Subsurface signal report
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota
01 · What's Below
02 · Water
03 · The Land Above
- FEMA flood zone X — Outside the 100-year and 500-year floodplains. FEMA classifies this as minimal flood hazard area.
- 56 wildfire perimeters recorded within 5 miles (most recent 2026)
- No mapped landslide occurrences within 2 miles
- 25 EPA-tracked sites within 10 miles — most are routine monitored facilities
- No industrial-mineral activity recorded nearby
04 · Ownership and Rights
Notable findings
01What's Below
This parcel falls inside a federal survey zone that USGS has flagged for rare earth elements, battery metals, semiconductor minerals, and specialty industrial minerals — the Southern Black Hills pegmatites.
A survey zone is a signal worth understanding, not a guarantee of minerals — the cards below show exactly what was recorded and where.
Rare Earth Elements
Magnets · defense tech · EV motors · semiconductor doping
This parcel may have: Scandium — this parcel sits inside a USGS survey zone flagged for these elements.
Data: USGS Earth MRI
Battery metals
Grid storage · EV batteries · stainless steel
This parcel may have: Lithium — recorded occurrences nearby, inside a USGS survey zone targeting these elements.
Data: USGS MRDS · USGS Earth MRI
Semiconductor and high-tech
AI chips · solar panels · LCDs · telecom
This parcel may have: Tantalum, Arsenic — recorded occurrences nearby, inside a USGS survey zone targeting these elements.
Data: USGS MRDS · USGS Earth MRI
Infrastructure metals
Power grid · construction · data centers · food synthesis
This parcel may have: Zinc — USGS has recorded occurrences of these elements near this parcel.
Data: USGS MRDS
Specialty critical minerals
Aerospace alloys · catalysts · steel-making · niche industrial
This parcel may have: Tin, Beryllium, Tungsten, Niobium, Cesium — recorded occurrences nearby, inside a USGS survey zone targeting these elements.
Data: USGS MRDS · USGS Critical Mineral Deposits v2 · USGS Earth MRI
Why lithium matters globally
Top producing countries below. US net import reliance: 73% of consumption.
| Top producer | Share of world production |
|---|---|
| Australia | 48.3% |
| Chile | 24.1% |
| China | 13.8% |
Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (v1.2), data year 2025. Public domain.
Bedrock context · Macrostrat
Harney Peak Granite
Harney Peak Granite is a hard, crystalline rock, usually light in color with visible flecks of quartz, feldspar, and mica. It's commonly quarried for building stone, countertops, and crushed rock for roads — large exposed bodies of it are sometimes the site of active quarry operations.
Federal priority survey · USGS Earth MRI
Inside a critical-mineral survey zone
USGS has designated this area for additional geological mapping and mineral-system research
Southern Black Hills pegmatites
Rare Earth ElementsBattery metalsSemiconductor and high-techSpecialty critical minerals
Targets: Beryllium, Cesium, Lithium, Niobium, Scandium, Tantalum, Tin · South Dakota
02Water
Groundwater context · USGS NWIS
Outside named principal-aquifer footprint
USGS does not classify this location under one of the named US principal aquifers. Local groundwater may still be present in unmapped or minor aquifers.
USGS monitoring wells nearby (50)
- 002S06E08ADB · Pennington County, SDUSGS 432333103252401
- 001S04E11ADD · Pennington County, SDUSGS 433840103360001
- 004S04E04B · Custer County, SDUSGS 434406103391301
- 004S05E06ABA · Custer County, SDUSGS 434414103333801
- 003S04E33CCDB · Custer County, SDUSGS 434420103391401
+ 45 more within 10 mi
Water salinity · USGS WQP
Higher chloride and dissolved-solids levels can affect taste, plumbing, and irrigation use — and these readings can shift over time as nearby withdrawal increases, whether from new wells, irrigation, or industrial and data-center demand. Above “fresh” is worth comparing against your own well or utility's test results.
Median chloride: 8 mg/L · Fresh
| Parameter | Min | Median | Max | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chloride | 1 | 8 | 240 | mg/L |
| Total Dissolved Solids | 40 | 192 | 1970 | mg/L |
| Specific conductance | 0 | 281 | 2620 | uS/cm |
Salinity readings are from nearby USGS monitoring wells and reflect aquifer conditions, not the chemistry of your specific tap or well.
Water-demand context · News (Perplexity) · USGS
1 data center within 25 mi
Data centers can use large volumes of water directly for cooling — it depends on the facility's cooling system — and the electricity that powers them often needs cooling water too, back at the power plant. Either draw can pull from the same aquifer your well or local utility relies on.
Outside named principal-aquifer footprint
Coverage may be incomplete — some private, unmarked, or recently-built facilities may not appear.
News-sourced records are aggregated from public reporting (citations linked per record). GeoLocity does not independently verify project status or operator claims. Coverage of announced or recently-broken-ground facilities depends on public news availability.
County industrial water use · USGS 2015
Pennington County, SD
0.00 B gal/yr industrial (2015)
0 gal/person/year industrial per capita
USGS classification: “industrial” is SIC-code-based and primarily reflects manufacturing. Data center cooling is not explicitly categorized and may not be isolated in this figure. Most recent USGS dataset: 2015.
Future iterations may add: cooling-method classification per facility, permitted-but-not-yet-built data centers via state environmental permit databases, and per-facility water-withdrawal volumes where operators voluntarily disclose.
Sources: USGS Water Use Data · Perplexity sonar-pro
03The Land Above
Flood zone · FEMA NFHL
Zone X
Outside the FEMA 100-year floodplain
Outside the 100-year and 500-year floodplains. FEMA classifies this as minimal flood hazard area.
Study: 46103C_FIRM1
Wildfire history · NIFC
This parcel is within a recorded fire perimeter (Cosmos, 2026)
Historical federal fire-perimeter records — not a risk forecast or insurance determination.
Largest recorded fire nearby: 17,975.89 acres
Slope stability · USGS Landslide Inventory
No mapped landslides within 2 mi
Mapped landslide inventory — informational geologic context, not a site hazard assessment.
Environmental context · EPA
Environmental records within ~10 mi
Most are routine regulatory registrations — not evidence of contamination
In assessment / redevelopment: 3 Brownfields sites — land being assessed or redeveloped.
Routine registrations: 22 registered facilities (toxic-release reporters and hazardous-waste handlers) — common in any developed area.
To confirm conditions for a specific parcel, a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment by a licensed environmental professional is the standard tool.
Closest sites (top 5)
- US NATL PARK SERVICE MOUNT RUSHMORE NMEM · TRI facility0.4 miSD
- MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL PARK · Hazardous-waste handler0.4 miSD
- XANTERRA PARKS AND RESORTS INC · Hazardous-waste handler2.3 miSD
- RUSHMORE FOREST PRODUCTS INC · Hazardous-waste handler5.7 miSD
- BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST HILL CITY SHOP · Hazardous-waste handler6.8 miSD
Layers: Brownfields, Superfund (NPL), TRI, RCRA
04Ownership and Rights
Federal-land mineral activity · BLM MLRS
Active federal cases nearby
Mining claims and federal mineral leases recorded within ~10 mi
Largest cases by acreage (top 5)
- WT 27320,580 acActive
- PINK PANTHER #113,030 acActive
- SDMT1053392483,520 acClosed
- RUBY 653,050 acActive
- RUBY 622,860 acActive
Mineral rights status
Unverified
Mineral-rights status defaults to 'unverified' — GeoLocity does not pull deed history. The state-default block below summarizes the state's framework for mineral-rights ownership when available. Confirm specific ownership with a licensed title professional.
Informational screening only — not legal advice. Confirm ownership with a licensed title professional before relying on any rights-status finding.