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Patrick M. Hurley

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick M. Hurley.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Liberian age province (about 2,700 m.y.)and adjacent provinces in Liberia and Sierra Leone

Whole-rock Rb-Sr dating of rocks from the crystalline basement has disclosed an age province in Liberia and Sierra Leone of about 2,700 m.y. The approximate eastern boundary of this province with the adjoining Eburnean age province of about 2,000 m.y. has been found in eastern Liberia. Much younger rocks of PanAfrican age (about 550 m.y.) bound the ancient province in Sierra Leone and western Liberia in a belt adjacent to the coast. Groups of infolded metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks have been tentatively identified as associated with two of these ages. The Kambui Schists of Sierra Leone show whole-rock Rb-Sr ages of about 2,700 m.y. The pelitic and iron-bearing metamorphic rocks in the Marampa Formation of Sierra Leone, and similar sections in the Nimba Range, Liberia, appear to be about 2,200 m.y. old, and may fall within the typical Eburnean age range. The age values are scattered, however, and the Nimba rocks may be equivalent t o the Kambui. The Kasila Group of Sierra Leone, and a coastal belt in Liberia believed to be a continuation of the Kasila, yield typical PanAfrican ages of about 550 m.y. © 1971, The Geological Society of America, Inc.

Geological Society of America Bulletin

A Permian disturbance of K-Ar radiometric ages in New England: Its occurrence and cause

Approximately 200 K-Ar mineral and whole rock ages from New England, half of which are previously unpublished, are used to delineate an area of Permian thermal disturbance. The disturbed area, as outlined by K-Ar mica ages, forms a north-northeast-trending belt 60–80 mi wide that extends from the coast of Long Island Sound in southern Connecticut to southwestern Maine, where it terminates against rocks displaying older radiometric ages. Several possible mechanisms that may have affected the radio-metric systems of pre-existing rocks are examined: (1) contact metamorphism related to contemporaneous igneous activity, (2) alteration associated with major faulting, (3) regional metamorphism in late Paleozoic time, and (4) burial followed by uplift and erosion. Evidence is given that each of these mechanisms was operative locally, especially in the southern portion of the belt. The general lack of late Paleozoic tectonism in New Hampshire and Maine suggests that only burial is a likely cause of the disturbance there.

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,

Comparison of radiogenic helium and lead in zircon

A direct comparison of helium and radiogenic lead in nonmetamict zircon crystals has indicated a 25 per cent discrepancy between these radiogenic constituents. It appears that the amount of helium is only three-quarters of the amount that should be present according to the content of radiogenic lead. Approximately the same proportion was found in zircon having a wide range in age, activity, and total alpha irradiation, and in large pegmatite zircon crystals, as well as in microscopic crystals from igneous rocks.

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

Direct radiometric measurement by gamma-ray scintillation Spectrometer: Part II: Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium in Common Rocks

The method described in Part I of this report has been extended to the measurement of the uranium and thorium series and potassium in common rocks, or materials of comparable activity, in which the series are in secular equilibrium. The counting rate in an additional band centered on the photopeak from the 1.46 Mev gamma ray of K 40 permits the measurement of potassium and the removal of the counts due to the potassium in the other channels.

GSA Bulletin