Economic Geology, Mining Geology, and Energy Resources

(including metallic and non-metallic ores/minerals, petroleum and energy resources, building stones/materials, sand, gravel, clay, etc.)

! Plan and conduct mineral, rock, hydrocarbon, or energy resource exploration and evaluation programs

! Implement geologic field investigations on prospects

! Perform geologic interpretations for rock, mineral, and petroleum deposit evaluations, resource assessments, and probability of success

! Perform economic analyses/appraisals

! Provide geologic interpretations for mine development and production activities

! Provide geologic interpretations and plans for abandonment, closure, and restoration of mineral and energy development or extraction operations

! Identify mineral deposits from surface and/or subsurface mapping or remote imagery

! Predict subsurface mineral or rock distribution on basis of exposures, drill hole, or other subsurface data

! Evaluate safety hazards associated with mineral, petroleum, and/or energy exploration and development

! Determine potential uses and economic value of minerals, rocks, or other natural resources

Other related activities which may be performed by qualified Professional Geologists

! Implement siting plans for the location of lagoons and landfills

! Environmental contaminant isocontour mapping

! Conduct water well inventories

! Determine geotechnical aquifer parameters

! Land and water (surface and ground water) use utilized in planning, land usage, and other determinations

! Determine sampling parameters and provide field oversight.

Emergency response activities and spill response planning including implementation and coordination with local, state, and federal agencies

! Develop plans and methods with law enforcement, fire, emergency management agencies, toxicologists and industrial hygienists to determine methods of protection for public health and safety

! Provide training related to hazardous materials and environmental issues related to hazardous materials

! Develop plans and methods with biologists for protection of wildlife during spill events

! Prepare post spill assessments and remediation plans

! Develop and implement site safety plans and environmental sampling plans

! Provide educational outreach related to geological, geotechnical, hydrologic, emergency response and other activities

! Respond to natural disaster events (i.e. floods, earthquakes, etc.) for protection of human health and the environment

! Participate in pre-planning for spill events in coastal or other environmentally sensitive environments

! Develop resource(s) and infrastructure vulnerability assessment plans and reports related to potable and non-potable water supplies, waste water treatment facilities, etc.

Some more information about rocks (3800)

Dykes are intersecting veins. In inclination dykes may vary from vertical to horizontal. Sometimes we may observe them extend, outward from larger masses of intruded rocks.

Effusive or volcanic rocks occur in the forms of domes, sheets and flows. Domes are the names of arched accumulations of lava solidified in the form of beds similar to those of sedimen­tary rocks.

Sheets are formed on the surface from quiet outwelling of highly molten materials through a) localized opening or volcanic vents and hence connected with volcanic eruptions or b) from fissures not connected with volcanic eruptions. Sheets are similar in form to sedimentary strata and extend to large areas.

Flows are formed in the same manner as sheets but they fill negative reliefs such as valleys and flumes. Flows are much smaller in size than sheets.

Igneous rocks are characterized by a holocrystal line (or granular-crystalline)_, glassy and porphyritic structure.

Igneous rocks are subdivided according to their chemical composition. Based upon the silicon oxide content the rocks are divided into ultra acid, acid average, basic and ultra basic. The amount of silica present exercises an important influence on the crystallization of the magma. The many hundreds of analyses that have been made of igneous rocks show them to contain the following principal oxides, silica, alumina, iron oxides, ferric, ferrous, magnesia, lime, soda, and potash. These principal oxides as composing igneous rocks do not exist as free oxides, excepting a few cases with but a few exceptions only in small amounts.

TEXTURE OF IGNEOUS ROOKS.

By texture of an igneous rock is meant size, shape and manner of aggregation of its component minerals. It is considered to be an important means of determin­ing the physical conditions under which the rock was formed at or near the surface or at some depth below and hence is recog­nized to be one of the important factors in the classification of igneous rocks.

Some rocks are sufficiently coarse-grained in texture for the principal mineral to be readily distinguished by unaided eye. In others their minerals are too small to be seen even with the aided eye. There are also those in which no minerals appeared to have crystallized. Instead the magma has solidified as a glass.

KINDS OF TEXTURE.

Expressing so closely the conditions under which rock magmas solidify the texture is recognized to be an important property of rocks and one of the principal factors in their classifications.

In megascopic description of igneous rocks five principal textures were reported to exist. They are glassy, dense or felsitic, porphyritic, granitoid and fragmental.

According to the size of mineral grains we may recognize: 1) fine-grained ; 2) medium-grained; 3) coarse-grained rocks.

DESCRIPTION OF SOME IGNEOUS ROOKS.

Granites are known to be composed of feldspar and quartz usually with mica or hornblende, rarely pyroxene.

The chemical composition of granite is now regarded to be of less economic importance than the mineral composition.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES.

The usual colour of granite is reported to be some shade of grey though pink or red varieties are likely to occur depending chiefly upon that of the feldspar and the proportion of the feldspar to the dark minerals. Specific gravity ranges from 2.65 to 2.75. The percentage of absorption is very small. Crushing strength is very high ranging from 15.000 to 20.000 pounds per square inch (psi).

These properties render the rock especially desirable for building purposes.

DIORITE. MINERAL COMPOSITION.

The diorites are granular rocks which are known to be composed of plagioclass as the chief feldspar and hornblende or biotite or both.

Augite is likely to be present in some amount and some ortho - class occurs in all diorites. The name diorite is applied to those granular rocks in which hornblende is found to equal or exceed feldspar in amount. Because of the fine-grained texture it is not possible in many cases to determine by megascopic exa­mination the dominant feldspar.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

The most important points to be ob­served in the chemical composition of normal diorites are lower silica content but notably increased percentages of the bases, iron, lime and magnesia over the granites.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES.

Diorites are usually of a dark or greenish colour, sometimes almost black depending upon the colour of hornblende and its proportion to feldspar. They have a higher specific gravity than granites, ranging from 2.82 to 5.0. They show a high compressive strength and a low per­centage of absorption.