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  4. Geochemical and mineralogical data for mine waste from Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine, Lake County, California

Geochemical and mineralogical data for mine waste from Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine, Lake County, California

Dates

Publication Date
Start Date
2020-11-20
End Date
2022-06-17

Citation

McVey, C.J., Alpers, C.N., Benzel, W., Foster, A.L., Whitacre, S., and Basta, N., 2023, Geochemical and mineralogical data for mine waste from Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine, Lake County, California: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P93EDIQQ.

Summary

This data release presents geochemical and mineralogical data from mine waste at Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine (SBMM). This work is performed in cooperation with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to characterize sources of contamination at the SBMM cleanup site. A total of 23 samples were collected: 15 samples were collected by USGS from various waste piles (14 composites from the top 0-5cm of material, and one composite from six discrete ore hand samples), six composite samples were generated from drill cores from monitoring wells installed by EPA contractor EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc., in the waste rock dam in 2022. Two additional hand samples - one cinderblock and one scoria - were collected by USGS from [...]

Contacts

Point of Contact :
Connor J Mcvey
Process Contact :
Connor J Mcvey, Jaime S Azain
Originator :
Connor J Mcvey, Charles N Alpers, William M Benzel, Andrea L Foster, Shane Whitacre, Nicholas Basta
Metadata Contact :
Connor J Mcvey
Distributor :
U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
Publisher :
U.S. Geological Survey
SDC Data Owner :
California Water Science Center
USGS Mission Area :
Water Resources

Attached Files

Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.

10.5066_P93EDIQQ_metadata.xml
“Metadata file”
Original FGDC Metadata
View 		53.95 KB application/fgdc+xml
HermanPit_and_WastePiles.jpg
“Photo of Herman Impoundment looking to the Southeast” 		thumbnail 1.55 MB image/jpeg
Table_1_DataDictionary.csv 328.48 KB text/csv
Table_2_ICP_OES-MS.csv 20.13 KB text/csv
Table_3_ICP_OES-MS_QC.csv 10.08 KB text/csv
Table_4_Sequential_Extraction.csv 3.66 KB text/csv
Table_5_Sequential_Extraction_QC.csv 3.5 KB text/csv
Table_6_Semi-quantitative_XRD.csv 8.34 KB text/csv
Table_7_As_Bioaccessibility.csv 2.2 KB text/csv

Purpose

These data were collected to help characterize mine waste at Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine. The abandoned mine was listed on EPA's National Priority List for Superfund clean-up in 1990 and is considered to be the largest source of contaminant mercury in the Clear Lake watershed. This research aids a better understanding of the contaminants at the mine site, as well as how those contaminants may enter Clear Lake and the broader ecosystem. This work will help inform EPA cleanup efforts.
Photo of Herman Impoundment looking to the Southeast
Photo of Herman Impoundment looking to the Southeast

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Communities

  • USGS California Water Science Center
  • USGS Data Release Products

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Identifiers

Type Scheme Key
DOI https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/item/identifier doi:10.5066/P93EDIQQ

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