6. Section of metalliferous deposits. 7. Section of nonmetalliferous deposits. 8. Section of eastern mineral fuels (east of the one hundredth meridian). 9. Section of western mineral fuels (west of the one hundredth meridian). ALLOTMENTS. The total funds from the appropriations for the year 1913-14 · available for geologic work of the Survey in the United States were: Supervision, administration, salaries of clerical, techni- 72, 980 308, 700 Land-classification board 22, 000 Of the amounts allotted to the geologic branch, $249,000 was expended directly for geologic work, including the search for potash. Of this amount $94,000, or 37.8 per cent, was expended east of the one hundredth meridian and $155,000 west of it. The allotment for supervision, etc., was divided in the same proportion between the eastern and the western work. As the work of the land-classification board relates only to the Western States the total amount expended on account of work in the region west of the one hundredth meridian, nearly all of which was expended in the public-land States, approximates 67 per cent of the total appropriation. 60734°-INT 1914-VOL 1-22 COOPERATION WITH FEDERAL BUREAUS AND STATE SURVEYS. The cooperative funds expended during the fiscal years 1913–14 were as follows: General Land Office, for coal-land classification____ General Land Office, for surveys at Caddo Lake, La.-Tex_ Department of Justice.. Bureau of Mines.. Cooperation with States and official organizations_--- $35, 000. 00 13, 047. 28 13, 066. 65 The money allotted by the General Land Office ($35,000) was expended west of the one hundredth meridian, being assigned to the section of western fuels for use in the classification of public coal and oil lands. Since last year agreements for cooperation in geologic investigations have been entered into by the State geological surveys of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Kentucky. Geologic investigations have been carried on under cooperative agreement in 14 States-Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Cooperation is effective with the Bureau of Mines in the metallographic study of ores and in the investigation of the invasion of California oil wells by salt water. The Survey has also engaged with the Bureau of Standards, the Bureau of Mines, and the Office of Public Roads in a thorough and systematic investigation of the building stones of the United States. The survey also cooperates with the Smithsonian Institution and the Isthmian Canal Commission, and in several lines of research has informal cooperation with the Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory and the marine biological station at Tortugas. GENERAL FEATURES OF THE WORK. The primary function of the division of geology is to prepare a geologic map of the United States, to classify public lands, to make investigative and quantitative surveys of mineral deposits and to make all geologic, paleontologic, and petrologic researches necessary to this work. The scientific investigations of geologic problems are of kinds directly contributive to economic geology as well as to knowledge of geologic principles and phenomena. Thus the observations regarding temperatures in deep bore holes and mines will incidentally put to test the hypothesis maintained by some geologists that oil and gas bearing geologic formations have higher temperatures and offer steeper temperature gradients than formations not contain ing these hydrocarbons. The study of the sedimentation of the lower Mississippi River, and of the Delta in particular, bears not only on the problems of detrital transportation and filling, but also on the abatement of flood disasters, on the formation of obstructions to navigation in the Delta, and, through observations of the chemical changes in the waters and sediments, on the formation of disseminated ores from solutions in the mud and water. The analysis of crinoid stems or other invertebrate shells and tests representing molluscan types now living in different parts of the oceans promises to contribute important information as to the conditions under which dolomites and dolomitic limestones were deposited. On the other hand, the studies of the mutual relations of water, oil, and gas in rocks of varying degree of porosity and of different compositions, and of their movements under various structural conditions, which the Survey has recently felt justified in undertaking in connection with the investigation of the enormous damage occasioned in a number of oil fields by the invasion of the oil sands by water, not only promise valuable scientific results, including a better understanding of the mutual relations and the modes of occurrence of water, oil, and gas in rocks and in structures of different kinds, but assure data which will make possible far more accurate and certain prediction as to the occurrence or absence of oil and gas in commercial quantities in rocks of different textures occurring in different structural relations. These investigations have only recently been begun in the Survey. It is hoped that they may be as successful and beneficial as the longer established researches relating to the origin and modes of occurrence of the various types of ore deposits. All these various researches, as well as the paleontologic researches, which are indispensable to the geologic mapping of the country, yield educational by-products of the highest value. The geologic work of the division, both in the field and in the office, is under the immediate supervision of the chiefs of the respective sections, who are directly responsible for maintaining efficiency and a high standard of work. Exceptions are made of the studies of detrital deposition in California, carried on by G. K. Gilbert under the joint auspices of the geologic and water-resources branches, and the general monographic description of the geology of the Yellowstone National Park, in progress by Arnold Hague. The work of these distinguished senior geologists of the Survey is reported directly to the chief geologist. Services varying in extent have, during the year, been rendered by this division to the Office of Indian Affairs in the classification of Indian lands; to the General Land Office in the classification of withdrawn coal, oil, and phosphate lands; to the commission having in charge the purchase of lands for Appalachian forest reserves in accordance with the provision of the Weeks Act; and to the Isthmian Canal Commission with respect to the geologic structure, the stability of foundation rocks, and the resources of the Canal Zone. The Department of Justice has made frequent demands on the services of the Geological Survey in connection with the prosecution of suits concerning the public lands. SCOPE OF THE WORK OF THE SECTIONS. The work of each of the several sections of the division of geology is briefly outlined in the following synopsis: 1. The section of eastern areal geology-Arthur Keith, geologist in charge conducts reconnaissance and detailed work in areal or general geology in regions east of the one hundredth meridian, the primary object of which is to make known, mainly through folios of the geologic atlas, the general geology of the region studied, or to prepare scientific and educational descriptions of it, rather than to examine and describe or map the area especially on account of some geologic problem or some particular economic resource. The work of this section is carried on in close cooperation with several State surveys and university departments of geology, an effort being made to coordinate the work of all participants. During the year the operations of the section have covered projects in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. 2. The work of the section of western areal geology (west of the one hundredth meridian)-F. L. Ransome, geologist in chargecorresponds to that of the section of eastern areal geology and is similar in scope, these sections being especially charged with the preparation of the folios of the geologic atlas of the United States. The activities of the section have concerned the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, New Mexico, Oregon, and South Dakota. 3. The section of Coastal Plain investigations-T. Wayland Vaughan, geologist in charge-is occupied primarily with the study of the numerous geologic formations of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain, their character, extent, general structure, correlations, conditions of deposition, and history, and especially of the underground water and other mineral resources of the region. Most of the areal work of this section during the last year has been of the reconnaissance type. Its office investigations are comprehensive and broadly scientific as well as economic. The National Museum, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Carnegie Institution, and a number of specialists in biology or paleontology, as well as the division of underground waters of the water-resources branch, have cooperated with or contributed to the work of this section. 4. The section of glacial geology-W. C. Alden, geologist in charge is engaged in the study of the work of the great glaciers, the glacial and interglacial deposits and the contemporary deposits of the bordering regions, and the geologic history of the continent during the Pleistocene epoch. The geologists occupied with these varied and specialized problems are charged with the classification and mapping of the Pleistocene deposits of the glaciated regions. The work of this section during the year has comprised field studies and mapping and the preparation of reports covering areas in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Ohio, Vermont, and Wisconsin. 5. The section of paleontology and stratigraphy-T. W. Stanton, geologist in charge is responsible for the determination of the relative ages and equivalences of the strata in different areas and for the reference of the formations to a geologic time scale. The geologists who specialize in paleontology are engaged also in working out the sequence and character of the continental changes, the physiographic and climatic conditions of the various periods, and the history of the animal and plant life of the geologic epochs. The field study of the stratigraphic distribution of the fossil floras and faunas gives the most complete key to the correlation of the beds; hence the paleontologists can most efficiently accomplish their work by close cooperation with the areal and economic geologists. The work of this section is practically coextensive with that of the divisions of geology and of Alaskan mineral resources and is indispensable to the geologic mapping of the areas surveyed and the satisfactory determination of the structure. 6. The section of metalliferous deposits-F. L. Ransome, geologist in charge-not only studies metalliferous deposits and mines and investigates the conditions and methods of ore deposition, but also carries on reconnaissance geologic examination of many new districts and makes complete detailed areal surveys, for folio publication, of quadrangles in which metalliferous deposits are of special importance, the folios being subject to the inspection and approval of the geologists in charge of areal geology. The geologists of the section have been engaged on projects that will be referred to in the detailed description of the work of the division in the States of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. |