A friend recommended a video showing impressive large quartz crystals. They were found in the Coleman Quartz Mine in Arksansas, USA. As far as I know these clear quartzes were formed by hydrothermal processes and are bound to large fault zones within Ordivician sandstones. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Geo-Topics’ Category
Coleman Quartz Mine, Arkansas – fascinating quartz crystals
Saturday, December 4th, 2010Intensely folded dike in a metamorphic boulder, Lulliavagge, Sarek National Park, Sweden
Friday, August 13th, 20109th Freiberg Short Course in Economic Geology: Magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE deposits
Monday, August 9th, 2010The 9th Freiberg Short Course in Economic Geology will take place from 6th to 10th December and is dedicated to magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE deposits, their petrogenesis and exploration. (more…)
Geological waterway: Fluid migration in hydrothermal systems
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010Gold-bearing quartz veins related to the orogenic gold type are typically ribboned as known from my research area northern California. The ribbons there are formed by vein-parallel shear planes, dividing the quartz in decimeter to micrometer thick bands. Ore-bearing fluids intruded the shear planes several times. This multi-stage mineralization is verified by microscopic investigation of gold ore. In most cases gold and galena are the last species deposited in the veins. The veins occur dominantly at intensely sheared lithological contacts.
A result of these observations is that the deposits developed in an active tectonic environment with multiple stages of fluctuating fluid influx in depths characterized by brittle deformation.
To improve my own understanding of fluid migration processes in hydrothermal systems I will try to summarize some general thoughts I worked off for myself from Cox et al. (2001) and, in part, from Yardley (1983). This is certainly not a complete overview of the topic. So don’t hesitate to post critical questions, remarks or further arguments and ideas. (more…)
Snowden Photography Competition: Online-voting is open
Monday, August 2nd, 2010It has been a fierce competition with high-quality mining photographs. My photos did not win, but there is a chance in the people’s choice category. The online-voting opens today. I would like to invite you to vote for your favorite mining photograph. Please spread this information. Thanks!
Addition: I have been too hasty… my photographs were not chosen for online voting, but don’t hessitate to vote for the other fantastic submissions!
Voting closed: these are your favorite photographs
Sunday, June 27th, 2010Thank you for voting about 3 out of 14 mining photographs I will submit to the Snowden photo Ccompetition. The decision has been ambiguous. Depending on the evaluation procedure three groups of your favorites can be found:
- the first three photographs in the category “1st place”: photos 3, 8, 4
- the first place in each category (“1st place” to “3rd place”): photos 3, 12, 14
- the three photographs with the highest total number of votes: photos 8, 14, 4 (more…)
Photo: Quartz-Zinnwaldite Vein, Zinnwald, Saxony, Germany
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010Vote: what are your favorite mining photographs?
Sunday, June 20th, 2010In the last two years I participated in the Snowden Photo Competition. This year the submission deadline ends June 30th. In the following you’ll find some of my favorite mining photographs out of which 3 photographs have to be chosen for this year’s competition. It would be great to get some of your opinions. What are YOUR favorite 3 out of the 14 photographs presented below? VOTE HERE…
I will randomly choose one person out of all voting participants, who will get the best voted photograph as 20×30 cm large print via mail. Thank you!
Voting will end Saturday, June 26th, 2010.
The son of Mother Lode? State and perspectives of the gold deposit research in the French Gulch–Deadwood district, Klamath Mountains, USA
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010By Lutz Geißler & Thomas Seifert
Mother Lode gold has been of scientific interest since the famous Californian gold rush began in 1848 in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Mining these clusters of low-sulfide gold-quartz veins bound to a major NW-SE trending fault zone in a tectonically active metamorphic complex yielded approx. 86 million ounces of gold (including placer deposits; Böhlke, 1999). Besides the strong impact on the economical development of the western United States of America, Mother Lode has been and is still a significant key for defining and characterizing the globally important “orogenic gold” deposit type. In contrast to this geologically well known gold belt, most of the gold deposits of the northerly located Klamath Mountains were never investigated with modern geoscientific methods. Researching their genesis in comparison to the Mother Lode deposits may be essential (1) for an improved geotectonic model of northern California, (2) for an enhanced understanding of orogenic gold deposits, and (3) for characterizing new exploration targets. (more…)
