Structurally controlled volcanism and contrasting types of mineralization, Tuscarora mining district and vicinity, Nevada
- Homestake Mining, Sparks, NV (United States)
The Tuscarora district lies within an Eocene volcanic field that covers [approximately]800 km[sup 2] in the northern Tuscarora Mountains in northwest Elko County. Geologic mapping of [approximately]100 km[sup 2] at Tuscarora and vicinity and new K-Ar age determinations reveal a complex, rapidly evolving volcanic history. Volcanism began with construction of a poorly preserved andesitic stratovolcano(s) at 42+ Ma. Subsequently, the 7- by 10-km Mt. Blitzen graben developed between 41--42 Ma. The graben filled with the tuff of Mt. Blitzen. Graben subsidence occurred along NE to ENE and NNW to NW faults, and a variety of dikes and plugs, including the 39.8-Ma Mt. Neva granodiorite, locally intruded the bounding faults. Rocks of the graben strike NE, dip moderately to steeply, and are cut by penecontemporaneous NE-striking dikes, indicating that the graben formed in response to NW-SE-directed extension. Collapse of the rhyolitic Big Cottonwood Canyon caldera truncated the northern part of the Mt. Blitzen graben between 40.6 and 41.0 Ma. Rocks of the Mt. Blitzen graben range from silicic andesite to rhyodacite, whereas rocks of the Big Cottonwood Canyon caldera are rhyolite and high-silica rhyolite. Mineralization at Tuscarora occurs near the southeast margin of the Mt. Blitzen graben and mainly as quartz-adularia veins filling ENE, N, and NW faults. New K-Ar analyses on adularia from the Dexter and Grand Prize veins yield ages of 38.9 and 39.9 Ma, respectively. Although closely developed in space and time, the Ag-rich, base-metal-bearing mineralization, characterized by the Grand Prize vein, and the Au-rich, base-metal-poor Dexter vein zone likely represent separate, unrelated hydrothermal events. In general, alteration in the district, as observed in outcrops and drill-hole cuttings, changes from fault or fracture controlled in the north to more pervasive in the Dexter pit area and eastward under pediment.
- OSTI ID:
- 5291675
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:5; Conference: 89. annual meeting of the Cordilleran Section and the 46th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Reno, NV (United States), 19-21 May 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
ISOTOPE DATING
MINERALIZATION
GOLD
HYDROTHERMAL SYNTHESIS
NEVADA
SILVER
VOLCANIC ROCKS
PETROGENESIS
ARGON ISOTOPES
EOCENE EPOCH
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION
MAPPING
POTASSIUM ISOTOPES
VOLCANIC REGIONS
VOLCANISM
AGE ESTIMATION
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
CENOZOIC ERA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ELEMENTS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGY
IGNEOUS ROCKS
ISOTOPES
METALS
NORTH AMERICA
PETROLOGY
ROCKS
SYNTHESIS
TERTIARY PERIOD
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
USA
580000* - Geosciences