New foothills digital map released

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources have released the latest digital geological map of a series that they are jointly publishing for quadrangles stretching from Umiat to Point Lay along the foothills north of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The region that the maps cover is of interest for petroleum geology, both from the point of view of potential natural gas resources in the region and from the information that surface rock exposures provide about the subsurface geology of northern Alaska.

The latest map covers the Utukok River quadrangle, in the foothills almost due south of Wainwright. Previously published maps covered the Umiat, Ikpikpuk River and Lookout Ridge quadrangles.

Geologist Gil Mull and others have authored the maps, which represent a compilation of earlier maps, using up-to-date and regionally consistent terminology as well as the results of recent field mapping.

PDF files of the maps can be downloaded from the following locations:

Umiat quad: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2004/2817a/;

Ikpikpuk River quad: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2005/2817b/;

Lookout Ridge quad: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2006/2817c/; and

Utukok River quad: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2006/2817d/.

—Alan Bailey