The Economic Aspect of GeologyLeith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Science
The Economic Aspect of Geology
Leith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Geology, Economic
Small amounts of phosphorus are common in igneous rocks, in the form of
the mineral apatite (calcium phosphate with calcium chloride or
fluoride). Apatite is especially abundant in some pegmatites. In a few
places, as in the Adirondacks where magnetic concentration of iron ores
leaves a residue containing much apatite, and in Canada and Spain where
veins of apatite have been mined, this material is used as a source of
phosphate fertilizer. The great bulk of the world's phosphate, however,
is obtained from other sources--sedimentary and residual beds described
below.
Phosphorus in the rocks is dissolved in one form or another by the
ground-waters; a part of it is taken up by land plants and animals for
the building of their tissues, and another part goes in solution to the
sea to be taken up by sea plants and animals. In places where the bones
and excrements of land animals or the shells and droppings of sea
animals accumulate, deposits of phosphatic material may be built up.
In certain places where great numbers of sea birds congregate, as on
desert coasts and oceanic islands, guano deposits have been formed. Some
of them, like the worked-out deposits of Peru and Chile, are in arid
climates and have been well preserved. Others, like those of the West
Indies and Oceania, are subjected to the action of occasional rains; and
to a large extent the phosphates have been leached out, carried down,
and reprecipitated, permeating and partially replacing the underlying
limestones. In this way deposits have been formed containing as high as
85 per cent calcium phosphate.
Even more important bodies of phosphates have been produced by the
accumulation of marine animal remains, probably with the aid of joint
chemical, bacterial, and mechanical precipitation. These processes have
formed the chief productive deposits of the world, including those of
the United States, northern Africa, and Russia, and also the phosphatic
iron ores of England and central Europe. The sedimentary features of
many phosphate rocks, particularly their oolitic textures, show a marked
similarity to the features of the Clinton type of iron ores (pp.
166-167).
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