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Minerals are found everywhere in our daily lives. This poster depicts numerous items found throughout a home, and the mineral(s) or mineral resources used in the ingredients of, or construction/manufacturing of those items. Designed for K-8 Teachers this poster can be scaled and is printable at 36" x 60" and legible at 11" x 17" in size.
This report provides analyses of 90 rock samples collected in the upper Animas River watershed near Silverton, Colo., from 2001 to 2007. The samples are analyzed for geophysical, geochemical, mineralogical, and environmental rock properties of acid neutralizing capacity and net acid production. The database is derived from both published (n=68) and unpublished (n=32) data. New for all samples are geophysical measurements of electrical resistivity, density, and porosity. Rock samples were acquired from 12 geologic units that include key Tertiary volcanic and plutonic lithologies, all with varying degrees of alteration. The purpose of this study is to * provide a comprehensive and complete record of U.S. Geological Survey rock samples collected and similarly analyzed in the upper Animas River watershed for various physical, chemical, and geoenvironmental properties; * provide measurements of geophysical rock properties of lithologic units to establish ground truth with respect to watershed-scale airborne magnetic and electrical survey data; * use the data to interpret the airborne geophysical anomalies to characterize rocks in terms of acid neutralizing capacity or net acid production; and * provide measurements to study the geochemical, mineralogical, and geophysical characteristics of rocks having weak to extreme degrees of alteration and to develop an understanding of how these characteristics change with alteration type. Data are provided in two digital formats: an Arc/Info geodatabase and a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
A variety of actively precipitating mineral environments preserve morphological evidence of microbial biosignatures. One such environment with preserved microbial biosignatures is the oxidized portion of a massive sulfide deposit, or gossan, such as that at Iron Mountain, California. This gossan may serve as a mineralogical analogue to some ancient martian environments due to the presence of oxidized iron and sulfate species, and minerals that only form in acidic aqueous conditions, in both environments. Evaluating the potential biogenicity of cryptic textures in such martian gossans requires an understanding of how microbial textures form biosignatures on Earth. The iron-oxide-dominated composition and morphology of terrestrial, nonbranching filamentous microbial biosignatures may be distinctive of the underlying formation and preservation processes. The Iron Mountain gossan consists primarily of ferric oxide (hematite), hydrous ferric oxide (HFO, predominantly goethite), and jarosite group minerals, categorized into in situ gossan, and remobilized iron deposits. We interpret HFO filaments, found in both gossan types, as HFO-mineralized microbial filaments based in part on (1) the presence of preserved central filament lumina in smooth HFO mineral filaments that are likely molds of microbial filaments, (2) mineral filament formation in actively precipitating iron-oxide environments, (3) high degrees of mineral filament bending consistent with a flexible microbial filament template, and (4) the presence of bare microbial filaments on gossan rocks. Individual HFO filaments are below the resolution of the Mars Curiosity and Mars 2020 rover cameras, but sinuous filaments forming macroscopic matlike textures are resolvable. If present on Mars, available cameras may resolve these features identified as similar to terrestrial HFO filaments and allow subsequent evaluation for their biogenicity by synthesizing geochemical, mineralogical, and morphological analyses. Sinuous biogenic filaments could be preserved on Mars in an iron-rich environment analogous to Iron Mountain, with the Pahrump Hills region and Hematite Ridge in Gale Crater astentative possibilities.
Sediments in critical marine mineral environments are of wide importance due to their preservation of both marine minerals and organic carbon (OC) stocks. However, OC storage and cycling is often overlooked in mineral system studies. This work characterizes sedimentary OC within the Escanaba Trough, a hydrothermal sulfide system off the coast of northern California. By utilizing ROV-based push coring, we collected sediments near and far from high temperature, low temperature, and inactive vents. We applied a multipronged organic geochemical approach, measuring bulk sediment, OC fractions of varying labilities, and biomarkers to tease apart the storage, source, and cycling of OC within this complex system. In contrast to past work indicating a primarily terrestrial source to deeper, Pleistocene sediments, our results suggest a primarily marine source in surface sediments at least 50 m away from active venting. Near active venting, we see evidence of locally produced chemosynthetic OC in addition to the background marine source. This chemosynthetic OC appears to be rapidly remineralized and supports more complex deep-sea food webs compared to hemipelagic sites. Still, the greatest contribution of labile OC was observed at inactive vent sites, which we suggest is due to hydrothermal fluid alteration of more labile OC at actively venting sites. Depending on fluid temperature, hydrothermally altered OC is either preserved in the sediments as petroleum or migrated with fluid flow. Considering inactive sites are those most likely to be targeted by potential mining, we suggest additional studies could verify if these results apply at other sedimented seafloor massive sulfide systems.
Minerals are chemical compounds abundant in the rocks, soil, and water around us and they have a profound impact on the lives of all beings. Naturally occurring minerals define the landscape in which we live. They affect our ecosystems, influence the availability of nutrients that support biota, impact the distribution of vegetation, and may also contribute to contamination of the environment. Minerals are used in fertilizers for farming, in concrete and building materials for construction, in aggregate for roads, in steel for cars and all manner of transportation, and in materials crucial to the communications industry.
Chemical patterns along evolutionary groundwater flow paths in silicate and carbonate aquifers were interpreted using solute tracers, carbon and sulfur isotopes, and mass balance reaction modeling for a complex hydrologic system involving groundwater inflow to and outflow from a sinkhole lake in northern Florida. Rates of dominant reactions along defined flow paths were estimated from modeled mass transfer and ages obtained from CFC-modeled recharge dates. Groundwater upgradient from Lake Barco remains oxic as it moves downward, reacting with silicate minerals in a system open to carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), producing only small increases in dissolved species. Beneath and downgradient of Lake Barco the oxic groundwater mixes with lake water leakage in a highly reducing, silicate-carbonate mineral environment. A mixing model, developed for anoxic groundwater downgradient from the lake, accounted for the observed chemical and isotopic composition by combining different proportions of lake water leakage and infiltrating meteoric water. The evolution of major ion chemistry and the 13 C isotopic composition of dissolved carbon species in groundwater downgradient from the lake can be explained by the aerobic oxidation of organic matter in the lake, anaerobic microbial oxidation of organic carbon, and incongruent dissolution of smectite minerals to kaolinite. The dominant process for the generation of methane was by the CO 2 reduction pathway based on the isotopic composition of hydrogen (δ 2 H(CH 4 ) = −186 to −234‰) and carbon (δ 13 C(CH 4 ) = −65.7 to −72.3‰). Rates of microbial metabolism of organic matter, estimated from the mass transfer reaction models, ranged from 0.0047 to 0.039 mmol L −1 yr −1 for groundwater downgradient from the lake.
The eight papers that follow continue the series of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports on investigations in the geologic sciences in Alaska. The series presents new and sometimes preliminary findings that are of interest to earth scientists in academia, government, and industry; to land and resource managers; and to the general public. Reports presented in Geologic Studies in Alaska cover a broad spectrum of topics from all parts of the State (fig. 1), which serves to emphasize the diversity of USGS efforts to meet the Nation's needs for earth-science information in Alaska. The papers in this volume are organized under the topics Resources, Geologic Framework, and Environment and Climate. Such an organization is intended to reflect the scope and objectives of USGS programs currently active in Alaska. Resource papers include one that presents detailed observations from a Mississippian Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag occurrence in the Brooks Range (Werdon). Mineralogic, chemical, and isotopic data provide the basis for a proposed relationship between this vein-breccia deposit and the shale-hosted massive sulfide deposit type, which includes the active Red Dog mine in the western Brooks Range. Also included under the topic of Resources is a paper that presents geochemical and isotopic data from the Greens Creek and Woewodski Island volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in southeastern Alaska (Newberry and Brew). The depositional environment and sedimentological setting of Tertiary coal beds in the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys is the focus of a third paper under the topic of Resources (Flores and others). Geologic Framework studies provide background information that is the scientific basis for present and future studies of the environment, mineral and energy resources, paleoclimate, and hazards in Alaska. One paper presents the results of sedimentologic and paleontologic comparisons of lower Paleozoic, deep-water-facies rock units in central Alaska (Dumoulin and others). The authors show which of these units are likely to correlate with one another, suggest likely source regions, and provide a structural restoration of units that have been fragmented by large fault motions. A second framework paper provides a map, rock descriptions, and chemical compositions of volcanic rocks in a newly recognized, geologically young volcanic center in the Aleutian volcanic arc (Hildreth and others). A third paper presents an interesting summary of gravity changes that occurred in south-central Alaska during the great earthquake of 1964 and for the following 25 years (Barnes). Gravity changes correlate with land-elevation changes in some cases, but not in others, which means that different processes are responsible for the gravity changes.
Comprehensive models of ore genesis incorporate metal sources, transport and concentration mechanisms, and preservation mechanisms. Analogous concepts apply to the problem of metal migration from mines, mine wastes, and mine tailings, including: the concentrations, mineralogical occurrence, and availability of metals in mineral deposits, host rocks, mine wastes, and tailings (the source); the mechanisms for metal mobilization and transport during weathering; the mechanisms for metal fixation and the permanence of the fixation. Similarly, undisturbed mineral deposits or alteration zones that are exposed at the Earth's surface may be natural sources from which metals can be solubilized during weathering. Uranium (U), a naturally-occurring radioactive element, may be present in mineral deposits in sufficient concentrations that in itself constitutes ore. It may also be present in ores of other metals at concentrations that exceed average crustal abundances. Any uranium that is not completely removed from these ores in the mining and milling process may be available for mobilization into ground or surface waters via the weathering and oxidation of solid tailings or mine waste piles. This chapter discusses the relative importance of various geochemical processes that control uranium mobility via weathering in both mined and unmined mineralized environments. The data presented in this paper focus on mined areas because the great extent of historic mining in the field areas examined for this study preclude extensive consideration of undisturbed areas.
It has been known for a long time that the composition of the lanthanides in minerals is controlled to a large degree by crystallo-chemical factors, but is also greatly influenced by changes in geological environment. In general, igneous rocks rich in silica are favourable for the concentration of the heavy lanthanides and yttrium; those low in silica and high in carbonate are favourable for the concentration of the light lanthanides. These generalizations are illustrated by summaries of the available data on monazite, sphene, and apatite from different geological environments. Apatite of marine sedimentary origin (a large potential source of rare earths) shows marked depletion of cerium, as has been noted previously for sea water.
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This report provides a descriptive model of heavy-mineral sands, which are sedimentary deposits of dense minerals that accumulate with sand, silt, and clay in coastal environments, locally forming economic concentrations of the heavy minerals. This deposit type is the main source of titanium feedstock for the titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) pigments industry, through recovery of the minerals ilmenite (Fe 2+ TiO 3 ), rutile (TiO 2 ), and leucoxene (an alteration product of ilmenite). Heavy-mineral sands are also the principal source of zircon (ZrSiO 4 ) and its zirconium oxide; zircon is often recovered as a coproduct. Other heavy minerals produced as coproducts from some deposits are sillimanite/kyanite, staurolite, monazite, and garnet. Monazite [(Ce,La,Nd,Th)PO 4 ] is a source of rare earth elements as well as thorium, which is used in thorium-based nuclear power under development in India and elsewhere. The processes that form coastal deposits of heavy-mineral sands begin inland. High-grade metamorphic and igneous rocks that contain heavy minerals weather and erode, contributing detritus composed of sand, silt, clay, and heavy minerals to fluvial systems. Streams and rivers carry the detritus to the coast, where they are deposited in a variety of coastal environments, such as deltas, the beach face (foreshore), the nearshore, barrier islands or dunes, and tidal lagoons, as well as the channels and floodplains of streams and rivers in the coastal plain. The sediments are reworked by waves, tides, longshore currents, and wind, which are effective mechanisms for sorting the mineral grains on the basis of differences in their size and density. The finest-grained, most dense heavy minerals are the most effectively sorted. The result is that heavy minerals accumulate together, forming laminated or lens-shaped, heavy-mineral-rich sedimentary packages that can be several meters and even as much as tens of meters thick. Most economic deposits of heavy-mineral sands are Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary in age; some are modern coastal deposits. Superimposed on these basic processes of ore formation are a multitude of contributing and modifying factors, such as the following: Strong, sustained wave action moves sand from offshore to the shore, where the sand and heavy minerals are sorted by size and density. Mineral sorting occurs mainly on the upper part of the hightide swash (wave) zone. Fine-grained sands and heavy minerals on the foreshore can be remobilized by winds, forming heavy mineral-rich sand dunes behind the beach. Longshore drift combined with the geomorphology of the coast exert strong influence on the location of the heavy-mineral sands deposits. Sea level changes are a function of climatic changes, such as ice ages. Rises in regional sea level (transgression) and lowering of sea level (regression) strongly influence the deposition and preservation of heavy-mineral sands. The majority of heavy-mineral sands accumulation appears related to seaward progradation of the shore during regression events. Local faulting may affect the geomorphology of the coast, which controls the distribution of heavy mineral deposition in a coastal basin. Heavy mineral grains appear to weather primarily after their deposition in the coastal plain; this weathering is caused by groundwaters, humic acids, and other intrabasinal fluids. This weathering can enhance the TiO 2 content of ilmenite. Iron is leached from ilmenite during weathering, which thereby upgrades the TiO 2 content of the ilmenite, forming leucoxene. The resulting deposits of heavy-mineral sands can be voluminous. Individual bodies of heavy mineral-rich sands are typically about 1 kilometer wide and more than 5 kilometers long. Many heavy-mineral sands districts extend for more than 10 kilometers and contain several individual deposits that are spread along an ancient or modern strandline. Reported thicknesses of economic deposits range from 3 to 45 meters. Individual ore deposits typically comprise at least 10 megatonnes of ore (the total size of the individual sand-silt body), whose overall heavy-mineral content is 2 to greater than 10 percent. Heavy-mineral sands deposits are relatively easy to mine because they are weakly to poorly consolidated, and they are relatively easy to process. From a geoenvironmental standpoint, mining of heavy mineral-sands generates little or no acid or solubilized metals. However, environmental and human health concerns related to such mining include potential effects on indigenous flora and fauna, effects on local hydrology, and issues related to processing and storing thorium-bearing monazite, owing to its radioactivity. Regional exploration for deposits of heavy-mineral sands can utilize the analyses of stream sediment samples for Ti, Hf, the rare earth elements, Th, and U, and geophysical surveys, particularly radiometric (gamma-ray spectrometry for K, U, and Th) and magnetic methods. Geophysical anomalies may be small, and surveys are generally more successful when conducted close to sources of interest.
A challenge for the global economy is to meet the growing demand for commodities used in today’s advanced technologies. Critical minerals are commodities (for example, elements, compounds, minerals) deemed vital to the economic and national security of individual countries that are vulnerable to supply disruption. The national geological agencies of Australia, Canada, and the United States recently joined forces to advance understanding and foster development of critical mineral resources in their respective countries through the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI). An initial goal of the CMMI is to fill the knowledge gap on the abundance of critical minerals in ores. To do this, the CMMI compiled modern multielement geochemical data generated by each agency on ore samples collected from historical and active mines and prospects from around the world. To identify relationships between critical minerals, deposit types, deposit environments, and mineral systems, a unified deposit classification scheme was needed. This report describes the scheme developed by the CMMI to classify the initial release of geochemical data. In 2021, the resulting database—along with basic query, statistical analysis, and display tools—will be served to the public through a web-based portal managed by Geoscience Australia. The database will enable users to trace critical minerals through mineral systems and identify individual deposits or deposit types that are potential sources of critical minerals.
Recent interdisciplinary studies by the U.S. Geological Survey have resulted in substantial progress toward understanding the influence that climate and hydrology have on the geochemical signatures of mineral deposits and the resulting mine wastes in the eastern United States. Specific areas of focus include the release, transport, and fate of acid, metals, and associated elements from inactive mines in temperate coastal areas and of metals from unmined mineral deposits in tropical to subtropical areas; the influence of climate, geology, and hydrology on remediation options for abandoned mines; and the application of radiogenic isotopes to uniquely apportion source contributions that distinguish natural from mining sources and extent of metal transport. The environmental effects of abandoned mines and unmined mineral deposits result from a complex interaction of a variety of chemical and physical factors. These include the geology of the mineral deposit, the hydrologic setting of the mineral deposit and associated mine wastes, the chemistry of waters interacting with the deposit and associated waste material, the engineering of a mine as it relates to the reactivity of mine wastes, and climate, which affects such factors as temperature and the amounts of precipitation and evapotranspiration; these factors, in turn, influence the environmental behavior of mineral deposits. The role of climate is becoming increasingly important in environmental investigations of mineral deposits because of the growing concerns about climate change.
Iron-reducing and oxidizing microorganisms gain energy through reduction or oxidation of iron, and by doing so play an important role in the geochemical cycling of iron. This study was undertaken to investigate mineral transformations associated with microbial reduction of Fe 3+ and oxidation of Fe 2+ in solid minerals. A fluid sample from the 2450 m depth of the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling project was collected, and Fe 3+ -reducing and Fe 2+ -oxidizing microorganisms were enriched. The enrichment cultures displayed reduction of Fe 3+ in nontronite and ferric citrate, and oxidation of Fe 2+ in vivianite, siderite, and monosulfide (FeS). Additional experiments verified that the iron reduction and oxidation was biological. Oxidation of FeS resulted in the formation of goethite, lepidocrocite, and ferrihydrite as products. Although our molecular microbiological analyses detected Thermoan-aerobacter ethanolicus as a predominant organism in the enrichment culture, Fe 3+ reduction and Fe 2+ oxidation may be accomplished by a consortia of organisms. Our results have important environmental and ecological implications for iron redox cycling in solid minerals in natural environments, where iron mineral transformations may be related to the mobility and solubility of inorganic and organic contaminants.
Water saturated with CO 2 at about 25°C was percolated through mixed beds of limestone or marble fragments and montmorillonite, “illite” and kaolinite in polyethylene tubes for six and fortyfive complete runs. The leachates were analysed for SiO 2 , A1 2 O 3 and Fe 2 O 3 , but only SiO 2 was found. The minerals lost SiO 2 in this order: montmorillonite > kaolinite > “illite”. The differential removal of SiO 2 during the short period of these experiments suggests a mechanism for the accumulation of bauxite deposits associated with limestones.
Approximately 1,330 fluid inclusions were studied in samples of ore and gangue minerals from both massive ore and late-stage vugs from a series of Appalachian deposits and five active mines in the East Tennessee zinc districts. Most primary inclusions in sphalerite, fluorite, dolomite, and quartz from East Tennessee homogenized at 82 degrees -149 degrees C. Most primary inclusions in fluorite, barite, and sphalerite from the Central Kentucky, Central Tennessee, and Sweetwater barite districts, ranged from 72 degrees -132 degrees C. Pressure corrections to be added are probably less than 10 degrees C.Freezing data were obtained as a crude measure of the salinity of the inclusion fluids. With few exceptions, all primary inclusions contained very strongly saline brines (mostly >20 weight percent salts), with appreciable amounts of at least some salts other than NaCl, and some contained immiscible globules of oil. The exceptions include several quartz, fluorite, calcite, and barite samples that contained only moderately saline brines (12-16 percent), and some inclusions containing essentially fresh water, in vug calcite. Secondary inclusions had lower salinities than adjacent primaries. Eight primary inclusions in the differently colored outer millimeter of one Central Kentucky fluorite had low salinity (4-6 percent).The data indicate that all these deposits formed from hot, saline brines, with sphalerite forming from slightly hotter and more saline fluids than later gangue minerals. This places severe restrictions on possible modes of origin and makes deeply circulating connate brines the most probable ore fluids. The data give no information on the cause or direction of fluid circulation, which would be controlled by topography, salinity, and temperature during ore deposition, and they permit wide latitude in the construction of possible models. Other observations, on "colloform" textures, seem to indicate the admixture of at least small amounts of surface waters with the brines.
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This report is part of a folio of maps of the Walker Lake 1 o x 2 o quadrangle, California and Nevada, prepared under the Conterminous United States Mineral Assessment Program. The folio includes geological, geochemical, and geophysical maps, as well as mineral resources assessment maps, which identify selected known or possible mineral-deposit environments in the quadrangle. The geochemical maps show the distributions of selected individual elements (Chaffee and others, 1988 a, b, c) and the distributions of selected groups of elements (Chaffee, 1988a, b, c). Discussions accompanying the individual element maps are restricted to mineral residences of the individual elements as well as to what types of mineral deposits and environments may be represented by anomalies of a particular element. Discussions accompanying the multielemental maps describe the types of mineral deposits that may be related to each element group and indicate the most favorable localities for these deposits.