(2022-12-27, 04:25 PM)GowerGulch42 Wrote: Did some digging. These are geological samples compiled as part of a USGS research project. These were drilled in 1992, and the report didn't get finalized until 2012! Mapping projects like this one, "Geologic Map of the southern Funeral Mountains including nearby Groundwater Discharge Sites in Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada", are both academic and practical (this one sought to understand groundwater flow between Amargosa and Death Valleys) and take a very long time to create, edit, review, and publish. I've been a part of a project up here in the Columbia River Gorge which has been in the heavy field work stage since about 2018(?) and the stuff I've helped on probably won't come out for ten years or so. It's a lot of data to sift through, samples to analyze, and all sorts of i-s to dot and t-s to cross before it's-publication ready.
Attempted to quote-reply with that picture of the drill holes in the basalt rocks a couple pages back.
Wow, thanks for sorting this mystery out. Scientific research takes time to ensure that it stands up to scrutiny and provides value to others.