Preliminary evaluation of bedrock potential for naturally occurring asbestos in Alaska

Naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) develops in predictable geologic settings worldwide. Various geologic units throughout Alaska include rock types that could potentially host naturally occurring asbestos minerals. This report and digital data release show geologic map units throughout Alaska rated according to their interpreted potential to host NOA. To summarize locations of known asbestos occurrences, we searched the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS's) Alaska Resource Data File (http://ardf.wr.usgs.gov) and Mineral Resource Data System (http://mrdata.usgs.gov/mineral-resources/mrds-ak.html) for references to asbestos in Alaska and compiled the resulting 62 documented asbestos occurrences. To better predict additional...

Tags: Alaska Statewide Maps, Alaska Statewide Quadrangle, Asbestos, Construction Materials, Derivative, All tags... Engineering Geologic Map, Historic Mine, Mineral Localities, Mineral Prospect, Mountain Leather, Tremolite, Ultramafic, geoscientificInformation, Fewer tags