United States Geological Survey

“ The mineral lands are practically classified by the miners themselves, and for this no further legal provision is necessary. The coal lands must be determined by geological survey. The work of determining the areas which should be relegated to the other classes—namely, irrigable, timber, and pasturage lands—will be comparatively inexpensive. ”

“ Study Areas- The study carried out under subsection (a) shall include the Estancia Basin, Salt Basin, Tularosa Basin, Hueco Basin, and middle Rio Grande Basin in the State. (c) Report- Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives a report that describes the results of the study. ”

“ Findings- Section 2 (a) of the National Geologic Mapping Act of 1992 (43 U.S.C. 31a (a) ) is amended— (1) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the following: ` (1) although significant progress has been made in the production of geologic maps since the establishment of the national cooperative geologic mapping program in 1992, no modern, digital, geologic map exists for approximately 75 percent of the United States;' ”

“ If the location of mineral beds has anything to do with the order of formations, which no intelligent person questions, and if the study of fossils is a help in the study of the order of formations, which all geologists know to be true, then the Government is justified in ordering a complete survey of the fossils of the State, and the publication of their forms for the instruction of the people. ”

“ The average decline in overall amphibian populations is 3.79 percent per year, though the decline rate is more severe in some regions of the U.S., such as the West Coast and the Rocky Mountains. If this rate remains unchanged, some species will disappear from half of the habitats they occupy in about 20 years. ”

“ A geological survey of its territory is one of the first cares of an enlightened government, and [pg 18] a geologist is the one scientific official the leading States of the Union agree in maintaining. The science has moved forward steadily from its original office of studying buried deposits and classifying extinct organisms, until the hard and fast line between fossil and recent has disappeared, the continuous action of ordinary causes in past and present been established, and an unbroken domain assigned to the laws of the visible creation. ”

“ Human influence from the Mississippi River east, including the metropolitan areas of the Northeast and the agricultural-dominated landscapes of the Midwest Disease, particularly a chytrid fungus in the Upper Midwest and New England Pesticide applications east of the Colorado River Climate changes across the Southern U.S. and the West Coast Amphibian declines are a global phenomenon that has continued unabated in the United States since at least the 1960's. Declines are occurring even in protected national parks and refuges. ”

“ Gemstones Searching for gemstones in the United States is a popular recreational activity for collectors and hobbyists
2 Natural gemstones
A natural gemstone is a mineral, stone, or organic matter that can be cut and polished or otherwise treated for use as jewelry or other ornament. A precious gemstone has beauty, durability, and rarity, whereas a semiprecious gemstone has only one or two of these qualities. A gem is a gemstone that has been cut and polished. ”

“ Amphibians, unlike people, breathe at least partly through their skin, which is constantly exposed to everything in their environment. Consequently, their bodies are much more sensitive to environmental factors such as disease, pollution, toxic chemicals, ultraviolet radiation, and habitat destruction. The worldwide occurrences of amphibian declines and deformities could be an early warning that some of our ecosystems, even seemingly pristine ones, are seriously out of balance. ”

“ The gentlemen of the corps have responded with such cheerfulness and enthusiasm that I am able to promise between the close of field work this autumn and the opening of next spring's campaign the completion of twelve volumes of practical and general geology and palaeontology.”
The range of the investigations carried on by the geological survey is indicated by the subjects treated in the volumes promised. They are the following: “Geology and mining industry of Leadville, Col.,” by S. F. Emmons. “Geology of The Eureka mining district in Nevada,” by Arnold Hague, geologist in charge. ”

“ We find in the alluvial soil along the Illinois and Des Plaines blocks of granite, hornblende, and gneiss, of the drift stratum, exhibiting the same appearances of attrition, and of having been transported from their parent beds, which characterize the secondary tablelands along the margin of the great American lakes, the prairies of Illinois, and the western parts of New York.
There is nothing, perhaps, in the progress of modern science, which has tended to facilitate geological research so much as the study and investigation of fossil organic remains. ”

“ The Geological Society of America has about two hundred and fifty members, nearly all of whom are actively engaged in geological research, perhaps a larger number than in any other science. The U. S. Geological Survey is the center of this movement, and its great efficiency is in large measure due to Mr. G. K. Gilbert, now president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ”

“ The consolidation of the various geological and geographical surveys and exploring enterprises, each of which has heretofore operated upon an independent plan, without concert, can not fail to be of great benefit to all those industries of the country which depend upon the development of our mineral resources. The labors of the scientific men, of recognized merit, who compose the corps of the Geological Survey, during the first season of their field operations and inquiries, appear to have been very comprehensive, and will soon be communicated to Congress in a number of volumes. ”

“ In 1853 he went to the Bergakademie at Freiburg in Saxony to complete his studies, and on his return to England in 1855 he was appointed an assistant geologist to the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. In 1858 he went to Canada as geologist to the North American boundary commission, and after the completion of its labours in 1863 he was intermittently engaged for many years in searching for mineral deposits and surveying mining properties in various parts of the world, chiefly by private persons or by companies, but also by the Indian and Egyptian governments (1867–9) . ”

“ A rational idea of the general geological structure, and the relations of the geological formations of the State, had been acquired by the intelligent population, through the annual reports of the survey, which presented the results of each season's work in the field.
During these years the New York geologists had accumulated a vast amount of material and of facts regarding the geological formations within the State, proving conclusively that they could not be parallelized with any of the described and well-determined formations of Europe. ”

“ As a conchologist he was held in high esteem, but while he recognized the similarity of fossil mollusca to living forms, he regarded them as inorganic imitations produced in the rocks. In 1683 he communicated to the Royal Society (Phil. Trans., 1684) , An ingenious proposal for a new sort of maps of countries; together with tables of sands and clays, such as are chiefly found in the north parts of England. In this essay he suggested the preparation of a soil or mineral map of the country, and thereby is justly credited with being the first to realize the importance of a geological survey. ”

“ U. S. Geological Survey. Annual Reports. Complete set to 1904 of 54 royal 8vo vols., in uniform orig. cloth, as issued. In fine condition. Vol. 1 of this set is very rarely seen. The aggregate price of these, demanded by the U. S. Government, is nearly double my charge. The remaining 4 vols. can be secured from Washington. Wash., 1880 to 1904.$45.00
601. U. S. Geological Survey. First Annual Report, by Clarence King. Royal 8vo, large folded map, fine copy. This is the first vol. of the large series, afterwards conducted by Powell and Wolcott. It is extremely rare, many sets lacking it only. ”

“ An inquiry in regard to the mineral resources of any part of Alaska, coming to the office of the survey, is now met with a printed report containing the latest and most authentic information.
While much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. Over half the territory has not been covered by even reconnaissance maps. Even these will not suffice in regions of important mineral production, where often hundreds of thousands of dollars are being invested, and detailed surveys, comparable to those made in the states, are demanded. ”

“ Practically all of its results and formation names have come into general use, with the exception of the Taconic system of Emmons and the division terms of the New York system. (See p. 88.)
87The New York State Survey, begun in 1836, was continued by James Hall from 1843 to 1898. During this time he was also state geologist of Iowa (1855–1858) and Michigan (1862) . Since 1898, John M. Clarke has ably continued the Geological Survey of New York, the state which continues to be, in science and more especially in geology and paleontology, the foremost in America. ”

“ The work of the Geological Survey, with the magnificent collection of results that it comprises, merits then that we should render to it a striking homage for the light so vivid and so unexpected that it has thrown upon the geologic history and the mineral riches of North America. ”

“ The typical locality always remains for study, comparison, and reference, and there need be no difference of opinion or discussion as to what was intended by the use of any one of the terms. The progress of geological science in the country is greatly indebted to this system of nomenclature, and to the absolute working out of the succession of the groups, and the members of the same, to which it has been applied." The system was adopted by a vote of the Geological Board.
The geologists of the survey were accustomed to meet once a year in the Capitol of the State, to compare notes. ”

“ If you measured the organic matter contents of various soils around the United States there would be wide differences. Some variations on crop land are due to great losses that have been caused by mismanagement. But even if you could measure virgin soils never used by humans there still would be great differences. Hans Jenny, a soil scientist at the University of Missouri during the 1940s, noticed patterns in soil humus levels and explained how and why this occurs in a wonderfully readable book, Factors in Soil Formation. ”

“ But the publication of this branch of the geology of Pennsylvania has been delayed for various reasons—chiefly because the study and delineation of fossils demand the entire time and exclusive devotion of those who undertake it, and cannot be successfully carried on by a geologist who is commissioned to report on a large territory—to map an entire county—in one field season.
Secondly: The collection of fossils must go first,—their study and delineation is a tedious subsequent performance. ”

“ This work is furthered by the specialists of the U. S. Soil Conservation Service. The soil experts constantly remind the farmers, and others, that America possessed an average top “black” soil depth of nine inches when settlement was first started. They now estimate the average to be between six and seven inches. Soil conservationists hasten to 225 point out that rocks disintegrate slowly, and that ages, not centuries, are required for the growth and decay of plants needed in the production of rich humus soil. Soil scientists do not simply call attention to dangers. ”

“ Rivers also in North America have not generally cut so deep into the different strata, either in the mountains, or during their course in the level country, as materially to derange the stratifications. Broken masses of one formation covering the tops of mountains, whose foundations are composed of rocks of a different class, seldom occur. A third cause of the facility of geological observation in this continent is found in the fact that the whole continent east of the Mississippi follows the arrangement of one great chain of mountains. ”

“ All soil is composed of disintegrated or decayed rock. And it has been observed that the soil of northern North America is foreign to the bed-rock. Therefore it must have been transported from some other place. The glacier did this huge piece of work. The soil of southern United States contains no boulders or cobblestones and has been formed by the disintegration and decay of rocks in place. ”

“ In the United States, it is only in the latter part of the century that the physical geography of the lands has gained a scientific standing, and the advantages that it now enjoys are geographical grafts upon a geological stock. ”

“ At that time, there were practically no geologists in the country; of those known as mining engineers, not more than five or six had received any geological training. The geological surveys were entrusted mostly to young men; Rogers of Virginia was 32; his brother in Pennsylvania was 28; in New York, Mather was 32, Vanuxem was 44, Emmons, 37 and Hall, 25. Among the assistants on the Pennsylvania survey were Lesley, 20, Hodge, 21, Jackson, 23, Haldeman, 24. The country in much of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, even in New York, was little better than a wilderness, eighty years ago ”