“Meeting the needs of every person,

every day”

Introduction

The Nation’s natural resources include its

minerals, energy, land, water, and biota.

In 1996, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

efforts to provide relevant, objective, and

timely information on the location, quantity, and quality of our natural resources

were enhanced by two significant

changes. With the addition of minerals

information specialists from the former

U.S. Bureau of Mines, and with the

merger of scientists from the former

National Biological Service, the USGS

stands uniquely positioned to help

Federal, State, and local government

organizations, private industry, specificinterest groups, and the general public

better address the Nation’s natural

resources needs.

The Nation’s Economic

Decisions Depend on

USGS Mineral

Information

The recent debate on mining near

Yellowstone National Park highlights the

importance of minerals information in

national land use and economic decisions. The USGS provided estimates on

the economic mineral value of the New

World mine site near Yellowstone; these

estimates were used to negotiate a compromise among competing interests

represented by the Federal Government,

mining companies, and other property

owners. Objective evaluations by the

USGS of economic mineral values and

potential are often used by others in

making sound marketing, finance, and

land-use decisions.

The Federal Government also relies on

minerals information to set royalty rates

on commodities such as gold, silver,

copper, and soda ash that are mined from

public lands (fig. 1). The USGS provided

information and analysis on the domestic

and world soda ash industry that

Congress, the Bureau of Land Management, the State of Wyoming, and industry used to negotiate the new royalties 

for soda ash mined in Wyoming.

Revenues generated by the proposed

increase from a rate of 5 percent to 8

percent on new leases and 6 percent on

lease renewals will be split between the

Federal Government and the State of

Wyoming.

Following the breakup of the former

Soviet Union, huge quantities of aluminum ingots were brought to the world

market from Russia. This action, at a

time of worldwide economic recession,

drove prices below the cost of production

for many of the world’s aluminum producers, including those in the United

States. The USGS participated in international negotiations to resolve this

economic problem, contributing on-thespot analyses of proposed solutions. The

signed agreement helped stabilize the

world aluminum market and laid the

groundwork for more orderly integration

of the Russian aluminum industry into

the world market.

How was the USGS able to respond to

these critical issues? The USGS

Minerals Information Team (MIT) was

formed in 1996 following the transfer of

specific minerals functions from the

former U.S. Bureau of Mines. The MIT,

with its broad knowledge of how minerals are extracted, used, and recycled,

complements our traditional expertise in

the scientific study of inplace resources.

These combined capabilities now allow

the USGS to provide the information and

analysis required to ensure a dependable

supply of minerals and mineral-derived

materials for the Nation’s defense and

industrial needs. Customers who rely on

this information to assess and make

decisions related to our Nation’s

economic trends include agencies of the

Federal and State governments; the 

U.S. Congress; regional, national, and

multinational companies and trade

associations; marketing and finance

groups; educational institutions; environmental interest groups; and the general

public (fig. 2).

What types of information are available?

USGS scientists regularly monitor more

than 600 mineral commodities and

publish information on about 100 of

them. About 18,000 domestic companies

that produce, process, or consume

minerals provide statistical data on their

production voluntarily. Data on minerals

in foreign countries are acquired from

several sources, including a questionnaire

sent to the appropriate minerals agency

in each of 190 countries. The USGS

publishes minerals information in more

than 600 monthly, quarterly, and annual

publications each year. Most minerals

information also is accessible immediately through a fax delivery system

(MINES FaxBack at 703-648-4999), an

electronic bulletin board (Mines Data at

703-648-7799), and the World Wide

Web.

Want to know more? Contact the USGS

Mineral Information Team home page at

<URL: http://minerals.er.usgs.gov/

minerals/>

The U.S. Geological Survey

Recent Highlights—Natural Resources

U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey

Figure 1. Trona soda ash mine, Wyoming. 

Figure 2. Principal users of minerals publications.

Media and

Transportation

7%

Government and

Academia

21%

Other

7%

Marketing and

Finance

24%

Exploration, Mining,

Processing, and

Manufacturing

41%
Urban Dynamics Helps

City and County

Managers Plan for the

Future

Have you ever returned to an area (such

as your hometown, college town, or

former vacation site) and noticed how

much it has grown? Or have you noticed

steady construction and more traffic on

your way to work? If so, then you’ve

probably had a first-hand experience

with urban dynamics and the demand for

one of our most valuable resources—

land.

What is urban dynamics and how is it

being used? Urban dynamics is the

application of archived and current

geographic, topographic, and land use

information to document histories of 

land use change in metropolitan areas.

Urban dynamics helps city and county

planners, regulators, developers, and the 

general public better visualize the overall 

patterns of urban growth, thus providing

an important tool for their land use planning decisions. If a picture is indeed

worth 1,000 words, a good map may be

worth 1,000 pictures. The influences of

railroads, interstate highways, and

industry on urbanization can be clearly

seen and can be used to forecast the

effects of future infrastructure changes

on growth patterns.

In the Baltimore/Washington area, the

USGS, in collaboration with the

University of Maryland Baltimore

County, NASA Mission to Planet Earth,

Bureau of the Census, Library of

Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and

Maryland Historic Trust, is successfully

demonstrating the value of combining

historical maps with remotely sensed

satellite data and specific geographic

information to visually show how the

cities have grown and spread from 1792

through 1992. 

What physical factors have influenced

urban development patterns? Planners

can clearly see how roads, railroads, and

seaports have shaped urban development

in the Baltimore/Washington area. Urban

data bases containing information on

highways, railroads, houses, buildings,

rivers, seaports, reservoirs, and shorelines— at specific points in time—

dramatically show how modern

urbanization results in profound changes

to the landscape. In the Baltimore/

Washington area (fig. 3), urban

development dramatically increased

starting at the turn of the century and

continuing to the present day. The

hydrography data shows planners the

changes in navigable rivers, the

development of reservoirs for water

supplies, and the changing shoreline

resulting from harbor development and

salt pond formation.

Figure 3. A window into the past—mapping growth trends.

A Collaborative Study between

U.S. Geological Survey

University of Maryland Baltimore County

funded by NASA/MTPE

U.S. Bureau of Census

Smithsonian Institute

Library of Congress

Maryland Historical Trust 
Animations showing urban growth over

time have been created from such data

for metropolitan areas in both Baltimore/

Washington and San Francisco for use by

policymakers, collaborators, and the

general public. The timing and pattern of

urban growth is being used to study

chemical and sediment flows into the

Chesapeake Bay and their impact on its

living resources, such as aquatic vegetation, crab, and rockfish. By analyzing

past trends in urban development,

scientists can better understand human

impact on water quality.

Want to know more? The animation and

additional information describing the use

of urban dynamics in the Baltimore/

Washington area are available over the

Internet at 

<URL: http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/

umap/umap.html>

Ground Water Chemistry

and Age-Dating Techniques Help City and

County Officials Plan for

Future Water Supplies

USGS research is helping cities and

counties identify the surficial sources of

water that eventually is pumped from

their deep water wells. By knowing

which streams and watersheds are

contributing water to wells, cities and

counties can make better informed

decisions regarding land use planning

and well-head protection. In the Black

Hills area of South Dakota, USGS

scientists have used information from the

hydrogen and oxygen in local streams

and ground water to help Rapid City

water managers figure out the source of

the water that is pumped from their

municipal-supply wells. Why is this

important? Because if the city management knows the source of the wells’

water, they can more efficiently, economically, and effectively protect the principal

source of drinking water for their 50,000-

plus residents. Also, they can now forecast and plan more accurately for the

effects of reduced stream flow (such as

from a drought) on their water supply.

What clues are hydrogen and oxygen

providing? USGS scientists have found

that each of the major streams in the

Rapid City area has a distinct identifying

feature (called an isotopic signature). As

streams flow across porous rocks known

as the Madison Limestone (fig. 4), water

from the streams sinks into the ground

and moves through karst or cave-like

features and fractures ( fig. 5) until it

intersects land surface (a spring) or

enters a “capture” area and is pumped to

the land surface by a municipal-supply

well. Water pumped from the well was

analyzed using sophisticated geochemical techniques to determine the hydrogen and oxygen isotopic signatures. By

comparing the signatures in water

samples from pumped wells with

signatures in samples collected from 

the streams, the scientists were able to

determine how much of the water

pumped from the well came from which

stream. 

Why age-date water? Research into

ground water age-dating techniques is

also helping water managers forecast the

effects of pumping from water wells

(such as declines in water levels) on

ground-water supplies and surface-water

flows. USGS scientists are identifying

the age of ground water by combining

three different methods: (1) detecting the

presence or absence of a specific

compound; (2) measuring the radioactive

decay of tritium (introduced into the

atmosphere from above-ground testing of

thermonuclear devices); and (3) entering

information about the direction and rate

of ground water flow and the material

through which it flows into a computer

model that “tracks” the movement of a

particle of water.

USGS scientists have developed a way to

determine the concentration of specific

compounds called chlorofluorocarbons

(CFC) (one of them is Freon) in minute

quantities. These CFC’s were first

manufactured in the 1930’s, and if

detected in a sample, indicate that the

age of the water generally is younger

than the 1940’s. Combining what is

known about the concentrations of Freon

Figure 5. Generalized ground water flow in the Black Hills near Rapid City, South Dakota

Figure 4. Doty Spring and the Madison Limestone,

South Dakota.
and tritium with a computer representation of the ground water flow system,

USGS scientists were able to determine

more accurately the location and amount

of recharge to an aquifer in southern

New Jersey. The recharge numbers can

now be used by the State of New Jersey

to assess the effects of current and future

pumping on water levels in wells, on

streamflow, and on water quality.

Want more information? Current research

into ground water flow in fractured or

karst-like areas and using CFC’s and

tritium to age-date ground water can be

found on the Internet at

<URL: http://wwwrvares.er.usgs.gov/

nrp/nrp.html>

USGS Using Gap

Analysis Program to

Document Biodiversity

Over Large Areas

The Gap Analysis Program (GAP) is a

cooperative effort to map natural land

cover, vertebrate species, and the lands

that are managed in ways that maintain

biological diversity. Federal funding is

matched at the State level with additional

funds and services. The purpose of GAP

is to identify the “gaps” in our network

of lands used for conservation of species

and habitats. GAP is founded on the

premise that by building partnerships

between government and the private

sector for developing and applying this

information, future conservation crises

can be avoided.

USGS scientists participating in GAP are

helping provide a sound scientific basis

for tough decisions regarding the

planning and use of natural resources

facing environmental groups, regulators,

developers, State and Federal land

management agencies, and the general

public. To date, more than 100 GAP data

sets have been used for issues ranging

from a county open space planning effort

to finding the best location for an aspen

mill site.

GAP brings together the problem-solving

capabilities of Federal, State, private, and

academic scientists to tackle the difficult

issues of land cover mapping, vertebrate

habitat characterization, assessment, and

biodiversity conservation at the State,

regional, and national levels. Currently

GAP has more than 440 State, private,

and Federal partners, and has active or

planned projects in 44 States (fig. 6).

For example, in Utah, collaboration

between the Environmental Systems

Research Institute, USGS EROS Data

Center, and GAP produced a prototype

compact disk for distribution of GAP

data. Now, maps and other data from

GAP projects are distributed on compact

computer disks and over the Internet.

In Tennessee, the information developed

by the Tennessee Gap Analysis Project is

used by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources

Agency (TWRA) for locating and managing particular habitat types. Information on the locations of these habitat

types is provided by the TWRA to the

public for a wide variety of public

service functions, from education to

cooperative resource management. For

example, the TWRA provided the

foundation material for the Tennessee

Biodiversity Educational Initiative. 

In California, the Southern California

Association of Governments used the

GAP information to guide their joint

decisions on open space planning, and

developers are using California GAP

maps to help them make real estate

investment decisions. In Arkansas,

Weyerhaeuser Corp. is using the

Arkansas GAP data to aid in managing

its forest lands. IBM Corp. is funding a

project at the University of California,

Santa Barbara, which uses GAP data in

the development of visualization

software. In Montana, Missoula County

used the GAP land cover map of the area

as a base map for its comprehensive

long-range planning, and many other

county governments across the United

States are doing the same. These are just

some of the hundreds of examples of

ways in which GAP information is being

used by industry and government for the

planning and research for managing our

natural resources.

Want to learn more about GAP? Contact

their home page at

<URL: http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap/> 

You can also reach GAP by e-mail at

gap@uidaho.edu, or call 208-885-3555.

Information

For information on these and other

USGS products and services, call 

1-800-USA-MAPS, fax 703-648-5548,

or e-mail: esicmail@usgs.gov.

Receive information from the

EARTHFAX fax-on-demand system,

which is available 24 hours a day at 

703-648-4888.

The address for the USGS home page is

<URL: http://www.usgs.gov/>

The address for the Natural Resources

Theme page is

<URL: http://www.usgs.gov /themes/

resource.html>

February 1997 FS-010-97

Figure 6. Current status of GAP projects.

EXPLANATION

Completed

Near completion

Not started

Being organized

Underway