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International scientific activities conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in fiscal year 1984, listed by country or region -Continued

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Scientific Cooperative Activities

Volcano and geothermal studies.

Seismology and seismic risk assessment; geochemistry; volcanology;
marine geology.

Joint panels on earthquake prediction, marine geology, marine

mining; symposium on resources of 1990's; massive sulfide
assessments.

Volcano studies; geochemical and geophysical exploration; mineral
and metallogenic map analyses; regional structure and
stratigraphic studies; tectonostratigraphic terrane studies.
Geologic and hydrologic training and resource assessments.
South Pacific cruise; hydrocarbon-resources studies; oceanic crusts
studies; chromite resources; Circum-Pacific mapping.
Earthquake studies; remote sensing; volcanism and metallogeny;
coal basin studies; petroleum geology of carbonate rocks; Circum-
Pacific geologic and tectonic framework; surface-water
hydrology.

Strategic minerals inventory.

Offshore petroleum-resources and geothermal-resources
assessments.

Seafloor geologic mapping; petroleum geology research;
sedimentary basin analysis.

Ground-water resources; remote sensing for mineral deposits;
earthquake research; marine geology of continental margins.
Nuclear waste disposal.

Marine geology; world coal resources.

Joint committee on earthquake prediction.

Crustal structure research; seismology and earthquake hazards;
subsidence research; geochemical surveys; remote sensing;
engineering geology; geophysics.

International Strategic Mineral Inventory; World Energy
Resources Program.

work Program, and the Earthquake
Hazards Reduction Program. As an
initial contribution to the Carribean
program, the Geological Survey
published Circular 925, Earth and
Water Resources and Hazards in
Central America, which is a review of
information available for natural
resources in the region and the potential
impact of geologic hazards such as
earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic
eruptions. Survey scientists have briefed
officials of the Department of the
Interior, the Department of State, and
the U.S. Agency for International
Development throughout the year to
acquaint them with the resource and
hazards potential of the region and to
outline the Survey's proposals for study.
The Caribbean nations have onshore,
and possibly offshore, deposits of gold,

silver, and, to a lesser extent, platinum.
Coal and rock phosphate deposits are
known but unassessed. Potential areas
for oil and gas development are
untested for the most part. Geothermal
energy resources are developed locally,
but their potential for development
elsewhere is just now being considered.
Development of reliable potable water
supplies and their protection from
pollution are of considerable interest in
the Caribbean nations, and mitigation of
the risks from geologic hazards is
necessary to the safety and well-being
of the inhabitants. As initial activities in
the Caribbean basin, the Geological
Survey proposes onshore and offshore
energy- and mineral-resource studies,
geologic and hydrologic surveys, and
geologic hazards studies. Programs of
regional geological mapping using

sophisticated geophysical and geochemical techniques are needed to assess the potential of the area.

Phosphate Symposium

The Survey, East Carolina University, and the International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) Project 156 sponsored a workshop on the potential for discovery of useful phosphate deposits in the Caribbean. The workshop was held at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, in July 1984. Scientists from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Mexico met with U.S. specialists to consider the regional and detailed geologic studies needed to assess the rock phosphate potential that would provide an accessible local source of agricultural fertilizer. The development of this resource will be a giant step towards mitigating the region's severe food production problems. As a result of the workshop, the country representatives now are working to establish a Caribbean basin phosphate resources group to plan and coordinate phosphate assessment in the region. The U.S. Geological Survey and the IGCP Project 156 will provide advice and assistance to this regional resource group.

Costa Rica

In July 1983, the Survey initiated a technical assistance program in coalresources assessment and exploration with Costa Rican counterparts in the Gerencia de Exploración de Refinadora Costarricense de Petroleo (RECOPE) under the auspices of the Agency for International Development. A RECOPE geologist received on-the-job training in coal exploratory and drillhole geophysical logging techniques with Geological Survey counterparts in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming during that summer. In 1984, three of nine coalbearing areas in Costa Rica were targeted for study; in the Volio area in the southeast, RECOPE is drilling to determine the quantity of coal available; reconnaissance mapping and surface exploration are being done in the

Venado area to the north and in the Zent area to the east. Survey personnel advise and train RECOPE Counterparts in coal mapping and resource assessment methodologies, exploratory drilling and downhole geophysical logging techniques, and coal sample collection, processing, and analysis. Assessment of the quality of Costa Rican coal will be accelerated with completion of a Survey-designed coal analytical laboratory in RECOPE under the leadership of a Costa Rican chemist who received training this year at a Surveyselected commercial laboratory in the United States. Development of coal resources of the Caribbean region for utilization in the production of electricity will decrease the dependency on imported oil. As a source to replace fuelwood, coal utilization can alleviate severe problems caused by deforestation in the region.

Colombia

A geologic synthesis and mineral resource assessment of Colombia was completed in 1984 with cooperation of scientists from the Survey and the Instituto de Investigaciones GeologicoMineras in Colombia. This project was designed to organize and review existing geologic information to identify terranes in Colombia that have the greatest potential for new mineral discoveries. Mineral deposit models were developed and adapted for deposits that occur in Colombia or in similar terranes elsewhere, and guides for further mineral resource studies and assessments were presented. The cooperative review provides a solid base for the planning of more detailed programs of exploration in South and Central America and Caribbean nations. Concurrent and follow-up cooperative studies thus far undertaken include assistance in the establishment of a microcomputer-based geochemical data base, workshops and assistance in the conduct of geochemical surveys and chemical analyses, planning of cooperative marine mineral research, seminars for a national rock phosphate assessment program, and research for a national geologic hazards reduction program. Results of the assessment have been released as U.S. Geological Survey

Open-file Report 84–345 titled Mineral
Resource Assessment of Colombia.

The Geological Survey and the Corporacion Autónoma Regional del Cauca, a Colombian organization similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority, are cooperating in a project to simulate by mathematical model the streamflow of the Cauca River in northwestern Colombia. Colombian scientists will evaluate the applicability of a Surveydeveloped model to the Cauca River to guide the operation of a dam which will become functional in early 1985. Satellite data relay also will be used with the model to obtain realtime data on river stages and meteorologic conditions for realtime operation of the model.

Peru

Technical assistance and institutional development continued in 1984 in Peru where Survey scientists trained and guided geologists and geochemists of the Empresa Minera del Centro del Perú in geological and geochemical mapping and in sample processing and analyses at a Survey-designed laboratory. Investigations continued in the Puquio prospect and began in the Acos concession, which are in the Sur Medio region. Frequency distribution tables, single and multielement distribution maps, preliminary geologic maps, and accompanying reports are in preparation.

South Pacific-East Asia

The U.S. Geological Survey's Research Vessel Samuel P. Lee completed a 3-month, 4-leg resource appraisal cruise in the southwest Pacific in 1984 as part of "Operation Deep Sweep," a pole-topole expedition designed to obtain data to further the knowledge of tectonic processes and resource potential of the Pacific Basin. The scientific expedition, the second in as many years, is a continuation of the Australia-New Zealand-United States (ANZUS) Tripartite Geoscientific Resource Investigation in the southwest Pacific under the direction of the Committee for Coordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in South Pacific Offshore

Areas (CCOP/SOPAC). The expedition took the ship from San Francisco to the Bering Sea and Hawaii, from there to international waters offshore of the nations of Kiribati, Samoa, New Zealand, Antarctica, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea, and returning to San Francisco via the Marshall Islands and Hawaii. Results of the Antarctica portion of the cruise are described in the article titled The Antarctic Leg of "Operation Deep Sweep" in the Geologic Investigations chapter.

The recently completed ANZUS-CCOP/ SOPAC investigation was successful in delineating structural and stratigraphic features that may be promising mineralor energy-resource targets. In the Tonga-Lau region, a shallow magma chamber was identified that could possibly be a source for polymetallic mineralization. In Vanuatu, the Torres-Santa Cruz basin was found to be quite extensive (over 7,000 square miles) and to contain sediment about 3 miles thick. The sedimentary basins associated with the Central Solomons Trough and offshore New Ireland basin in eastern Papua New Guinea were defined further and found to contain structures that could trap oil and gas. The Geological Survey conducted a 6-month pilot study to analyze Tertiary sedimentary basins in the CircumBorneo offshore areas of Malaysian Sarawak and Sabah, Brunei, Indonesian Kalimantan, and the southwestern Philippines as a forerunner to a planned program in basin analysis of the East Asia Region (fig. 1). The study was undertaken as part of a proposed cooperative program for the evaluation of sedimentary basins for the International Union of Geological Sciences and was carried out in cooperation with the United Nations Coordinating Committee for Joint Prospecting of Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore Areas. The objective of the pilot study was to demonstrate methodologies and to assist the nations involved in an assessment of the petroleum resources of the region. The analysis was done within the extended framework of the Circum-Pacific Map Project in that data was supplied by the countries involved,

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Information Systems Division

At one of the demonstration

booths set up in the center, a SuperBrain equipped with a Maxtex XCEL graphics board displays a design. The SuperBrain also has software to drive the Bausch & Lomb

DMP-29 plotter.

MISSION

The Information Systems Division provides support and advice to the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of the Interior, other government agencies, and the other Divisions of the Survey on all matters relating to Bureau information technology and automated data processing (ADP) services. It provides these services along with acquisition assistance for users of large general-purpose computers, smaller special purpose computers, and telecommunications. The Division provides for coordination and growth of information systems through systems analysis and design and conducts ADP research into better ways to use technology to solve mission-related problems. It is responsible for guidelines for data standards, data administration, and data base management.

BUDGET AND PERSONNEL

The Information Systems Division had a budget of $20 million for fiscal year 1984. Other Survey Divisions and Department of the Interior and Federal agency users provided funding.

As a Department of the Interior General Purpose Computer Center, the Division computing facilities were available to other Interior offices and bureaus as well as to all Survey Divisions.

Division staffing consisted of 167 fulltime employees, primarily computer specialists, computer analysts, mathematicians, systems programmers, computer scientists, and technicians. The staff was augmented by part-time and intermittent employees and contract personnel who greatly assisted in fulfilling the mission of the Division. These employees served customers from the five ADP

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