Zeolitization of Tertiary tuffs in lacustrine and alluvial deposits in the Ray-San Manuel area, Final and Gila Counties, Arizona
Specimens of tuff in the Ray-San Manuel area, southeastern Arizona, have been X-rayed to determine the present approximate mineralogic composition and the type and degree of alteration of the tuffs. Some of the tuffs consist largely of glass or have been partly or completely altered to calcium montmorillonite; many of them have been almost completely zeolitized or contain a zeolite and some clay. Only three zeolitized specimens contain a little glass. With four exceptions, the zeolitie is clinoptilolite; the exceptions are one altered to chabazite, one to mordenite, one to erionite, and one to erionite, clinoptilolite, and chabazite. The tuffs are mostly of airfall origin and of rhyolitic or probable rhyolitic composition and generally contain negligible percentages of crystal and lithic fragments. Two specimens are tuffaceous sedimentary rocks, and two are ash-flow tuffs. The tuffs range in age from early Pliocene or late Miocene to Oligocene. Some were deposited in lacustrine or playa environments; others were deposited in freshwater alluvial environments. All the beds examined in the lower Miocene and older formations have been zeolitized. Zeolitization of beds in younger formations depends on the environment of deposition. Zeolitized tuffs that contain at least 80 percent zeolite and are in beds more than one-third meter thick are considered potentially minable.