Preliminary gravity investigations of the Wahmonie Site, Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada
A gravity survey of the southwest corner of the Nevada Test Site was completed during 1979 to 1980 as part of an effort to characterize a possible radioactive waste storage site in granitic rocks. The survey outlined a large, broad, and flat gravity high centered near Wahmonie Site. Combined geophysical data indicate that the anomalous area is underlain by a dense, magnetic, and possibly intrusive body. Gravity data show a +15 milligal Bouguer anomaly coincident with a large positive aeromagnetic anomaly. The data reveal a prominent fault at the west edge of the inferred intrusive. Both gravity and magnetic anomalous highs extend NNE over a horst composed predominantly of rhyodacite of the Tertiary Salyer Formation. Local aeromagnetic highs are closely associated with two granodiorite exposures on the eastern edge of the horst. A local gravity high of about +2 milligal is centered directly over the southern granodiorite exposure and another high is centered over the northern exposure. A steep gravity gradient outlining the gravity high coincides with the outer edge of a zone of hydrothermal alteration which surrounds the horst. The gravity gradient probably marks the approximate limit of an intrusive body.
- Research Organization:
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AI08-78ET44802
- OSTI ID:
- 59822
- Report Number(s):
- USGS-OFR-81-522; ON: DE86008361
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1981
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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