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Denver Microbeam Laboratory

The USGS Denver Microbeam Laboratory provides critical analytical and characterization support for a wide variety of internal USGS projects and external collaborators. In addition, the lab continually works to develop new methods or improve existing methods to analyze a variety of sample matrices. 

 

News

Secretary of the Interior Visits Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Secretary of the Interior Visits Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado School of Mines announce long-term partnership

U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado School of Mines announce long-term partnership

Investigating Lung Disease in Military Veterans

Investigating Lung Disease in Military Veterans

Publications

Hydrothermal monazite and xenotime chemistry as genetic discriminators for intrusion-related and orogenic gold deposits: Implications for an orogenic origin of the Pogo gold deposit, Alaska

Attempts to geochemically distinguish between metamorphic-hydrothermal systems that form orogenic gold deposits and both reduced and oxidized magmatic-hydrothermal systems using isotopes or metal associations have proven ambiguous, particularly for orogenic gold and reduced intrusion-related gold systems. The absence of conclusive geochemical discriminators and the overlap in geologic characterist

Authors
Ryan Taylor, Garth E. Graham, Heather A. Lowers

Reconnaissance mineral and cathodoluminescence studies of gold occurrences in the Pogo-Black Mountain area, eastern interior Alaska, USA

The Pogo Au deposit is the largest of a number of gold occurrences in eastern interior Alaska, that occur along a broad trend from west of Pogo to Black Mountain. Some of these occurrences are hosted in amphibolite facies gneisses and others in mid-Cretaceous igneous rocks that intruded the older metamorphic rocks. All occurrences contain arsenopyrite and pyrite. Whole rock geochemical trends dist

Authors
Garth E. Graham, Erin E. Marsh, Heather A. Lowers, Ryan Taylor

Characterizing lung particulates using quantitative microscopy in coal miners with severe pneumoconiosis

Context.—Current approaches for characterizing retained lung dust using pathologists' qualitative assessment or scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) have limitations.Objective.—To explore polarized light microscopy coupled with image-processing software, termed quantitative microscopy–particulate matter (QM-PM), as a tool to characterize in situ dust in lung t
Authors
Jeremy T. Hua, Carlyne D. Cool, Heather A. Lowers, Leonard H. T. Go, Lauren M. Zell-Baran, Emily A. Sarver, Kirsten S. Almberg, Kathy D. Pang, Susan M. Majka, Angela D. Franko, Naseema I. Vorajee, Robert A. Cohen, Cecil S. Rose

Science

Trace Elements in Quartz, Rutile, and Zircon

Quartz is an ubiquitous mineral that forms in all geologic environments including diagenetic, metamorphic, plutonic, and volcanic settings. Quartz is relatively unreactive and is likely to preserve its geologic history. Trace elements in quartz offer clues to formation temperatures and pressures, fluid chemistry, and tectonic setting. Rutile and zircon are refractory minerals also found in a...
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Trace Elements in Quartz, Rutile, and Zircon

Quartz is an ubiquitous mineral that forms in all geologic environments including diagenetic, metamorphic, plutonic, and volcanic settings. Quartz is relatively unreactive and is likely to preserve its geologic history. Trace elements in quartz offer clues to formation temperatures and pressures, fluid chemistry, and tectonic setting. Rutile and zircon are refractory minerals also found in a...
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Rare Earth Element Microanalysis

Rare earth elements (REE) are critical elements in the technology and energy production sectors as they are used in everything from smartphones to wind turbines. The demand for these materials has seen steady growth and production is lagging. The laboratory supports several projects within the USGS that are characterizing rare earth element minerals from Bokan Mountain and Dora Bay, Alaska...
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Rare Earth Element Microanalysis

Rare earth elements (REE) are critical elements in the technology and energy production sectors as they are used in everything from smartphones to wind turbines. The demand for these materials has seen steady growth and production is lagging. The laboratory supports several projects within the USGS that are characterizing rare earth element minerals from Bokan Mountain and Dora Bay, Alaska...
Learn More

Denver Microbeam Laboratory: Mineral Resources Research Support

The USGS Denver Microbeam Laboratory provides chemical analysis and characterization of rocks, minerals, and environmental samples in support of a wide variety of USGS projects related to mineral resources, including research projects funded by the USGS Mineral Resources Program. The research applications for these projects range from mineral resource research and assessments, to geologic mapping...
link

Denver Microbeam Laboratory: Mineral Resources Research Support

The USGS Denver Microbeam Laboratory provides chemical analysis and characterization of rocks, minerals, and environmental samples in support of a wide variety of USGS projects related to mineral resources, including research projects funded by the USGS Mineral Resources Program. The research applications for these projects range from mineral resource research and assessments, to geologic mapping...
Learn More