paleomagnetic data have identified low/no rotations within translating blocks of the central Walker Lane (Walker Lake domain), statistically-significant magnitudes of ~20-30° clockwise vertical-axis rotation west of central Walker Lane dextral faults, and >30° of clockwise rotation to the northwest in the northern Walker Lane (Carson domain). Boundaries between these domains, although potentially gradational, are relatively discrete and support a distinction of domains by style of faulting. Comparison of Oligocene ash-flow tuff rotation data to previously sampled Mio-Pliocene volcanics and present-day geodetically-derived rotation rates sup-port a late-Miocene initiation of dextral-shear accommodation in the region and suggest a decrease in rotation rates over time.

“Formation of Disseminated Epithermal Gold Ore at Round Mountain, Nevada”
Steven Howell, Center for Research in Economic Geology
John Muntean, Center for Research in Economic Geology, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
SPEAKER (& POSTER) ABSTRACT: The Round Mountain gold deposit is a world-class bulk-minable low-sulfidation volcanic-hosted epithermal deposit with 20 million contained ounces of gold.  Research was aimed at better understanding how disseminated ore at Round Mountain formed.  Specifically alteration and the disseminated mineralization are documented at all scales within the poorly-welded unit of the Round Mountain tuff and distinct fluids pathways of the ore-forming hydrothermal fluids are identified.  Detailed logging, petrographic work, whole-rock geochemical assays and hyperspectral data indicate disseminated mineralization is associated with strong potassic alteration expressed geochemically by the metasomatic enrichment of potassium and depletion of sodium and calcium from drill-fan to mine-wide scales.  Several major upwelling zones are apparent in models of gold mineralization and mine-wide mass change models of major oxide elements derived from whole-rock geochemical assays.  Upwelling zones are largely controlled by a WNW structural fabric in underlying Paleozoic meta-sedimentary rock.  Multiple overprinting phases of concentric alteration assemblages consisting of inner silica-adularia, middle illite and outer smectite zones exist within the mineralized lower poorly-welded tuff.  Porosity and permeability de-crease with each overprinting hydrothermal event, and fluid pathways appear to constrict with each subsequent event, forming higher-grade cross-cutting tubular or vein-like structures.

STUDENT POSTER PRESENTATIONS
(Note from GSN: Posters we had by press time with more still being submitted!)

Name:  Justin B. Milliard
Poster Title:  “Preliminary Insights into Multi-Scale Fluid Pathway Controls from the Middle Miocene Northern Nevada Rift, North-Central, Nevada, USA”
Co-Author:  John L. Muntean

Name:  Carli Balogh
Poster Title:  “Tertiary Volcanic Rocks, Hydrothermal Alteration, and Epithermal Precious Metal Deposits of the  Patterson Mining District, Sweetwater Mountains, Lyon County, NV and Mono County, CA”
Co-Author: Peter Vikre

Name: Sergey A. Konyshev
Poster Title:  “Sedimentary Rock-hosted Gold Mineralization of the Stibnite District, Valley County, Idaho”
Advisor: John L. Muntean

Name: Elizabeth Benge
Poster Title:  “Pilot Study using Elemental Geochemistry as a Means of Discriminating Chert Stratigraphy in the Roberts Mountains Allochthon, Nevada”
Co-Author: Paula Noble

Name: Carolina Zamora
Poster Title (Tentative):  “Investigating the Cooling History of the Eastern Himalaya Greater Himalayan Rocks:  A 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb Thermochronology Study from Eastern Bhutan”
Co-authors: Dr. Stacia Gordon (UNR), Dr. Sean Long (WSU) (more to be added)

Name:  Tyler Hill
Poster Title:  “Time-Space Relationships between Sediment-Hosted Gold Mineralization and Intrusion-Related Polymetallic Mineralization at Kinsley Mountain, NV”
Co-Authors: John Muntean, Moira Smith, and Robert Creaser

Name: Tracy Anderson
Poster Title:  “Testing Silver Mobility: An Investigation into Supergene Silver Enrichment at the Rochester Mine in  Pershing County, NV”
Advisor/Co-Author:  John Muntean

Name:  Holly McLachlan
Poster Title:  “Stratigraphy of the Soda Lake Geothermal Field, Fallon, NV”
Advisor/Co-Author:  Jim Faulds

Name: Robin Chacko
Poster Title:  “Magmatic-Tectonic Interactions: Implications for Seismic Hazard Assessment in the Central Walker Lane and Long Valley Caldera Regions”
Co-Authors: William Hammond, Geoffrey Blewitt, Jayne Bormann

Mining Documentary Series on KNPB—begins April 7

UNR’s Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering participated in this series on Nevada mining history which will premiere this Thursday April 7 on KNPB, Channel 5. The information listed below is from the KNPB Program Guide, April 2016.

Week One
From Pickaxe to GPS: Nevada Mining

  • Thursday April 7 at 8:00 p.m.
  • Repeats Sunday April 10 at 6 p.m.

“Week one reveals the transformation of mining from the Comstock era to the present. Through the life of John Mackay, we learn how his legacy and the engineering of the era still influences mining today.”

Week Two
Our Wealth of Minerals: Nevada Mining

  • Thursday April 14 at 8:00 p.m.
  • Repeats Sunday April 17 at 6:00 p.m.

“Week two will uncover the wealth of materials we extract from your state’s land, how essential they are to our daily lives, and how the industry is regulated to minimize impacts to the environment.”

Week Three
Modern Prospecting: Nevada Mining

  • Thursday April 21 at 8:00 p.m.
  • Repeats Sunday April 24 at 6:00 p.m.

“Week three will present how technology has transformed Nevada mining into high-tech modern prospecting. We’ll journey from exploration, through modern operations to site reclamation.”

Week Four
Dollars, Sense and the Bottom Line: Nevada Mining

  • Thursday April 28 at 8:00 p.m.
  • Repeats Sunday May 1 at 6:00 p.m.

“Week four will explore the economic benefits to the state, the jobs created, the variety of businesses that provide support as well as an in-depth look at the taxes paid by the industry.”

Job Announcements from BLM

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We are pleased to announce new, exciting positions available at BLM – BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT.   It is our hope that qualified, career oriented individuals at your organization or other professionals known to you will actively consider this position and apply accordingly.  Efforts on your part to disseminate this information are greatly appreciated.

Position Information:
Job Description:  Realty Specialist;
Announcement Number:  NV-DEU-2016-0058;
Location(s) of position:  Las Vegas, NV, US;
Salary:  $49,054 – $77,154;
Applications will be accepted until:  03/04/2016.
For additional information on this job posting, please click here.

Position Information:
Job Description:  Interdisciplinary (RMS/NRS/Botany);
Announcement Number:  OR-DEU-2016-0063;
Location(s) of position:  Lakeview, OR, US;
Salary:  $40,033 – $63,654;
Applications will be accepted until:  TODAY, 02/22/2016.
For additional information on this job posting, please go click here.