Search Documents

By Howard J. Smith

At the meeting of this Institute in February 1933,I presented a paper on potash development in southeastern New Mexico1, which contained a brief review of the Geological Survey's 20-year search for commercial sources of soluble potash minerals and of the events that led to the discovery, exploration, and first development of the deposits in that state. AS a more comprehensive review of the subject was published in December2, the present paper is intended only to discuss recent developments in the domestic potash industry, particularly in New Mexico. A summary of the findings of potash in the Permian Basin, by G. R. Mansfield and W. B. Lang, geologists of the United States Geological Survey, is now in process of publication by the University of Texas and will be omitted from this paper. In New Mexico prospecting for potassium salts during the past two years has increased materially the known area of commercial deposits; development has resulted in an increase from one to three in the number of shafts and the starting of a fourth; an increase of annual productive capacity to 1,000,000 tons of crude salts, or 250,000 tons of K2O; and an increase in annual refining capacity to 140,000 tons of muriate of 62.5 per cent grade. Construction has been completed to increase still further the production of high-grade salts. In California the American Potash & Chemical Co., operating on Searles Lake brines, has increased its plant capacity from about 100,000 tons to 180,000 tons of muriate a year and is now producing soda ash and salt cake in addition to potash and borax. Potash production from cement-plant and industrial-alcohol wastes remains unimportant.

Jan 1, 1938

By Howard J. Smith

At the meeting of this Institute in February 1933,I presented a paper on potash development in southeastern New Mexico1, which contained a brief review of the Geological Survey's 20-year search for commercial sources of soluble potash minerals and of the events that led to the discovery, exploration, and first development of the deposits in that state. AS a more comprehensive review of the subject was published in December2, the present paper is intended only to discuss recent developments in the domestic potash industry, particularly in New Mexico. A summary of the findings of potash in the Permian Basin, by G. R. Mansfield and W. B. Lang, geologists of the United States Geological Survey, is now in process of publication by the University of Texas and will be omitted from this paper. In New Mexico prospecting for potassium salts during the past two years has increased materially the known area of commercial deposits; development has resulted in an increase from one to three in the number of shafts and the starting of a fourth; an increase of annual productive capacity to 1,000,000 tons of crude salts, or 250,000 tons of K2O; and an increase in annual refining capacity to 140,000 tons of muriate of 62.5 per cent grade. Construction has been completed to increase still further the production of high-grade salts. In California the American Potash & Chemical Co., operating on Searles Lake brines, has increased its plant capacity from about 100,000 tons to 180,000 tons of muriate a year and is now producing soda ash and salt cake in addition to potash and borax. Potash production from cement-plant and industrial-alcohol wastes remains unimportant.

Jan 1, 1938

By Jerome Alexander

THE object of this paper is to show that many of the important phenomena of metals and alloys are due to the facts that, at some stage, metals and alloys, or some of their constituents, are in a colloidal state and that a portion of the metal or alloy tends to remain in this state. The so-called amorphous phase in pure metals is an isocolloid, consisting of colloidal groups of metal molecules that may be dispersed in still more finely subdivided metal; these colloidal particles are not truly amorphous, but may consist, in part, if not entirely, of ultramicroscopic crystals; as a result the expressions amorphous phase and amorphous theory might be replaced by the expressions colloidal phase and colloidal theory. Any substance is in the colloidal state when the constituent particles consist of molecular or atomic groups, whose size varies approximately from about 100µµ down to about 5µµ, that is from just below the limit of microscopic resolvability to the dimensions commonly ascribed to the larger molecules. Colloidality involves no assumption as to the shape, internal structure, or orientation of the colloidal particles; size alone is the critical factor. A colloidal system may therefore contain crystalline groups, or amorphous groups (non-crystalline, random or haphazard clusters), or a mixture of the two. All colloids consist of at least two phases, the subdivided substance, or dispersed phase, and the substance into which this is subdivided, the dispersion medium. It is not necessary that there be any chemical difference between the dispersed phase and the dispersion medium. As molecular forces are extremely powerful, their application may produce marked changes in the physical properties of metals. It is doubtful whether metal in the interior, especially of large masses, possesses the same properties as that on or near the surface, which alone is open to, inspection.

Jan 10, 1920

By M. T. Martinson, I. W. Nicholson, C. J. Chindgren, F. P. Williams, L. C. Bauerle, S. F. Ravitz

The vanadiferous shales of southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming constitute the largest known reserve of vanadium in the United States.' These deposits have never been exploited except for the relatively small amounts of vanadium recovered by the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. in the treatment of phosphate rock from southeastern Idaho. The maior domestic source of vanadium has been the sandstone ores of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. Early in World War 11, it appeared that these ores could not meet the greatly increased demand for vanadium, so the investigation described in this report was undertaken to develop processes for the recovery of vanadium from the Idaho-Wyoming deposits. The utilization of these deposits became unnecessary, however, because of greatly expanded production from the Utah-Colorado sandstone ores and the continued availability of vanadium from other sources, chiefly Peru. The major use of vanadium is as an alloying agent in the manufacture of high-quality steels. Vanadium constructional steels usually contain 0.05 to 0.20 pct vanadium, which refines the grain and increases the strength, elastic limit, and resistance to shock and fatigue. Vanadium tool steels not used in high-speed work contain 0.10 to 0.60 pct whereas high-speed tool steels contain 1.0 to 4.0 pct. Vanadium compounds are used as catalysts (principally for the oxidation of SO2 to sulphuric acid and of naphthalene to phthalic acid) and in the paint, chemical, ceramic, dye, and printing industries. The selection of the particular ore deposit to be exploited would involve consideration of many factors besides the metallurgical results that might be obtained. Chief among these would be the reserves of ore available, the grade of the ore, and the mining costs. As very little was known about any of these factors, it was necessary to investigate methods of treatment of all the ores under consideration, working with samples obtained in the course of the exploration work, even though they were not positively representative of the whole deposit from which they were taken. Because of wartime conditions prevailing when this investigation was started, first consideration was given to processes that could be put into operation most quickly and would involve minimum use of strategic materials, even though these processes might not be the most economical.

Jan 1, 1949

By John F. Kendrick, Paul D. Cornelius

This paper is a progress report of a study the authors are making of the sucker-rod pump, considered as a vibrating system with one degree of freedom, with forced vibrations and with viscous damping. Dr. S. Timoshenko's formula is given, defining such a system. Each factor is considered in respect to the problem of operating sucker rods, and the zone is pointed out in which the mathematics do not apply to the sucker-rod pump, because of its variable mass. This general theory is interpreted in the light of nearly two years of testing wells in the field, and correlating the results of other tests. The motion of the pumping mechanism is a vibration. The string of sucker rods vibrates with a natural frequency. The motion of the plunger is the result of adding together these two vibrations, and is modified by a damping or friction factor. The controlling factor appears to be the ratio of the period of the natural vibration of the rod string to the period of the vibration of the pump. The first conclusion is that a definite value of this ratio, which is below resonance and is probably not greater than 0.5, should not be exceeded in order to assure satisfactory performance from the sucker rods. The second conclusion is that the component parts of the pumping equipment should be selected to give the smallest practical period of the natural vibration, and when this does not permit operation at a safe speed and give the required plunger displacement, a longer polished-rod stroke should be used. While the quantitative results are but rough approximations, the qualitative analysis of pumping problems on this basis promises to be of considerable value in diagnosing the cause of poor performance and prescribing suitable remedies. The trouble that results, whenever it becomes necessary to crowd the sucker-rod pump, to take potentials or to handle increasing volumes of water, is responsible for the belief that this type of pump is not equal to present day needs, and that it is only a question of time before some other pumping device will take its place. Of the troubles experienced, it is not surprising that the frequency of sucker-rod failures should

Jan 1, 1937

By Henry T. Mudd

FLUORSPAR is a nonmetallic mineral aggregate or mass containing a sufficient quantity of fluorite (CaF2) to be of commercial interest. It has only moderate value per unit of weight and its cost as a percentage of the cost of finished consumer products is nearly negligible. Nevertheless, it has wide and great industrial importance. In periods of national emergency it is a mineral without which many very necessary manufacturing processes would be greatly handicapped; a few could not exist. Fluorite contains 51.1 pct calcium and 48.9 pct fluorine. Industrial grades of fluorspar prepared for the consumer normally contain from 85 to 98 pct fluorite, depending on the use. The ores may contain as little as 30 pct fluorite, depending on many factors such as accessibility to transportation and markets, character of ore, and prices. Fluorite is a lustrous, glasslike mineral, generally translucent to transparent; it may be clear and colorless or range in color from slightly bluish through various shades of violet, amethyst, purple, green, and yellow. It crystallizes in the isometric system and possesses perfect octahedral cleavage. Commonly it occurs in masses of very pure crystal- line material with aggregates of cubical crystals in open spaces, but - it is also found in fine to coarse granular form. Banded veins and masses with fibrous, radiating structure occur locally. It is usually found associated more or less intimately with other minerals and rocks, from which it must be separated for commercial use. The specific gravity of fluorite is 3.18 and the hardness is 4 in the Mohs scale, compared with 7 for quartz and 3 for calcite. It is distinguished from calcite by its failure to effervesce with dilute hydrochloric acid. Heated with sulphuric acid, it gives off fumes of hydro- fluoric acid, which etch glass.22,25,33.34,35.41

Jan 1, 1949

By E. L. Dougherty, J. W. Sheldon

A numerical method for computing the dynamical behavior of fluid- fluid interfaces is described. Results of studies made to assess the accuracy and economy of the method on a computer are reported. It is concluded that it is practical to obtain digital computer solutions for fluid- fluid interface problems with two space dimensions. PROBLEM DEFINITION We consider two-dimensional flow in a rectangle as shown in Fig. 1, where a fluid-fluid interface divides the rectangle into two regions. The pressure is specified along the lower boundary (the injection boundary) and upper boundary (the withdrawal boundary). There is to be no flow of fluid across the side boundaries, which are walls of symmetry for the flow, and px = 0 along these boundaries. The fluids are incompressible, the absolute permeability and porosity is constant, and each fluid has its own constant mobility. Thus, the pressure satisfies Laplace's equation in each region. Across the interface, pressure is continuous and the normal component of fluid flux is 1. These conditions are shown in Fig. 1. The velocity of a point on the interface in the direction of the normal from Fluid 1 into Fluid 2 is U,/ Q, where Un is the normal component of volumetric flux at the point on the interface, i.e., For brevity, we call the problem defined above "Problem A". Problem A is a simple example of a dynamical fluid-fluid interface problem. However, the same numerical methods which we use to solve Problem A can be extended to the solution of a large number of fluid-fluid interface problems which are mathematical models for various oil recovery processes,l hence our interest in Problem A. We define the interface by prescribing the x, y coordinates of a finite set of points. These points are called "interface mesh points" and are illustrated by triangles or asterisks in the figures. Fig. 2 is a procedural (flow) chart displaying the main steps in the solution. We comment briefly on some of these steps in this section and then give further details in subsequent sections. For mobility ratio greater than one it is well known that Problem A is unstable.*2 Small amplitude,

Jan 1, 1965

After the close of the Revolution, settlers began to pour over the mountains, to settle in the western parts of Pennsylvania, of Virginia, to move down the Ohio into Kentucky, and in the late seventeen-eighties to settle on "the Indian side" of the river, now Ohio. With the growth of population the interest in coal increased and it was not long before the production of coal west of the mountains was larger than that east of them. Foreign nations, too, became interested in the young republic and in 1783, at the instance of the Swedish government S. A. Hermelin, an engineer, visited this country to investigate its iron industry. He made a very interesting report, not published until 1931, in which he gave many details of the iron plants in the eastern United States; apparently he was not west of the mountains, but was well informed about conditions there. He says, "that some coal near the first branches of the Schuylkill River has been mined and utilized by the blacksmiths," referring, of course, to anthracite; again that "coal mines have also been worked for several years near Pittsburg," and that "great supplies of iron ore are available at the Ohio Falls and further to the west, at Coney Creek, a part of the Green River, where there is also coal."' In 1788, Dr. Johann David Schoepf, who came to this country with the Hessian troops, visited Pittsburgh. He was an intelligent man and acquainted to some extent with minerals and methods of working them. In speaking of Coal Hill on the south side of the Monongahela he mentioned several strata of marble in the lower part and that

Jan 1, 1942

By J. E. Flinn, E. R. Gilbert

Recently, Green reported some high-temperature, 0.60 to 0.89 T3, creep results on unalloyed tantalum. From his study he determined an activation energy of 114 kcal per mole for steady-state creep using the T, differential-temperature method25 for testing. He accounted for the difference between this value and 110 kcal per mole for self-diffusion by the temperature dependence of the elastic modulus, 4 kcal per mole. This reported activation energy is in apparent disagreement with that which can be determined from Green's isothermal data, which we have plotted as log creep rate vs 1/T in Fig. 15. From this figure, it appears that there are two activation energies of -185 kcal per mole at the higher temperatures and -75 kcal per mole at the lower temperatures. It is not obvious that the data can be fitted to a straight line corresponding to an activation energy of 114 kcal per mole. One is led to two possible conclusions regarding Green's study: there are two discrete processes controlling the creep rate from 0.60 to 0.89 Tm or the apparent activation energy is not discrete but continuously increases with increasing temperature. The former speculation would be in closer agreement with the high-temperature creep behavior of tungsten.28 The apparent disagreement between the activation energies determined by the AT and isothermal methods certainly suggests that further study on the high-temperature creep of tantalum is needed.

Jan 1, 1967

By M. King Hubbert

DURING the past summer the writer was asked by the Illinois State Geological Survey to make a study of some of its economic geological problems with regard to the applicability of geophysical methods of prospecting to their solution. The following four problems were sug-gested for investigation: (1) the fluorspar area of Southern Illinois, (2) oil structures in the south central part of the state, (3) the lead and zinc-bearing area of northwestern Illinois, and (4) the water supply and gravel deposits of the glacial drift. The prime requirements were to find a means of obtaining a maximum of useful information with a fairly modest outlay of expenditure for technical staff and equipment. The method of procedure adopted was that of making a preliminary study of each of the problems named by means of available office data and published reports with supplementary field reconnaissance where necessary.

Jan 1, 1932

By Thomas S. Nye

Mineral exploration in the United States relies heavily on theoretical geologic concepts and indirect methods such as geophysics and geochemical prospecting, as there are few exposed areas of mineralization which have not already been explored. In Mexico, ore grade samples can be cut at the surface on vein, replacement, and disseminated types of deposits in many areas. The problem is not in finding a mineralized area but in deciding which mineralized area can be explored and developed at the least risk and cost, with the greatest profit potential within the framework of Mexican mineral economics and that nation's government policies. Socio-economic Posture Mexico, prior to World War II, had suffered from more than one hundred years of intermittent wars and exploitation by internal and foreign elements. Consequently, the basic facilities which today's society takes for granted were scarce or non-existent in most of the country. Travel was largely a matter of negotiating poor dirt roads, riding horseback or walking. Relatively few people were literate and medical facilities were luxuries for the wealthy. Mexico's leaders were, however, determined to improve the lot of their people, within a system of private enterprise and personal freedom. Long-range programs initiated at about the time of World War II to provide infrastructure-education, health and welfare, transportation, power, water, communication-are now established fully or in part for most of the country and are being continually expanded.

Jan 12, 1972

By Reynold Q. Shotts

Chemical methods, based on the relative rates of oxidation of fusain, bright coal, and dull coal by nitric acid, have been devised to determine these coal components.1-4 Results obtained by oxidation methods for fusain have been checked against results obtained from microscopic methods on duplicate samples of the same coals, but to the author's knowledge this has not been done for bright and dull coal components. For this reason it is not certain that the two methods of analysis identify essentially the same chemical or physical units. It would be highly desirable to see results of the application of both methods to duplicate samples, but in the absence of any such data the author has attacked the problem indirectly. From the U. S. Bureau of Mines samples were obtained of three Alabama coals which the USBM had analyzed optically and reported on over the past 30 years. These samples were subjected to analyses by oxidation rate methods. Results of this work, and comparisons with the USBM analyses, have been published. This was the first indirect approach to the problem. The present report attempts a second indirect approach by way of internal validation.

Jun 1, 1955

By W. Z. Price

The coal lands that the Nemacolin mine is to develop embrace over 8400 acres; the tract is oblong and its eastern edge is along the Monon-gahela river. As shown in Fig. 1, the mine is divided into two parts (the North mine and the South mine) by a 150-ft. barrier, which however, is cut through at intervals by haulageways. Each part is fed from seven main entries—a loaded track, an empty, a manway, and four return air courses. The loaded tracks converge at the shaft bottom but the empty roads maintain their identity throughout their length. With three intakes and four returns on either side, there is ample room for expansion of air and every facility for ventilating is provided. The four south air courses converge into two, crossing the shaft bottom, and then into one at the south side of the air shaft. The four north air courses converge in a similar manner on the west side of the same shaft. This convergence is accomplished by concrete arched

Jan 1, 1927

By W. G. Wender

This report covers the area producing from limes and sands of Pennsylvanian age, roughly embracing the territory between the Red River on the north and the Llano Mountains on the south, and between Fort Worth on the east and Abilene on the west. It includes Archer, Cooke, Montague, Wichita, Wilbarger, Clay, Baylor and Foard counties in the North Central Texas or Red River Basin area, and Brown, Callahan Coleman, Comanche, Eastland, Erath, Palo Pinto, Stephens, Shackel-ford, Throckmorton, Young and Jack counties in the West Central Texas area. Furthermore, it includes a brief review of development in Jones, Runnels, Haskell and Fisher counties. North Central and West Central Texas during the year 1928 produced an approximate total of 50,948,7461 bbl. or oil. This represents a decrease of approximately 7,720,250 bbl. under 1927 total production. This decrease was due to a slump in production in Brown, Archer, Wichita, Stephens and Cooke counties. Brown County showed the greatest decrease. The 1928 prodction in this county was approximately 4,500,000 bbl. less than the 1927 production. Gross production during 1929 in the North and West Central Texas area can be expected to be lower than in the year 1928. Only one county showed a considerable increase in production. Wilbarger County production increased approximately 3,000,000 bbl. during 1928. Its daily average increased from 9000 bbl. in April to 36,000 bbl. in August. At the close of 1928 it was averaging close to 32,000 bbl. daily. Drilling activity in North and West Central Texas during 1928 showed but a slight increase in completions. The total number of completions during 1928 was 3902, of which 2094 (53 per cent.) were producers, as compared to 3805 completions and 2112 (56 per cent.) producers during 1927. Brown, Young, Wichita, Archer and Wilbarger counties were the leaders in development. The outstanding discoveries for the districts were the Consolidated pool, extensions in the Greyback pool of Wilbarger County, and the Stephens pool, Fisher County.

Jan 1, 1929

By R. E. Hook, H. J. Garrett, A. M. Adair

X-ray diffraction and metallographic techniques were employed to examine the impurity phases occurring in as-swaged and recrystallized chromium produced fvom high-purity iodide chromium crystals. Chromium oxides are found to form in a consistent manner associated with the temperature of recrystallization. Microscopically observable second phase particles of Cr203 are observed to form intergranulurly beginning at 1300T. Beginning at 1500°C. Cr30, is formed intergvanulurly, atzd at 1600°C and above Cr30, is also formed in association with migrating grain boundaries. Geometrical traces formed by particles of this high temperature oxide uithin the grains rez)eal the histmy of grain boundary motion. X-ray evidence is presented which suggests the existence of a high temperature form of Cr203. Other impurity phases in addition to the oxides of chromium are also present. THE partitioning Of impurity elements between grain boundary aid lattice sires, either as solutes in solution or as second phases, may exercise an important influence on the mechanical behavior of metals and alloy systems. This partitioning of impurities could have a direct bearing on the iecrys-

Jan 1, 1963

By E. Berl

THIS may be a most unnecessary paper-from what does crude oil come and how was it formed? Many people, inside and outside of the petroleum industry, believe that we have actually enough oil, and that we can easily produce very important products from this extremely valuable raw material. The writer believes, however, that the answer to this question concerning the parent material and the formation of oil is of broader interest, because it may be that from the answer to these problems it would be possible to get answers to other important indus-trial questions. Therefore, a study in this line seems to be justified, and the writer will submit some of the results which he has collected during more than ten years with many very capable collaborators, to whom his thanks may be expressed on this occasion.

Jan 1, 1938

By M. H. Rana, W. D. Bullock

A basic requirement in any geomechanical investigation is the establishment of the state of stress in the rock mass. So far, qualitative determinations have been more readily obtained than quantitative ones. This is due to the fact that in order to define stress magnitudes in a rock mass it is necessary to make various basic assumptions about the physical properties and characteristics of the rock itself. The assumptions are generally that the rock is an isotropic, homogeneous solid which will behave elastically under various conditions of applied load. These assumptions are not valid. Due to the foregoing factors, the present investigation was confined to a consideration of stress directions only. Within recent years, two methods of determining stress orientations in geologic materials have been used and have received some publicity in the technical press. These are the techniques of photoelasticity and petrofabrics. The technique of using reflected polarized light for observing strains on the faces of rock samples has been described by Emery.1,2 With this technique it is possible to measure relative strains in relaxation. Absolute strain magnitudes are not attainable without the use of questionable assumptions. However, directions of strains (and thus, stresses) can be determined accurately on a point basis or on a statistical basis over the complete area of the strain gage being used. Petrofabrics, according to Friedman,3 an important geological discipline which can provide knowledge on the state of stress associated with naturally deformed rocks. Even though textural and structural features span at least 15 orders of magnitude, from crystal lattices

Jan 1, 1972

By Charles J. Haas

The resistance which rock bolts offer to shear movements along fracture planes and bedding planes near a mine opening has been suggested as one of the mechanisms by which bolts contribute to the support of weak rock in the roof or sidewall. That such displacements do occur is a fact fairly well known. Inspections of drill holes that have been drilled for some time often reveal that the holes have been offset at one or more points some time after drilling. Resin grouted bolts are often cited as being better able to resist shear movement in the roof because the annulus around the steel bar is filled with grout, whereas the sides of a conventional bolt will not contact the rock until a rather large shear displacement has occurred. When this project began, there were no experimental data to support or refute the above arguments. A laboratory shear test program was, therefore, devised to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of bolts in resisting shear under various conditions which exist in situ. Research reported earlier (Haas, 1976) included a theoretical analysis of a conventional bolt intersecting a shear surface, and experimental data on the shear resistance of smooth (lapped) shear surfaces, intersected at various angles by conventional and resin grouted bolts. The present paper extends the previous analysis to consider the effect of the initial roughness of the shear surface. Joint roughness is a particularly significant factor since undulations of the shear surface cause dilatation of the joint, which in turn, causes high tensile loading of a bolt intersecting the joint.

Jan 1, 1982

By A. Haas, L. Bubenicek

The Lorraine deposit of minette iron ore has been mined for more than a century. During this time, the economic conditions have changed frequently, and especially during the past decade. Thus, it has become economically prudent to proceed to new iron ore reserves with consideration of many and varied parameters. In the past, only traditional mining parameters were considered. Today, the quantity of information that must be taken into account is of such magnitude that the only practical means of data processing is by use of a digital computer and a mathematical model. One such model, based on geostatistics, was developed by G. Matheron. Much of the required input information, such as the petrology of ores, has been generated through IRSID investigations. This paper deals with several aspects of data processing in mining including information recording, reserves calculation, and stages of shrinking data in the calculation of mining iron beds, variograms, kriging, and tonnages.

Jan 1, 1969

By Robert O. Davis, Phillip A. Abbott

The response of geologic materials subject to nuclear weapon effects is of considerable interest in the design of buried protective construction. Recently, more consideration has been given to placing such structures in rock rather than in soil. Although rock has the obvious advantages of high strength and low deformability, discontinuities such as joints and fault planes severely complicate any response analysis. Nevertheless, some knowledge of the effects of these discontinuities must be developed, even if that knowledge remains largely qualitative in nature. In this paper, we present a constitutive description of cracked rock subject to uniaxial shock loading. The constitutive equations are based on certain average response characteristics of a particular cracked rock model. Rather than attempt to represent each material discontinuity individually, we have incorporated the discontinuity effects into constitutive relationships for a continuous medium. The resulting equations are suitable for use in hydrodynamic computer codes presently used for ground motion calculations. APPROACH The continuum description which will be presented below is based on a detailed analysis of a particular cracked rock model. This model can be visualized as a sequence of plates (representing the intact rock) separated by gaps (representing the discontinuities). This so-called "plate-gap" model was first used by Thouvenin (1) in an effort to explain the behavior of porous materials at high

Jan 1, 1971