A three-volume illustrated atlas · 2026
Three books and 66 districts, from the Drake Well in 1859 to lithium at Thacker Pass. Each district gets its history, a reference map, a geological model and a production table with the source named.
One-time payment. $50 if bought separately. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Why this atlas
Most writing about American oil and mining picks a side. Histories tell you about the gusher at Spindletop and leave the barrels vague. Statistical tables give you the barrels and none of the place.
GeoScope keeps both. Every chapter opens with how the district was found, shows where it sits on a USGS base map, draws the rock that holds the resource, and ends with production figures that say exactly what they count.
That last part matters more than it sounds. A pipeline total is not a field total. A resource is not a reserve. The tables say so, line by line.
One chapter, start to finish
Chapter 06 of Volume 1 follows the largest oil field found in North America at the time of its 1968 discovery. Every chapter in all three books is built the same way.
The history
On March 13, 1968, ARCO and Humble announced the Prudhoe Bay find. The opener sets out the resource, state, discovery year and current status before the story begins, then a key-facts table says what each figure covers.
The place
A geographic plate on USGS National Map base imagery places the field on Alaska’s Arctic coastal plain, along the Beaufort Sea. North is up, and the panel is about 596 km wide.
The geology
A labelled geological plate shows the Shublik source interval over the Ivishak sandstone reservoir, with gas above oil above water in connected pores. It is marked as a teaching diagram, not to scale.
The numbers
Trans Alaska Pipeline throughput by period, summed from Alyeska’s annual table: 6.38 billion barrels in the 1980s, 1.04 billion in 2020 to 2025. The caption notes these are multi-field totals, not Prudhoe alone.
From the books: geographic plates reproduce USGS National Map base imagery. They locate districts but do not map legal, resource, lease or deposit boundaries. Geological plates are conceptual illustrations, not measured cross-sections.
Three books, 66 chapters
Each volume stands on its own. Together they cover every district in the atlas, numbered 1 to 66.
Volume 1
Chapters 1–24 · 24 districts · 237 pages
Corrected review edition, October 8, 2026
The Drake Well and Spindletop, the Permian and the Bakken, Marcellus gas, Powder River coal and the uranium belts of the Colorado Plateau. This volume is a corrected review edition.
Volume 2
Chapters 25–45 · 21 districts · 202 pages
September 2026 text and figures
Gold from the Reed Mine and the Mother Lode to the Carlin Trend, Comstock and Leadville silver, Stillwater platinum, and the great copper districts at Butte, Bingham Canyon and Morenci.
Volume 3
Chapters 46–66 · 21 districts · 197 pages
September 2026 text and figures
The iron ranges of the Lake Superior country, lead and zinc from Missouri to Red Dog, lithium at Thacker Pass, rare earths at Mountain Pass, and the borates, trona, phosphate and potash industry runs on.
From the chapters
The Drake Well did not reveal that petroleum existed. Oil had seeped from the ground along Oil Creek for centuries, and the Seneca collected it for practical and medicinal use.
Homestake is no longer a gold mine: its commercial gold output is zero. Its depth, excavated over generations to reach ore, has become shielding from cosmic radiation for a different kind of search.
Mesabi’s history contains two different mining industries. The first exploited naturally enriched ore. The second learned to concentrate iron from much leaner, harder taconite.
A stained creek can tell a prospector where to look. It cannot establish the thickness of mineralization, the continuity of a buried layer, or whether enough valuable material exists to pay for a mine.
Look inside
Select a page to see it full size. Use the arrow keys, or swipe on a phone, to move between pages.
From the books: geographic plates reproduce USGS National Map base imagery. They locate districts but do not map legal, resource, lease or deposit boundaries. Geological plates are conceptual illustrations, not measured cross-sections.
Who reads it
Sixty-six worked examples of how a trap, a vein or a placer becomes a district, each with the references to follow up.
A desk reference for districts outside your own patch. Sandstone uranium, porphyry copper and Carlin-type gold sit side by side.
Production series with their scope spelled out: statewide or district, gross or net, annual or cumulative. Less time reconciling.
Boom towns, strikes, pipelines and company fights, set against real USGS topography rather than a cartoon map.
Ready-made case studies for earth science, economic history or geography. Each chapter stands on its own in a single lesson.
Only care about copper, or coal, or critical minerals? Each volume is sold on its own, so you can start with the one you need.
How it was put together
The atlas tells you what was checked, what was not, and where every figure comes from. These notes come straight from the “Reading this atlas” page in each book.
All 24 energy chapters were reviewed against accessible historical, geological, regulatory and company sources, and major production series were recomputed where the tables could be retrieved. Revised October 8, 2026.
Volumes 2 and 3 were reviewed for structure, numbering, units, accounting scope and selected numerical conflicts. The books are plain that neither review certifies every statement independently.
Unequal reporting periods, state proxies, partial years and ownership shares stay labelled. Cumulative checkpoints are not added to annual output, and resources are not added to reserves.
Each of the 66 chapters ends with a numbered source list. Most figures trace to the EIA, the USGS, BOEM, state regulators and surveys, company filings, or historical Bureau of Mines records.
The offer
Pay once and keep the PDFs. No account, no subscription.
Bundle · save $15
$35Bought separately $50
Volume 1: Energy Resources237 pages · chapters 1–24$20Volume 2: Precious Metals & Copper202 pages · chapters 25–45$15Volume 3: Industrial & Critical Minerals197 pages · chapters 46–66$15Secure checkout through Gumroad · Cards and PayPal · 30-day refund
Take a month with all three books. If the atlas is not what you hoped, write to us within 30 days and we will refund your payment in full. You do not need to give a reason.
Each volume is sold on its own too. Bought separately the three cost $50, so the bundle saves $15.
Questions
Get all three books for $35, or start with the one you need.