The Economic Aspect of GeologyLeith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Science
The Economic Aspect of Geology
Leith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Geology, Economic
It is of interest to note that in many places in the limestones of
Missouri and Virginia, and elsewhere in the Paleozoic rocks, there are
sinks of limonite and clay near the surface, which are likewise believed
to have originated through downward movement of waters deriving their
mineral contents from the erosion and stripping of overlying sediments.
Still further, the primary deposition of Clinton iron ores in many parts
of the Mississippi Valley and eastward to the Appalachians took place in
stratigraphic horizons not far removed from the horizons of lead and
zinc deposition. When the peculiar conditions controlling the deposition
of the Clinton ores are understood (see pp. 52-53) it is entirely
possible that they may throw some light on the genesis of the lead and
zinc ores.
Since the ores were introduced into essentially their present locations,
secondary concentration has produced an oxide zone of clay, chert, and
iron oxide, with varying amounts of zinc carbonate, zinc silicate, lead
sulphide, and rarely lead carbonate. This zone is obviously developed
above water level, and is seldom as much as 100 feet thick. Zinc, and to
a less extent lead, have been taken into solution as sulphates, with the
aid of sulphuric acid resulting from the oxidation of the associated
pyrite. Zinc has been carried away from the weathered zone in solution
faster than lead, leaving the lead more or less concentrated near the
surface. Some of the zinc carried down has been redeposited secondarily
as zinc sulphide. Evidences of this secondary sulphide enrichment can be
seen in many places; yet certain broad quantitative considerations raise
a doubt as to whether this process has been responsible for the main
portion of the values of the sulphide zone. If downward secondary
enrichment had been a dominant process, it might be expected that the
ores would be richer in places where erosion had cut away more than
half the limestone formation carrying the ore, than in places where it
had barely cut into the formation. This is not the fact,--which suggests
that erosion in its downward progress has carried a large part of the
zinc completely out of the vicinity.
Zinc ores of this same general character are also found in Paleozoic
rocks (Knox dolomite) in Virginia and Tennessee. Their manner of
occurrence suggests the same problem of origin as in Missouri and
Wisconsin, but no decisive evidence of their source has been discovered.
Of the zinc ores associated with igneous intrusions, those of the Butte
and Coeur d'Alene districts are described in connection with copper
and lead ores on pp. 201-203, 208, and 212-213.
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