Publications Catalog

This map shows thicknesses of deposits of unconsolidated materials above the bedrock. Across the county, depth to bedrock ranges from 0 feet, where bedrock is exposed, to over 250 feet within bedrock valleys. Areas with bedrock depths shallower than 20 feet are of particular importance for land-use planning and to the construction stone industry. Such...

If you’re thinking about donating land as a conservation easement but don’t own the subsurface (known as “severed mineral rights”), then you’ll need an assessment of the land’s mineral potential to determine whether the easement will qualify as a charitable tax deduction. Geologists at the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey perform this...

The Baraboo quadrangle, records where glaciers stopped in the east-central Baraboo Hills. On this map, 1:24,000 scale, Precambrian igneous and metasedimentary rocks are overlain by Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and, more recently, by glacial deposits. Superb exposures of all three can be found in Devils Lake State Park and Parfreys Glen State Natural Area.

The Durwards Glen 7.5-minute quadrangle map is located in Columbia and Sauk counties, southeast of the city of Baraboo. This geologic map includes Precambrian through Quaternary units. New mapping has focused on subdividing the Baraboo Quartzite into four separate members and delineating Quaternary deposits in greater detail than prior work.

The portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) instrument provides fast, real-time, non-destructive, multi-element geochemical data (i.e. elemental concentrations) on rocks and minerals at a relatively low cost and with minimal sample preparation. This study quantifies the precision and accuracy of measurements collected by the WGNHS pXRF on reference materials...

Depth-to-bedrock maps show the thickness of unconsolidated materials overlying bedrock. These maps provide a key link between the underlying geology, groundwater flow, and land use and are important in guiding activities such as permitting, bridge construction, and the land application of waste products in sensitive areas. Given their role in guiding...

The Rock Springs quadrangle is located in the western Baraboo Hills of south-central Wisconsin. This map, 1:24,000 scale, conveys the rich Precambrian through Quaternary history present on the ground. Here, ancient rocks metamorphosed and folded and were later displaced by a series of faults. Although never glaciated, an ice sheet 8 kilometers to the east...

Details the current WGNHS approach to pXRF analysis, including usage guidelines, sample preparation, calibration, and plotting techniques.