Geochemical Data Release for Idaho Primitive Area, including the contiguous Clear Creek-Upper Big Deer Creek Area, the Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area, the Sawtooth Primitive Area, and adjacent areas, central Idaho (ver. 1.2, June 2022)

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2022-06-21T00:00:00Z

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release (ver. 1.2, April 2022) contains a set of previously unpublished geochemical data from project studies of primitive areas in central Idaho, including the Clear Creek-Upper Big Deer Creek Area, the Salmon River Breaks and Sawtooth Primitive Areas, and the Gospel-Hump Wilderness Area. The purpose of the USGS Idaho Primitive Area studies, conducted from 1966 to 1984, was to describe the geology, determine petrologic and geochemical characteristics, and evaluate the mineral resource potential of these primitive areas and adjacent study areas. In the case of the Idaho Primitive Area study (Cater and others, 1973), the primitive area covers 1,915 square miles; adjacent study areas added in 1967 included an additional 272 square miles, for a total of 2,187 square miles. The contiguous Clear Creek-Upper Big Deer Creek Area was studied separately (Cater and others, 1975) and covers 85 square miles. The Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area study (Weis and others, 1972) covers 420 square miles of primitive area and adjacent study areas. The Sawtooth Primitive Area study (Kiilsgaard and others, 1970) covers 434 square miles of primitive area and adjacent study areas. Also included in this release are previously unpublished geochemical data of 65 rock samples collected and analyzed under the Gospel-Hump Wilderness Area project. The 5,167 samples collected in these primitive areas are made up of 2,667 stream sediment samples, 1,201 rock samples, 194 soil samples, 94 bulk pan concentrate samples, and one precipitate sample. More than 99 percent of these samples were analyzed by semi-quantitative, visual 6-step emission spectrography multi-element scan. Many samples were also analyzed by flame-atomic absorption spectrophotometry for gold, silver, cobalt, copper, lead, and zinc; by colorimetry for arsenic, cobalt, copper, heavy metals, fluorine, antimony, uranium, and tungsten; by atomic absorption spectrophotometry for mercury after thermal release; and by gamma ray counting for uranium and thorium. The data for many standard reference materials that were also analyzed with these samples for quality assurance purposes are not included in this data release. Accurate site location information was not available for 1,329 samples from these studies. Also, 1,010 samples are referred to as geologic material samples, as more specific sample media type information was not available. These data may still be valuable to the user and are included in this data release.

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accessLevel	public
bureauCode	[ "010:12" ]
contactPoint	{ "fn": "Matthew Granitto", "@type": "vcard:Contact", "hasEmail": "mailto:granitto@usgs.gov" }
description	This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data release (ver. 1.2, April 2022) contains a set of previously unpublished geochemical data from project studies of primitive areas in central Idaho, including the Clear Creek-Upper Big Deer Creek Area, the Salmon River Breaks and Sawtooth Primitive Areas, and the Gospel-Hump Wilderness Area. The purpose of the USGS Idaho Primitive Area studies, conducted from 1966 to 1984, was to describe the geology, determine petrologic and geochemical characteristics, and evaluate the mineral resource potential of these primitive areas and adjacent study areas. In the case of the Idaho Primitive Area study (Cater and others, 1973), the primitive area covers 1,915 square miles; adjacent study areas added in 1967 included an additional 272 square miles, for a total of 2,187 square miles. The contiguous Clear Creek-Upper Big Deer Creek Area was studied separately (Cater and others, 1975) and covers 85 square miles. The Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area study (Weis and others, 1972) covers 420 square miles of primitive area and adjacent study areas. The Sawtooth Primitive Area study (Kiilsgaard and others, 1970) covers 434 square miles of primitive area and adjacent study areas. Also included in this release are previously unpublished geochemical data of 65 rock samples collected and analyzed under the Gospel-Hump Wilderness Area project. The 5,167 samples collected in these primitive areas are made up of 2,667 stream sediment samples, 1,201 rock samples, 194 soil samples, 94 bulk pan concentrate samples, and one precipitate sample. More than 99 percent of these samples were analyzed by semi-quantitative, visual 6-step emission spectrography multi-element scan. Many samples were also analyzed by flame-atomic absorption spectrophotometry for gold, silver, cobalt, copper, lead, and zinc; by colorimetry for arsenic, cobalt, copper, heavy metals, fluorine, antimony, uranium, and tungsten; by atomic absorption spectrophotometry for mercury after thermal release; and by gamma ray counting for uranium and thorium. The data for many standard reference materials that were also analyzed with these samples for quality assurance purposes are not included in this data release. Accurate site location information was not available for 1,329 samples from these studies. Also, 1,010 samples are referred to as geologic material samples, as more specific sample media type information was not available. These data may still be valuable to the user and are included in this data release.
distribution	[ { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Digital Data", "format": "XML", "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.5066/P9BT11RJ", "mediaType": "application/http", "description": "Landing page for access to the data" }, { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Original Metadata", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "text/xml", "description": "The metadata original format", "downloadURL": "https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.5ddbfc23e4b06957976a56f4.xml" } ]
identifier	http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_5ddbfc23e4b06957976a56f4
keyword	[ "Big Deer Creek", "Bitterroot National Forest", "Blaine County", "Boise County", "Boise National Forest", "Boise River", "Camas County", "Challis National Forest", "Clear Creek", "Clear Creek-Upper Big Deer Creek Area", "Custer County", "Elmore County", "Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness", "Idaho", "Idaho County", "Idaho Primitive Area", "Lemhi County", "NGDB", "National Geochemical Database", "Nez Perce National Forest", "Payette National Forest", "Payette River", "Salmon National Forest", "Salmon River", "Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area", "Salmon River Mountains", "Sawtooth National Forest", "Sawtooth National Recreation Area", "Sawtooth Primitive Area", "Sawtooth Range", "Sawtooth Wilderness", "Stanley Basin", "USA", "USGS:5ddbfc23e4b06957976a56f4", "United States of America", "Valley County", "Yellowjacket Mountains", "aluminum", "antimony", "arsenic", "barium", "beryllium", "bismuth", "boron", "cadmium", "calcium", "cerium", "chemical analysis", "chromium", "cobalt", "copper", "dysprosium", "environmental geochemistry", "erbium", "europium", "exploration geochemistry", "fluorine", "gadolinium", "gallium", "geochemical data", "geochemistry", "geoscientificInformation", "germanium", "gold", "hafnium", "heavy metals", "holmium", "indium", "iron", "lanthanum", "lead", "lithium", "lutetium", "magnesium", "manganese", "mercury", "mineral resources", "molybdenum", "neodymium", "nickel", "niobium", "palladium", "pan concentrate", "platinum", "praseodymium", "rhenium", "rock geochemistry", "samarium", "scandium", "sediment geochemistry", "silver", "stream sediment", "strontium", "tantalum", "tellurium", "terbium", "thallium", "thorium", "thulium", "tin", "titanium", "tungsten", "unconsolidated deposits", "uranium", "vanadium", "ytterbium", "yttrium", "zinc", "zirconium" ]
modified	2022-06-21T00:00:00Z
publisher	{ "name": "U.S. Geological Survey", "@type": "org:Organization" }
spatial	-115.5129, 43.7645, -114.3152, 45.6934
theme	[ "Geospatial" ]
title	Geochemical Data Release for Idaho Primitive Area, including the contiguous Clear Creek-Upper Big Deer Creek Area, the Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area, the Sawtooth Primitive Area, and adjacent areas, central Idaho (ver. 1.2, June 2022)

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