Thermal Springs and Epithermal Ore Deposits: Economic Geology 50th Anniversary Volume

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©1955 Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.

Economic Geology 50th Anniversary Volume
pp. 99–154
THERMAL SPRINGS AND EPITHERMAL ORE DEPOSITS 1
DONALD E. WHITE
CONTENTS
PAGE
Abstract .............................................................. 100
Introduction ............................. , ............................ 101
Thermal spring systems explored at depth ................................ 103
Upper Basin, Yellowstone National Park .............................. 103
Norris Basin, Yellowstone Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Steamboat Springs, Nevada ......................................... 110
Wairakei, New Zealand ............................................. 113
Sulphur Bank, California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Summary of thermal spring systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Criteria relating ore deposits to hot springs .............................. 122
Ore deposits with some characteristics of thermal springs .................. 123
Quicksilver and antimony deposits ................................... 123
Ngawha, New Zealand ........................................... 12,3
Coso district, California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Boiling Springs, Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Skaggs Springs, California ....................................... 125
Puhipuhi deposits, New Zealand .................................. 125
Sulphur, Nevada ................................................ 125
Other hot spring and fumarole deposits ............................ 126
Huitzuco, Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Tuscany, Italy .................................................. 127
General discussion of the opalite type .............................. 128
Weiser district, Idaho ............................................ 129
Opalite district, Oregon and Nevada ............................... 130
Deposits with abnormal temperatures or gases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Deposits near hot springs .......................·. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Manganese and tungsten deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Uncia hot springs, Bolivia ........................................ 132
Abraham hot springs, Utah ....................................... 133
Saline Valley warm spring, California ............................. 134
East Range deposits, Nevada ..................................... 134
Evans lime quarry, Utah .................................. ·. . . . . . . . 134
Sodaville deposits, Nevada ....................................... 135
Golconda, Nevada ............................................... 135
Deposits near Mayer, Arizona .................................... 136
Other manganese-bearing travertine deposits ....................... 136
Sedimentary manganese deposits .................................. 137
Association of non-marine sedimentary deposits with lakes . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Gold and silver deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Hot spring deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Tonopah, Nevada ............................................... 138
1 Publication authorized by the Director, U. S. Geological Survey.
99
100 DONALD E. WHITE
Comstock district, Nevada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Gold-silver deposits containing adularia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
·Goldfield, Nevada ............................................... 141
Flathead mine, Montana .......................................... 142
Genetic significance of alunite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Getchell mine, Nevada ........................................... 142
Fluorite deposits ................................................... 143
Ojo Caliente, New Mexico ........... .' ........................... 143
Poncha Springs, Colorado ........................................ 143
Browns Canyon district, Colorado ................................. 143
Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado ..................................... 143
Bruffeys hot springs, Nevada ..................................... 144
Arsenic deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Barium and lead sulfate deposits ..................................... 144
Jarosite and phosphate deposits ...................................... 144
Zeolite deposits ..................................................... 145
Plombieres, France .............................................. 145
Boulder hot springs, Montana ..................................... 145
Ritter hot springs, Oregon ....................................... 145
Hunters hot springs, Montana .................................... 145
High-temperature fumarolic deposits ................................. 145
Conclusions and speculations ........................................... 146
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
ABSTRACT
The characteristics of five explored hot spring systems are reviewed,

focusing attention on features that may be preserved after the activity has
ceased. Four systems, including the Upper Basin and Norris Basin of
Yellowstone Park, Steamboat Springs, Nevada, and Wairakei, New
Zealand have relatively high temperatures at the surface and at depth.
They are volcanic in origin, deriving heat, much mineral matter, and part
of their water from a volcanic source.
Surficial acid leaching related to oxidation of H,S occurs above the
water table in three of the four areas. Kaolinite and alunite are char-
acteristic of mild acid alteration immediately below the water table, if the
environment is favorable. Where acid alteration is absent, fresh rock
may occur near the surface. Alteration minerals formed at depth include
adularia, montmorillonite, illite, sericite, kaolinite, chlorite, pyrite, calcite,
zeolites, and sodic plagioclase. All have been found at Steamboat Springs,
most were described from the Upper Basin and Wairakei, but only a few
occur at Norris. · Tridymite and "orthoclase" ( sandine), previously de-
scribed in welded tuffs at Norris by Fenner, are related to pneumatolitic
alteration when the tuffs were deposited, and are not related to present
activity.
Chalcedony, quartz, and calcite are typical vein minerals. Opal is
dominant near the surface in sinter and in veins, but it seldom occurs
below 100 feet. Where the temperature is much above 100° C, opal may
form if deposition is sufficiently rapid, but it is generally converted to
chalcedony. Cinnabar and stibnite occur at Steamboat and orpiment and
realgar in Norris Basin, restricted to shallow depths. Sinter at Steam-
boat and Wairakei contains gold and silver. In many respects, the four
high-temperature spring systems are similar to epithermal gold-silver
deposits. ·
The fifth explored system, Sulphur Bank, California, is the only one
that has been mined extensively for its metal content, having produced
126,000 flasks of quicksilver. Rock alteration and present temperatures
differ notably from the other systems. Most alteration is of the super-
ficial acid type but some replacement calcite, pyrite, and argillic minerals
occur in deeper workings. Cinnabar and opal are intimately associated
and persist to depths of at least 260 feet, probably because temperatures of
the past and present are relatively low. The water as well as the quick-
silver may be derived from sedimentary rather than volcanic rocks.
The near-surface activity of the spring systems is dependent on many
factors, including structure, topography, ground-water relations, composi-
tions of the waters, temperature relations, and rates of discharge. The
waters of all five hot spring systems are believed to be near-neutral at
depth, but those of the Upper Basin are somewhat more alkaline than the
others. The possible existence of deep acid water in Norris Basin is also
recognized. As the near-neutral waters approach the surface they may
become more alkaline because of boiling and relative loss of CO., or under
favorable conditions, more acid because of surficial oxidation of H.S.
Thermal springs may form siliceous sinter, travertine, other special
types of deposits, or no significant deposit at all. Four of the five well-
explored systems are of the high temperature, sinter-depositing type.
Most other types, unfortunately, have not been explored at depth, or the
associated vein and alteration minerals have not been studied.
Nearly all epithermal ore deposits that show a relatively close relation-
ship to thermal springs fall into four major groups: Quicksilver (and
antimony), manganese (and tungsten), gold-silver, and fluorite. A sig-
nificant number of quicksilver deposits are associated with thermal springs,
and some others are characterized by abnormally high temperatures and
gases (principally CO. and CH.). Some quicksilver has probably been
derived from a volcanic source but much may have come from sedimentary
rocks, with connate water as the transporting agent.
Some manganese deposits are clearly of hot-spring origin, and a few
contain notable tungsten. Most bedded deposits in marine and non-marine
sediments overlie basic and intermediate volcanic rocks that have been
altered or albitized. The volcanic rocks appear to be the source of the
manganese, which was probably transported by circulating ocean water
or saline meteoric water of the non-marine sedimentary basins.
Silver and gold deposits of the epithermal type appear to be closely
related to the high-temperature volcanic hot springs; mineralogy of the
veins and altered rocks are strikingly similar except for the scarcity of
precious metals in Quaternary hot springs systems.
Fluorite deposits are not well known but they may be related to
travertine-depositing spring waters that contain volcanic components, and
have also been influenced by contact with carbonate rocks.
In summary, some ore epithermal deposits were formed by solutions
closely related to volcanism, but others were probably deposited from cir-
culating meteoric and connate waters. Much additional study is needed,
particularly concerning criteria that distinguish waters of different origin.
INTRODUCTION
MoRE than a century has elapsed since Elie de Beaumont ( 37) expressed the
belief that many ore deposits were formed from hydrothermal solutions de-
rived from an igneous source. Daubree ( 31) agreed that at least some
mineral-depositing waters were thermal in character but maintained that they
were of surface origin. Lindgren was one of the foremost exponents of the
102 DONALD E. WHITE
belief that major groups of ore deposits were formed by hydrothermal solu-
tions and that the thermal waters reached the surface as thermal springs.
The fourth edition of his "Mineral Deposits" (85, p. 65-88) continues to be
the best summary of evidence relating most epigenetic ore deposits to hydro-
thermal solutions, and particularly to solutions of magmatic origin. He states
(p. 68-69):
It has been shown that springs, hot or cold, may deposit limonite in 'abundance,
with arsenic, manganese, and traces of other metals ; and it is likewise proved that
the carbonate and silica sinters of hot springs, particularly those of the NaCl or
Na2CO, type, contain small quantities of the rarer metals, including gold, silver,
copper, lead, zinc, antimony, arsenic, tin, and quicksilver. In very few instances
has commercial ore been obtained from spring deposits at the surface. Quicksilver
ores have been mined in New Zealand and ores of iron and manganese have been
' . utilized in rare instances. The evidence that such waters have formed workable
ore deposits is therefore strong but hardly conclusive; the remarkable poverty in
metals of the deposits of the springs in the Yellowstone National Park, for instance,
will to many seem an argument against the hydrothermal theory of the genesis of
ore deposits.
This conclusion of Lindgren's remains almost as valid today as when it
was first written, but some additional evidence has been accumulated. Re-
cent reviews of some phases of the subject have been published by Schmitt
(111, 112) and by Lovering (86). The lack of numerous and convincing
gradations between definite hot-spring precipitates and workable ore deposits
is probably the basis for some existing skepticism of the hydrothermal origin
of veins and related ores.
Scope of present study.-Data on five active hot-spring systems that have
been explored at depth are reviewed, focussing particular attention on the
mineral assemblages of the veins and altered rocks and on other characteristics
that may be seen and recognized after hydrothermal activity becomes extinct,
Other characteristics such as prevailing temperature relations and composi-
tions of waters and gases are instrumental in producing the visible results.
Ore deposits that appear to be most closely related to thermal springs
are then reviewed. The geologic literature has been searched carefully but
not exhaustively for examples of such deposits.
The reviewer has been engaged from 1945 to 1954 in a study of the origin
of thermal springs and the relation of thermal waters to ore deposits. De-
tailed studies have been carried on at Steamboat Springs, Nevada, and brief
visits have been made to many thermal areas in the United States, New
Zealand, and Iceland. Although this review is primarily concerned with
published literature, some previously unpublished data and interpretations are
those of the reviewer.
Acknowledgments.-The contributions of many of the author's associates
in the U. S. Geological Survey is gratefully acknowledged. Previously un-
published data have been obtained from many geologists, as well as from the
files of the Geological Survey. The sources of these data are acknowledged
in appropriate places within the text. Mr. G. A. Waring has supplied a
number of references of foreign literature concerning thermal springs. Drill
core from Yellowstone National Park that was investigated by C. N. Fenner
( 40) has been generously loaned to the reviewer by the Geophysical Labora-
tory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington for comparison with drill core
from Steamboat Springs. The author is very grateful to Dr. F. R. Boyd
for advice and information concerning the drill core and the geology of
Yellowstone.
THERMAL SPRING SYSTEMS EXPLORED AT DEPTH
Upper Basin, Yellowstone National Park

General Relations.-The general geology of Yellowstone has been mapped
by Hague, Weed, and Iddings (60). Allen and Day (2) and Fenner ( 40)
touch briefly upon certain aspects of the geology of the Upper Basin, but no
detailed studies have been made.
The floor of the geyser basin is generally mantled by thin siliceous hot-
TABLE 1
SUMMARY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FIVE HoT-SPRING SYSTEMS EXPLORED AT DEPTH
Relative abundance of indicated items: X-abundant; x--common;
o-rare; blank-not reported
Yellowstone Park, Wyoming

Steamboat Wairakei, Sulphur Bank,
Springs, New Zealand California
Nevada
Upper Basin Norris Basin
References 2; 40 2; 40; 133 10; 16; 138; 55; 122; 143 10; 77;39; 76
140; 76
Metals of special interest in As, Au(?) Sb, Hg, Au, Au,Ag Sb, Hg
deposits Ag
Depth explored, ft 406 265 686 1,5001 417
Dominant bedrock Dacite Welded Granodiorite Silicic tuffs Andesite, lake
obsidian rhyolite tuff beds, Fran-
ciscan group
Temperatures, maximum,
oc
Associated springs ;Near boiling Near boiling Near boiling Near boiling 50±
400' depth (measured or 180 205± 172 175± 85±
estimated)
Maximum reported 180 205 (246') 172 213 80± (260')
Composition of water, dom-
inant components
Acid sulfate type (super- rare; Na, K, Na, K, NH,, rare; N a, Ca, Na2, Ca, AI, AI, Fe, Mg,
ficial) so •• sio, AI, SO,, Si02 H, SO,, SiO, Fe, so,, Si02 Ca. so,, SiO,
Chloride-bicarbonate Na, K,.HCOa, Na, K,Cl, Na, K, Cl, Na, K, Cl, Na,NH,, K,
type COa,Cl, SO,, HCOa, HCOa, so,, HCOa, SO,, Ca. Mg,
Si02 B,O,,SiO, B,O,, SiO, B,O,, SiO, HCOa, B,O,
so,, Cl
Usual range of total dis- 1 ,OOQ-1, 700 1,00Q-2,200 2,20Q-2,700 1,500-4,000 5,000-8,000
solved solids, ppm
Approximate atomic 30/1 9/1 16/1 17/1 42/1
ratio, Na/K
Minor metals of special As, Sb• As, Sb As, Sb4
interest
pH of spring waters 4 to 9! 2 to 8 2.6 to 8.7• 2.8 to 8' 2! to 7!'1
Estimated pH of deep 8 6 or less 6 7 7
water; C02 in solution,
no superficial oxida-
tion of H,s•
Associated gases
Relative quantity 0 X X X(?) X(?)
Dominant gases co,,N, co. co, co, co, CH,
Minor g~ses CH,,O,, H2S N,,H,s,H,, N,,H,S N2, H,S, CH, H,s,N,
CH, H,, C,H,, NHa
NHa·
1 Deepest reported by Steiner (122). Deeper drilling in progress.
2 Acid sulfate type present in Wairakei Valley and nearby Waiora.
s Only published values. Range probably about 2% to 8%.
4 Data not previously published, determined by D. E. Wb.ite or <I§SOciates.
104 DONALD E. WHITE
TABLE !-Continued
Yellowstone Park, Wyoming

Steamboat Wairakei, Sulphur Bank,
Springs,
Nevada New Zealand California
Upper Basin Norris Basin
Sinter X X X X Absent
Superficial acid alteration 0 X X 0 X
Opal 0 x4 X 0 X
Tridymite and cristobal-
ite
•
Kaolinite grouP 0 X X X X
Alunite X X 0
Other sulfates 0 X X 0 X
Hydrocarbons X
Iron oxides 0 0 X
Cinnabar 0 0
Sulfur X X o(?) X
Deep alteration X X X X 0
Sericite 0 0
Illite X
Montmorillonite x• X X ?
Kaolinite 0 0
Chlorite X X
Andularia' X X X
Sadie plagioclase 0 X
Zeolites X 0 X
Calcite X X X X
Pyrite 0 x• X X X
Iron oxide X X 0
Quartz X
Tridymite
Vein minerals X
•o' X 0 X
Opal X o• X X
Quartz and chalcedony X o• X X X
Calcite X X X
Other carbonates 0
Adularia' X X X
Zeolites X 0 x(?)
.Pyrite X X X
Stibnite X X
Cinnabar 0 X
Pyrrhotite 0
Arsenopyrite 0
HydrocarbonR X
Some. relatively fresh rock X X X(?) X
occurring ~near surface
Maximum~depth of mineral
occurrence, ft.
Opal 86 221' 116 20 300+
Cinnabar 30± 300+
Stibnite 120± 150±
• Beidellite reported by Fenner (40). See text.

' Includes all hydrothermal potash feldspar.
7 High-soda orthoclase reported by Fenner (40). See text.
s Reported abundant by Fenner (40). See text.
• Opal not reported by Fenner; probably occurs in much near-surface acid-altered rocks.
One veinlet of opal with chalcedony found by White in Fenner's core from depth of 221 ft.
spring deposits, underlain by clastic sediments or glacial deposits ( 40, 89).

These superficial strata are 220 feet thick at the site of the hole that was
drilled in the Upper Basin by the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington in 1929. Bedrock consists of dacitic obsidian,
hydrothermally altered except for several "islands," not far below the gravels.
The outstanding characteristics of the thermal waters of this basin were
determined by Allen and Day (2, p. 249) and are summarized in Table 1.
The waters are the most alkaline of the 5 spring groups considered here. The
present auth~r estimates that the pH of the deep water is probably close to 8.
Topography and Ground-water Relations.-ln the floor of the basin, ther-
mal saline water is discharged from a large number of geysers and spring
vents. The water table appears to be at or near the surface throughout much
of the area, although no general investigation has been made. Marler (88a,
89) has studied some aspects of the water table relationships that are closely
related to geyser activity. ·
Spring Deposits.-Fenner found only a thin mantle of sinter at the
drill hole site. Elsewhere, sinter appears to be thin, and in some places
glacial drift crops out at the surface ( 89).
Alteration.-The clastic sediments consisted dominantly of fragments of
glassy perlitic obsidian and welded tuff. The glass has been devitrified and
replaced by fine grained minerals. Original pore space is largely filled with
vein minerals. Dacitic obsidian of the bedrock is fresh to moderately altered
near the bedrock contact but is thoroughly devitrified and altered below 290
feet in depth. The phenocrysts are less subject to alteration than the meta-
stable glass of the groundmass although much pyroxene and some plagioclase
(oligoclase-andesine) shows incipient to partial replacement. The relatively
slight alteration of phenocrysts is an outstanding characteristic of the Upper
Basin drill core.
Hydrothermal silica minerals are common. Opal is dominant near the
surface but does not occur below a depth of about 86 feet. Quartz is fine
grained and largely of the chalcedonic variety near the surface and is the
only silica mineral throughout most of the hole.
The dominant hydrothermal mineral in much of the core is adularia,
occurring with quartz in veinlets and as replacements of the glassy ground-
mass of the dacite. The major chemical change consists of the substitution
of potash from the water for soda in the rocks, in spite of the fact that soda
is overwhelmingly dominant over potash in the thermal waters (atomic ratio
of 34 to 1, calculated by Fenner, 40).
Soda-rich zeolites are fairly abundant in many of the gravels. Heulandite
occurs in perlitic cracks and replaces the groundmass locally at a depth of
62 to 86 feet. Analcite is rather prevalent from the base of the heulandite
zone to 192 feet; a single specimen of analcite was found at 216 feet. Chlorite
was first detected from a depth of 47 feet and is characteristic as deep as 290
feet but was not found at greater depths. (Coring was started at 42% ft.,
and Fenner's first thin section was from 47 feet.) Calcite is rather common
as a vein and replacement mineral at depth, and vein calcite occurs with
chalcedony and adularia at depths as slight as 47 feet.
Ore Components.-The Upper Basin core is almost entirely lacking .in
"ore" minerals. Goethite and hematite are more abundant than pyrite,
which occurs sparingly in the middle and lower parts of the hole. This is
consistent with the fact that H 2 S is scarce in the spring gases. A few grains
of "yellow sulfide" ( orpiment ?) were detected in a veinlet from a depth of 92
feet.
Norris Basin, Yellowstone National Park
General Relations.-Norris Basin differs in a number of respects from
the Upper Geyser Basin and is best considered as a separate system. A hole
was started by the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of
106 DONALD E. WHITE
Washington in the Norris Basin in the fall of 1929 and was completed in
1930 at a depth of nearly 265 ft; the drill core was studied by Fenner ( 40).
The Upper Basin was chosen as a site for drilling because it represented
a typical area of alkaline springs, and Norris Basin was chosen for a second
hole because it was considered to be representative of the acid areas contain-
ing acid-sulfate springs (40, p. 282). Allen and Day (2), who. had chosen
the sites, apparently were confident the drill hole would encounter super-
heated vapor, which is fundamental to their concept of hot spring activity.
The geology of Norris Basin has been mapped by Hague (59) and Hague,
Weed, and Iddings ( 60). The bed rocks of the area are sodic rhyolites ( 40,
p. 301) with abundant phenocrysts of quartz and sanidine in a banded or
laminated groundmass. Fenner believed that much of the rock was probably
welded tuff. Altered rhyolite crops out just south of the drill site. Sinter is
lacking in the vicinity, but a thin mantle of sand, gravel, and talus lies on
bedrock. Fenner's unpublished notes and specimens from the drill hole
indicate that bedrock was penetrated at a depth of about 33 feet. Fragments
of talus consist of acid-leached rhyolite, in which quartz phenocrysts are
intact, but feldspars have been altered to kaolinite or entirely removed, leaving
negative crystal forms.
The Norris drill hole erupted a mixture of water and steam during
the latter part of the drilling; temperatures and pressures became so high
as to be uncontrollable, but no superheated steam was found. A maximum
bottom-hole temperature of 205° C and a casing-head pressure of 297¥2
psi were measured when the hole was 246lj2 feet deep. The temperature
had increased over a period of 6 days from 159° C, when the depth of the
hole was only 3 feet less. Fenner believed that high-temperature steam
"was brought into the hole by fissures from some deeper source" ( 40, p. 190).
Topography and Ground Water Relations.-The drill site ( 40, p. 282-
285) is in an area of hot ground in the northeastern part of the basin, east
of ·Congress Pool and southwest of N uphar Lake. The general topographic
relations are shown on Hague's map of Norris Basin (59) . The site is near
the north border of a ridge of altered rhyolite tuff, arid is 12 feet above the
level of Nuphar Lake, which is believed to be the base level for the water
table of this part of the basin ( 139). ·
Fenner did not determine the depth to the water table when the hole
was drilled. His unpublished notes, loaned to the reviewer by the Geo-
physical Laboratory, contain the following comments dated August 12, 1930:
A.M.-Norris drill hole. Drilling not yet begun. Is to be resumed on hole
drilled last fall to depth of 20 ft. From this hole a little vapor is now coming out,
and bubbling can be heard at the bottom.
The water level was probably less than 20 ft below the surface and close to
the altitude of N uphar Lake. Acid sulfate springs low in chloride and with
negligible discharge exist near the drill hole. They are believed to be small
perched water tables.
Origin of Acid Waters.-Most of the near-surface thermal waters of
Norris Basin are very acid, at least in part as a result of atmospheric oxidation
of H 2 S of the hot spring gases. Some of the acid springs are of the acid-
sulfate type, containing little chloride and resulting from superficial acidi-
fication of condensed steam. Many other springs, including the geysers,
contain abundant chloride and are of the "mixed" acid type. Allen and
Day (2, p. 460-490) believed this type resulted from superficial acidification
of alkaline chloride waters. The fact should be mentioned that many of
the waters considered as alkaline by Allen and Day are actually near neutral
or slightly acid because of dissolved free C0 2 • Some of the characteristics
of the Norris Basin thermal waters are summarized in Table 1. No samples
were collected from the Yellowstone drill holes.
Some of the deep Norris water may be more acid than can be accounted
for by· superficial oxidation of H 2 S. The Green Dragon spring in the
southern part of the basin appears to be an example. This spring had a
pH of 2.47 on August 27, 1954, and a relatively high discharge for an acid
spring, estimated to be 40 gpm. A water sample collected at the same time
was analyzed, and is calculated to contain approximately 390 ppm of free
sulfuric acid. If the estimate of discharge is accepted, free acid is being
produced at a rate of about 64 gms per minute or 92 kg per day. Although
some sulfuric acid is being formed at the surface, the quantity is believed to
be only a small part of the required amount. Another possible explanation
is that oxygen is carried down in meteoric water and combines with sulfur
in volcanic water at depth. Surface water saturated with air at 10° C
contains 7.9 cc of oxygen or about 11 ppm. No more than 17 ppm of sulfate
or sulfuric acid can be formed in this way, or less than 5 percent of the
390 ppm contained in the spring water.
Frying Pan Lake in the Tarawara region of New Zealand (55, p. 93,
103) presents a similar problem. This remarkable spring had been the site
of volcanic eruptions in 1886 and 1917. Grange states that its pH is 3.0
and its discharge is more than 1,000 gpm. Acid springs of such high dis-
charge are difficult to explain by superficial oxidation of H 2 S on the scale
demanded by their rate of discharge, and their origin is not yet clear.
Burbank (18a) has presented evidence for generation of acid solutions
at depth in a shallow volcanic environment, and Lovering (85a, 86) requires
similar solutions for the acid stages of alteration at· Tin tic, Utah. Although
most of the evidence at Norris is consistent with a superficial origin for the
more acid waters, a deep origin for at least part of the acid must be considered.
Spring Deposits.-Siliceous sinter occurs throughout most of Norris
Basin but is absent near the drill site ( 40, p. 301). Minerals of interest
in the spring pools and altered ground of the basin include pyrite, barite,
orpiment, realgar, scorodite, alunite, opal, and kaolinite (2, p. 138-140).
Weed (133, p. 600) has stated that veinlets of gold-bearing pyrite are formed
in rhyolite by the hot spring waters near Monarch Geyser.
Near-surface Acid Alteration.-Acid alteration at the surface is character-
ized by leaching of all phenocrysts except quartz, or by alteration of the
silicates to kaolinite. The groundmass, according to Fenner, consists of
abundant cristobalite, nearly isotropic tridymite, and kaolinite.
Only a few of the feldspar crystals had been leached in core from 28 feet
108 DONALD E. WHITE
in depth ( 40, p. 293), and all were nearly fresh at 34 feet. Kaolinite is the
characteristic alteration mineral from about 34 to 100 feet, which is the
lower limit of superficial acid solutions related to atmospheric oxidation of
H 2 S. The present water table, as previously mentioned, is probably about
12 £t below the surface at the drill site.
Fenner's Description of Deep Alteration.-Little difference in the char-
acter of the alteration was found from a depth of 100 feet to the bottom of
the hole. "Orthoclase" ( sanidine) phenocrysts, according to Fenner, were
partly replaced by beidellite clay. The groundmass is finely crystalline and
consists of orthoclase, quartz, and tridymite. Small irregular and lenticular
masses are lighter in color and are higher in ratio of potash to soda than
lithoidal gray parts. Considerable silica has been added as quartz and
tridymite; pyrite is fairly abundant and is closely associated with beidellite.
Ca.lcite, zeolites, and chlorite all appear to be absent.
Fenner is much concerned with abundant potash feldspar different in
habit from the sanidine phenocrysts but almost as high in soda. The feldspar
occurs with tridymite in cavities and in the light-colored lenticular parts of
the core ( 40, p. 305), but not in veinlets. This feldspar contains nearly 40
percent of albite in solid solution ( 40, p. 244) and was believed to be hydro-
thermal in origin. Fenner proposed that feldspar and tridymite were de-
posited during an early hydrothermal stage comparable to existing activity
of the Upper Basin, where potash feldspar low in soda is now being de-
posited. Fenner believed that deposition of potash feldspar ceased at Norris
and was followed by alteration of sanidine to beidellite. He was unable to
account satisfactorily for the fact that Norris waters, which are relatively
high in potash (Table 1), are no longer depositing potash feldspar, although
low-potash waters of the Upper Basin are still depositing adularia.
Restudy of Deep Alteration.-The Geophysical Laboratory loaned Fen-
ner's thin sections and specimens of Yellowstone drill core to the author.
The material has not been thoroughly studied in detail but has been investi-
gated sufficiently to justify alternative explanations.
The author believes the high-soda "hydrothermal orthoclase" described
by Fenner is related to high-temperature fumarolic activity associated with
eruption of the rhyolite· and not to existing hydrothermal activity. The
feldspar has the composition and optical properties of sanidine, and its oc-
currence with abundant relatively coarse-grained tridymite is anomalous to
the mineralogy of other known hot-spring and epithermal ore deposits. The
two minerals generally occur in lenticular cavities and aggregates ( 40, p.
305) and do not occur in cross-cutting veinlets with normal hydrothermal
minerals such as quartz, chalcedony, and pyrite.
All of the Norris core appears to be welded tuff except for two specimens
from 31 to 32 feet that are stream-deposited tuffs. The only other drill core
from higher levels in Fenner's collection was welded tuff from 28 feet in
depth. Judging from Fenner's field notes, this was probably a talus block
in sediments. All or most of the welded tuff is characterized by sanidine-
tridymite lenses that are parallel to elongated welded fragments. In rocks
that crop out south of the drill site, and in drill core near the surface,
sanidine has been replaced by kaolinite. The lenses therefore appear to be

unrelated to the present surface and are definitely earlier than the acid
alteration of the present system.
F. R. Boyd of the Geophysical Laboratory has been investigating the
volcanic rocks of Yellowstone Park ( 14) and has examined several thin
sections of the Norris drill core. He states (written communication) that
similar tridymite-sanidine lenses are almost universally present in the lithoidal
Yellowstone welded tuffs. In many cases the lenses appear to be flattened
vesicles or were formed in low-pressure areas where gases collected in the
"lee" of phenocrysts. Some of the lenses mark the sites of altered and
replaced pumice fragments.
Rogers (lOS) has described similar pneumatolitic alteration of rhyolitic
obsidian to tridymite and sanidine.
Specimens of the "beidellite" clay described by Fenner were submitted
by the author to F. A. Hildebrand of the Geological Survey for X-ray
identification. Hildebrand reported that clay of the montmorillonite group
(which includes beidellite) is dominant but that small amounts of kaolinite or
a mineral of the kaolin group are also present in altered phenocrysts from
depths of 157, 212, and 243 feet. The author had suspected that an illite
clay was also present, but no mineral of the illite group was found by
Hildebrand.
The clays in general do not replace potash feldspar, as stated by Fenner,
because most thin sections contain no gradations between fresh sanidine and
phenocrysts completely replaced by clay. Characteristic phenocrysts of
Yellowstone welded tuffs, according to F. R. Boyd (written communication),
are quartz, sanidine ( Or50_ 85 ), plagioclase ( An15 ), a pyroxene close to
hedenbergite, and fayalite. In specimens from the glassy bases of welded tuff
deposits, the pyroxene and fayalite are fresh but are commonly altered or
completely replaced in the lithoidal parts above the glassy bases.
Quartz and sanidine are the only unaltered phenocrysts in the Norris drill
core, but some oligoclase replaced in part by allophane (or zeolites?) was
found in core from depths of more than 100 feet. Other rather sparse
phenocrysts are either replaced by clay minerals or their former presence is
indicated by hollow casts. Much of the core from 185 to 200, 206 to 220,
and 242 to 265 feet in depth consists of iron-stained tuff containing light-
colored lenses of sanidine and tridymite in a gray lithoidal groundmass.
Some phenocrysts that are replaced by light-green clay are characterized by
inclusions of unreplaced magnetite and zircon and were probably originally
pyroxene. Other phenocrysts replaced by white or cream colored clay
contain no inclusions and were originally plagioclase. A few unreplaced
albitic borders of phenocrysts remain.
Pyrite is rare in the upper 100 feet of the hole but is relatively common
in bleached rock that dominates the core from 100 to 185 feet, and several
zones at greater depth. The pyrite occurs in tiny fractures and as concen-
trations in some phenocrysts replaced by clay. These phenocrysts were prob-
ably magnetite-bearing pyroxene. The distribution of pyrite appears to be
controlled largely by the previous distribution of iron, and not by a close
110 DONALD E. WHITE
direct relation to clay, as suggested by Fenner. Films of red iron oxide of

uncertain origin and small crystals of magnitite characterize unbleached core
from much of the lower part of the drill hole.
A few hollow casts resulting from the complete leaching of phenocrysts
occur in some of the core. Other rare phenocrysts are "moth-eaten" and
partly dissolved. These phenomena appear to be restricted to the bleached
pyrite-bearing core. The solution of phenocrysts may be evidence for the
existence of deep acid waters, a possibility that has been previously discussed.
Vein and hydrothermal replacement minerals are relatively scarce and
constitute only a very small percentage of core from depths of more than
100 feet. The minerals include the clays, pyrite, quartz, chalcedony, opal,
and several other minerals not positively identified. The scarcity of hydro-
thermal minerals is explained, at least to a major extent, by the composition
of the wall rock and the scarcity of easily altered minerals. The rhyolite
tuff had been previously devitrified and pneumatolytically altered to an as-
semblage consisting dominantly of quartz, sanidine, tridymite, and possibly
cristobalite. All these minerals appear to be very stable in most hydrothermal
environments.
Ore Components.-Pyrite, according to Fenner (40), is much more
abundant at Norris than in the Upper Basin core. This is consistent with
the fact that H 2 S is relatively abundant at Norris but is rare in the Upper
Basin (2). No arsenic minerals were identified in the core, but arsenic is
notable in the Norris waters, and orpiment and realgar occur at and near
the surface not far from the drill hole (2; 58; 134, p. 138).
Steamboat Springs, Nevada

General Relations.-The geology and the metal precipitates of the area
have been studied by LeConte (76), Becker (10), Lindgren (82), Jones
(68), Gianella (53), and Brannock et al. (16).
The bedrock. of the spring area consists of granodiorite, overlain in
places by Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic rocks and alluvial sediments as
much as several hundred feet thick ( 139). Of the volcanic rocks, pumiceous
rhyolite and basalt appear to be about equally related to the hot-spring ac-
tivity. The thermal history of the area is long and involved, perhaps ex-
tending throughout Quaternary time ( 137). The principal characteristics
of the Steamboat system are summarized in Table 1.
Topography and Ground-water Relations.-The thermal saline water
table is at or close to the surface in the eastern part of the area, where all
of the flowing springs are found, but in the higher western part of the area
where springs formerly existed, water levels are as much as 140 feet below
the surface. ·
Spring Deposits.-The hot springs have deposited siliceous sinter as
much as 100 feet thick. Calcium carbonate is not deposited at the surface,
except locally from the most alkaline springs and from erupting thermal
wells.
Near-surface Acid Alteration.-Wherever an active thermal system exists
at Steamboat Springs, hydrogen sulfide is evolved from the water table and
under favorable conditions is oxidized in part to sulfuric acid. A striking
change in pH was found at the surface of one of the spring vents ( 16, p.
225). The flowing saline water had a pH of 7.9, but sinter only a few
inches above the water table had a pH of less than 2. Films of water had
condensed from rising vapor and had dissolved sulfuric acid formed by
oxidation of hydrogen sulfide.
In the western part of the thermal area, intense acid alteration of granodi-
orite and basalt has been recognized (76, 10, 16). The water table is well
· below the surface in this part o~ the area, affording opportunity for H 2 S
to separate and to be oxidized at or near the ground surface rather than to
be disseminated directly into the atmosphere. A few flasks of quicksilver
were produced from the Silica Pit (also known as the Mercury mine or the
Steamboat Springs mine). Ciimabar occurred in streaks "as if deposited in
waterways" (76). Sulfur was more irregularly and widely distributed.
In 1951 the Geological Survey drilled a hole in the Silica Pit area to a
depth of 402 feet. The hole was started in porous acid-leached granodiorite
consisting of original quartz and secondary opal, which is the dominant
residual product of acid leaching of the silicate minerals. Similar material
prevailed from the surface to the water table, which was found at a depth
of about 112 feet. A little cinnabar was found in the drill core from 30
to 32 feet in depth. Pyrite was rare to a depth of 55 feet but became in-
creasingly abundant near the water table. The pyrite is cubic in habit, and
is concentrated in veinlets and fractures.
A marked change occurs at the water table. In contrast to the high
porosity prevailing at shallower depths, granodiorite below the water table
is relatively low in porosity. Silicate minerals are replaced by alunite and
kaolinite, and the effects of this relatively mild acid alteration die out rather
gradually and are not identifiable below a depth of 150 feet. Ferromagnesium
minerals and the more calcic plagioclase at greater depth are generally re-
placed by montmorillonite, and potash clays and mica ranging from very
fine-grained illite to rather well-crystallized sericite. Carbonate minerals,
chlorite, and pyrite are also components of these highly altered rocks. Most
of the pyrite is disseminated and is almost entirely cubic in habit, although
octahedral modifications also occur. Quartz, potash feldspar, and sodic
plagioclase are generally not affected by the alteration.
Deep Alteration.-Detailed results of alteration studies by the author
have not been p1,1blished, although brief abstracts ( 136, 137) refer to these
studies. Diamond drilling by the Geological Survey in 1950 and 1951 re-
vealed important data on the structure, temperature relations, and hydro-
thermal alteration of granitic and volcanic rocks at depth in the system. In
another abstract ( 138), depth and temperature ranges were indicated for the
deeper drill holes.
Fine-grained argillic minerals are abundant, not only in altered volcanic
rocks, but also in granodiorite. Various members of the kaolinite, montmoril-
lonite, illite, and chlorite groups dominate the alteration assemblages. Re-
placement pyrite of cubic, pyritohedral, and octahedral habits generally be-
112 DONALD E. WHITE
comes conspicuous below a depth of 100 to 150 feet, and replacement car-
bonate is common in places below similar depths. Altered plagioclase gen-
erally contains some replacement adularia. The associated veins also change
in character with depth, consisting of opal and chalcedony near the surface,
chalcedony from about SO to 150 feet, and chalcedony, calcite, and quartz
at greater depths. Opal is not found at depths greater than about 100 feet
where temperatures are as high as 125° C.
A drill hole on the High Terrace half a mile northwest of the Main
Terrace revealed dominantly nonargillic alteration at depth. Granodiorite at
350 feet is overlain by andesitic agglomerate, which in turn is overlain by
about 125 feet of hot-spring sinter and clastic sediments. Some plagioclase
of the basal sediments is replaced by adularia and minor zeolite. The vol-
canic rocks are replaced extensively by adularia and are veined by quartz and
a little euhedral adularia. Near the upper ·contact of this unit, the sadie
rims of plagioclase phenocrysts are not completely replaced, but little soda
feldspar remains near the middle of the unit where chlorite becomes an im-
portant component. The hydrothermal potash feldspar is low in soda and
is similar to that of the Upper Basin core of Yellowstone described by Fenner
( 40). Near the base of the unit adularia becomes less abundant and illite
becomes rather prominent. Granodiorite below the contact is in part re-
placed by illite, montmorillonite, quartz, and some adularia, calcite, chlorite,
and pyrite.
Alteration in the Main and Low Terraces at Steamboat is characterized
largely by the argillic minerals. of the illite, montmorillonite, and chlorite
groups. Volcanic rocks as well as the granodiorite associated with these
terraces are generally argillized, but some near-surface andesitic agglomerate
similar to that of the High Terrace is largely replaced by adularia.
Slightly altered granodiorite has been found in two drill holes at depths
less than 100 feet, but all rocks at greater depths are at least moderately
altered. The freshest of these were found near the bottom of the deepest
drill hole, apparently in the foot wall of the principal fault.
Relative vulnerability of different minerals to deep alteration is similar
to that of many mining districts. In granodiorite, hornblende is preserved
within the thermal area only where relatively massive and slightly jointed
rock is less than 100 feet below the surface and acid leaching is absent.
Biotite is somewhat less subject to alteration and is fresh or only slightly
bleached in some rocks containing altered hornblende. Most biotite, however,
is replaced pseudomorphically by chlorite or hydrous mica. Andesine and
calcic oligoclase are commonly but not always altered, sodic borders of
plagioclase crystals are more resistant, and primary potash feldspar an.d
quartz are typically unaffected.
All drill holes show some change in the character of alteration with depth
that is best interpreted as a function of depth rather than of proximity to
faults and fractures, or control by original rock types. In some places the
alteration is clearly zoned in relation to faults and fractures, but this relation
is not considered here.
Ore Components.-Steamboat Springs is probably best known for its
connection with quicksilver deposits. A little quicksilver was produced from

the acid-altered Silica Pit area a mile west of the most active springs ( 10,
7, 16). Fine-grained cinnabar is also disseminated in old chalcedonic sinter
of an inactive .spring terrace northwest of the active springs. The grade of
all of this material is low, and the total quantity of known quicksilver is
small. Quicksilver has not yet been detected in the spring waters although
indirect evidence indicates its presence in small amounts. As much as 0.02
percent of Hg was found in siliceous muds precipitated for the most part at
shallow depth in the spring system and transported to the surface in sus-
pension ( 16, p. 223). A little quicksilver was also found in steam from
a well and two natural vents, and tiny crystals of cinnabar have been pre-
cipitated on test specimens suspended in thermal wells.
Stibnite is being deposited more actively than cinnabar. Becker (10)
first detected antimony in the deposits at Steamboat, and obtained a red
antimony precipitate ( metastibnite) in water-collecting apparatus from one of
the springs. Lindgren (82), who was Becker's assistant, returned to Steam-
boat Springs in 1901 and found small crystals of stibnite and pyrite or
marcasite attached to small pebbles near the bottom of a 40-foot prospect.
Jones (68) found small acicular crystals of stibnite being deposited from
water in one of the spring pools, and identified red amorphous metastibnite in
the discharge apron of the same spring. A well drilled near the south end
of the active zone, according to Gianella (53), erupted water and steam
that deposited a thin coating of red metastibnite on nearby rocks and vege-
tation. Wells near the north end of the active area erupted pyrite and
stibnite from alluvial fan material.
Deep drilling at Steamboat Springs has revealed veins and alteration
assemblages indistinguishable from those of many ore deposits, but mineral
concentrations of ore grade appear to be completely absent within the ex-
plored zone. The possibilities at greater depth near or below the principal
zone of intermixture or meteoric and volcanic water are not known.
Cinnabar appears to be entirely superficial in its distribution, and none
has been found at depths of more than a few tens of feet. Stibnite is promi-
nent in veinlets and cavities to depths of a little more than a hundred feet,
but little is found at greater depths. Geochemical tests show that notable
amounts of antimony are present in the altered rock of the spring terraces,
but in general antimony decreases with depth, approaching the normal content
for the unaltered granodiorite.
Wairakei, New Zealand

General Relations.-The New Zealand government has undertaken an
extensive investigation o( the geothermal resources of North Island. In
recent years, geological arid geophysical study has been concentrated to a
considerable extent in the Wairakei area and has been followed by test
drilling (James Healy, personal communication). Results of most of this
work have not yet been published, but Steiner ( 122) has published a pre-
liminary account of the hydrothermal alteration.
114 DONALD E. WHITE
The general geology of the region is treated briefly by Grange (55, p.

98-99 and map of Tatua Survey district), and the local stratigraphy is
summarized by Steiner ( 122). Recent deposits as much as 240 feet thick
consist of clay and pumiceous rhyolitic sediments, slightly indurated in part.
The underlying Wairakei lapilli tuff is several hundred feet thick in the west-
ern part of the area but is absent in the east. The tuff consists of glass shards
and pumiceous lapilli as much as 2 inches in diameter. In order of decreasing
abundance the phenocrysts consist of andesine, quartz, hypersthene, and horn-
blende, with rare magnetite and apatite. Diatomaceous mudstone and siltstone
apparently take the place of the Wairakei tuff in the eastern part of the ex-
plored area.
The next older formation, in which all the drill holes are bottomed, is
the Huka formation, consisting of laminated fine-grained clastic sediments and
pumiceous sandstone interbedded with vitric tuff similar to the Wairakei tuff.
The fine-grained sediments consist largely of a montmorillonite mineral with
minor detrital plagioclase and quartz, and generally with carbonaceous ma-
terial.
No significant faults or breccia zones have been found, according to
Steiner, and the drill core is generally unfractured. The cores do not con-
tain veins, and veinlets are rare. Steiner suggests that the hydrothermal
solutions have permeated upward through the pore spaces of the rocks, with
no important cross-cutting structural control. 2
In Wairakei Valley, about half a mile north of the principal line of drill
holes, boiling springs and geysers emerge at the surface, but near-surface
temperatures are surprisingly low in parts of the drilled area. Two holes
have temperatures close to 20° C at depths as much as 200 feet, but the
temperatures rise rapidly at greater depth. Temperatures in other holes
appear to rise more gradually and are near the boiling points of pure water
for comparable pressures. 3 The deepest hole reported by Steiner is 1500
feet, and the highest temperature is at least 213° C.
Of critical interest is the composition of water from different parts of
the drilled area and from different depths in the drill holes, but water analyses
are not yet available. A few analyses of water from nearbyWairakei Valley
have been published by Grange (55) and Wilson ( 143). This valley trends
eastward, roughly parallel to the line of drill holes discussed by Steiner but
is about half a mile to the north. In view of the fact that the line of drill
holes is nearly 3 miles long, the Wairakei Valley analyses may be considered
as representative of the thermal system. The character of the waters is
summarized in Table 1.
Topography and Ground-water Relations.-Steiner has not considered
topography and water table as related to types of alteration and near-surface
temperatures.
Spring Deposits.-Near the drill holes described by Steiner, hot spring
deposits are lacking, but sinter occurs immediately to the north in W airakei
2 Later drilling has shown at least one major fissure (personal communication, A. Steiner).
s Deepest hole drilled to August, 1955, is 3,360 ft. The highest temperature, 266° C, is
not in the deepest holes (personal communication, James Healy).
Valley. Grange (55, p. 119, 120) found a little gold and silver in sinter from
the Champagne Pool.
Near-surface Acid Alteration.-Superficial leaching by sulfuric acid char-
acterizes only one of the nine drill holes included in the study, but acid
leaching is pronounced in some other places in the area. Drill hole 6 near
the western end of the line of holes is characterized near the surface by acid
leaching and by opal, kaolinite, and alunite. The rock was entirely altered to
kaolinite and a little opal to a depth of 12 feet, with destruction of all primary
minerals except quartz. Partial replacement of the glassy groundmass by
kaolinite occurs to a depth of 20 feet, which is also the deepest occurrence of
opal. Fresh plagioclase phenocrysts appear at 80 feet but are entirely altered
to kaolinite at higher levels. Alunite and some pyrite occur between depths
of 32 to SO feet.
Zone of Weathered and Unaltered Rocks.-Wairakei tuff is weathered
to a maximum depth of 240 feet. A zone of unaltered rock, according to
Steiner's description, appears to lie between the zone of weathering and the
deep hydrothermal alteration, although the relations are not perfectly clear.
The upper limit of the alteration is 140 to 500 feet below the surface. Rela- ·
tively low temperatures appear to characterize the weathered and unaltered
rocks, and are very probably related to extensive circulation of meteoric water.
In nearby Wairakei Valley, in contrast, high temperatures and probably
altered rock are near the surface. Deep thermal water along the line of
drill holes does not rise into the near-surface rocks but apparently migrates
northward and rises into Wairakei Valley.
Deep Alteration.-Temperatures apparently increase rapidly below the
weathered and unaltered rocks, and are commonly near boiling for existing
pressures. Steiner recognizes three zones of deep alteration characterized,
with depth, by montmorillonite, zeolite, and adularia. In the western drill
holes, an albite zone occurs in place of the zeolite and adularia zones of the
eastern holes. Tuffaceous and arenaceous rocks are altered but no min-
eralogical changes were recognized in the fine grained interbedded argillaceous
sediments.
The most common hydrothermal alteration is the conversion of volcanic
glass to clays of the montmorillonite group. The argillized pumice is gen-
erally deep olive green. Under the microscope the clay is seen to consist of
minute green scales, some of which show faint pleochroism and radiating
structure. Its indices of refraction range from f3 = 1.539 to 1.624. The
higher indices suggest the presence of some chlorite. Pyrite accompanies the
argillic minerals and is characterized by cubic and octahedral habit.
In terms of chemical changes, Steiner concludes that argillization is ac-
companied by loss of soda and gain of water, magnesia, sulfur, some lime and
· ferrous iron, and a little titania. A nearby fresh obsidian and a welded tuff
have been chosen for comparison in determining gains and losses in the
altered rocks, but Steiner may not be justified in assuming nearly identical
original compositions. Steiner indicates· a lack of evidence for introduction
of magnesia from depth and suggests introduction by downward-percolating
116 DONALD E. WHITE
surface water. He does not consider the possibility that the higher magnesia,
lime, and titania in the altered rocks may be due at least in part to original
composition.
The zeolite zone is characterized by ptilolite, a relatively rare zeolite
containing calcium, sodium, and potassium. Analcite and heulandite are
less common. Steiner infers that montmorillonite preceded zeolite because
vesicles in argillized pumice are filled with fresh ptilolite, but this evidence
does not seem conclusive.
The lower limits of present temperature in the zeolite zone of the seven
drill holes containing ptilolite range from 60° to 164° C.
Adularia has been recognized as an alteration product in the lower parts
of three deep drill holes, and is abundant in hole 11. Its minimum depth of
occurrence is 701 feet below the surface, but another drill qole 1124 feet deep
near the east end of the line contained no adularia. Temperatures ranged
from 198° to 213° C in the adularia zone of hole 11. Fenner (40, p. 238, 251)
found adularia in Upper Basin drill core as little as 62 feet below the surface,
where the existing temperature was probably not over 120° C. At Steamboat
Springs, adularia is believed to form at depths and temperatures similar to
those of the Upper Basin.
Adularia is generally limited to the replacement of plagioclase crystals and
is accompanied by wisps of sericite, but minor adularia of typical crystal
habit has been recognized. Of interest is the fact that plagioclase phenocrysts
remained stable down to the adularia zone, where they become unstable. Re-
placement adularia is generally associated with titanomorphite, a fine-grained
variety of sphene. Secondary quartz is a common associate, and prehnite
of probable hydrothermal origin has been identified in one core.
The principal chemical change involves substitution of potash for soda
and lime, and probably the addition of some silica. Steiner infers that a
relatively high concentration of potash is necessary for this reaction to occur,
but Fenner ( 40) has demonstrated that adularia may form even where soda
is greatly dominant over potash in the water. Steiner presumes, with Fenner,
that the potash content of the hydrothermal solutions is largely derived from
deeper zones where primary leaching of silicate minerals has dissolved the
alkalies.
Pyrite is significantly lower in the adularia zone than in other alteration
zones. James Healy, who has been closely associated with the drilling since
its inception, has suggested (personal communication) that pyrite may be
related to geothermal gradient. The gradient is relatively high in the pyrite-
rich zones but is considerably lower at greater depths.
Secondary albite and quartz are found in the two western drill holes in
place of the zeolite and adularia zones occurring elsewhere. Steiner suggests
that albite-depositing solutions were higher in temperature than nearby
similar zeolite-depositing solutions. No temperature data are provided to
support this suggestion.
Ore Components.-Pyrite is the only metallic sulfide identified at
Wairakei. Some sinter contains a little gold and silver.
Sulphur Bank, California

General Relations.-Sulphur Bank is an outstanding example of an ore
deposit that is clearly related to hot springs. Through 1944 the mine has
yielded 126,285 flasks of quicksilver ( 39).
The geologic relations of this notable deposit are known chiefly through
the writings of Le Conte (76, 77) and Becker (10). Anderson (5) has
mapped the general geology of the region, Ross ( 107) has studied the mine
area, and Everhart (39) has published a recent detailed investigation.
The original appearance of the deposit prior to disturbance by mining
operations is best described by its discoverer, John A. Veatch, in a little-
known letter dated June 28, 1857 (129). J.D. Whitney (142) also saw the
deposit prior to mining activity.
A pyroxene andesite lava flow nearly a square mile in area and on the
shore of Clear Lake capped a hill containing the sulfur and quicksilver de-
posits. The southern (landward) side of this hill consisted of white porous
acid-leached lava impregnated with abundant native sulfur. Hot vapors and
sulfurous fumes escaped from small cracks and fissures in the mass, and
small springs rich in boric acid emerged in the floor of a west-trending gulley
at the south base of the hill. Neither Veatch nor Whitney found quick-
silver in the sulfur-rich hill.
The rocks of the area consist of shales and graywackes of the Franciscan
group overlain by lake beds and landslide breccia, which in turn are capped
by the augite andesite lava flow. Becker ( 10), Anderson ( 5), and Everhart
( 39) all agree, from paleobotanical evidence, in assigning the lake beds to the
Recent or post-glacial period. Everhart, however, has mapped a fault
cutting andesite on the north side of the largest pit. The stratigraphic throw
of the base of the andesite is shown to be 25 feet, but the fault had no
topographic expression at the surface. This suggests that the lake beds and
lava flow may not be post-glacial in age, but a less precise Quaternary age
appears certain (C. A. Anderson, oral communication) .
Sulphur Bank was first mined for native sulfur that was concentrated in a
nearly pure form near the surface. Cinnabar was first encountered a few
feet below the surface, and it increased downward in relative amount to such
an extent that it became an objectionable. impurity in the sulphur. The
deposit was first mined for quicksilver in 1873, yielding a large part of its
total production over the following 30 years of nearly continuous activity.
Underground mining was attempted to a maximum depth of 417 feet
(39), but very high temperatures and abundant C0 2 and H 2 S made working
conditions virtually intolerable. A temperature of 80° C was measured by
Becker ( 10) at a depth of 310 feet in the Herman shaft. Forstner ( 47)
measured a temperature of 52° C in a spring flowing out over the floor of the
Wagonspring cut. He believed the spring was depositing cinnabar as well
as pyrite.· Temperatures ranging from 29° to 42° C were measured by
Bradley (15) in springs discharging near the floor of the present Herman
pit.
The waters are notable for their high content of sodium bicarbonate
118 DONALD E. WHITE
and boron (131, p. 98; 140, p. 569). The pH's of 5 spring samples col-
lected in 1946 by the present author, when water was being actively pumped
from Herman pit, range from 6.62 to 7.35 ; corresponding spring temperatures
were 55.1 to 79.8° C. Herman pit was later filled with water that was
strongly affected by oxidation of H 2 S to sulfuric acid. The pH of a pond
sample collected in January 1954 was 2.7.
Topography and Ground-water Relations.-Veatch (129, p. 17) found
flowing thermal springs in the ravine at the south base of the sulfur-capped
hill. Judging from Veatch's description of the springs and Becker's
topographic map of the area ( 10, Atlas sheet IV), which was compiled prior
to major disturbance from mining activities, the spring outlets ranged from
about 30 to 60 feet in altitude above Clear Lake and 40 to 70 feet below the
adjacent andesite ridge line. The latter figures are significant in setting an
upper limit for depth to thermal water level within the andesite-capped hill.
The basal zone of alteration in the lava flow, which will be described, was
definitely below water level, but the relation of the middle or "boulder"
zone to the water table is uncertain. Becker ( 10, p. 256-257), the only
author who specifically considered the problem, states:
The depth to which the basalt has been decomposed by the acid waters varies in
different exposures, and perhaps averages 20 feet. The limit is usually very
sharply defined, and it may be considered certain that this represents the permanent
level of the alkaline waters prior to the beginning of mining operations.
Le Conte and Rising (77, p. 26-27) apparently believed that the water
table was at the base rather than at the top of the boulder zone. The author
suggests a third possibility. The water table may have been near the top
of the boulder zone during early stages of hydrothermal activity but was
lowered to the base of the same zone during the late Quaternary when the
outlet of Clear Lake was lowered by erosion ( 5, p. 662-663). According to
a fourth theory, the "boulder" zone has always been above the water table.
The scoriaceous and brecciated top of the flow altered to a physically different
product than the more massive and less fractured center of the flow.
Near-surface Acid Alteration.-All of the major studies at Sulphur
Bank (77, p. 26-27; 10, p. 256-257; 39, p. 140-141) agree in subdividing the
andesite into the three alteration zones that have been mentioned. The near-
surface zone, ranging from 5 to 25 feet thick, consists of porous opaline
silica that is a residue of thorough acid-leaching of the andesite. Native
sulfur was abundant near the surface but decreased toward the base of the
zone. Cinnabar was absent at the surface but increased downward and
may have occurred to some extent in the leached zone. According to Le
Conte and Rising (77, p. 26), however, cinnabar was first seen in the under-
lying "boulder" zone. Iron occurred near the surface as "ferric and mag-
netic ( maghemite?) oxides", and at greater depth as pyrite. Black spongy
·material colored with magnetic oxide was generally rich in both sulfur and
cinnabar. Small globules· of bituminous material also occurred in minor
amounts.
The middle zone of alteration, probably ranging from 20 to 30 feet in
thickness, is characterized by "boulders" of relatively fresh andesite sur-
rounded by concentric shells of altered andesite. The original andesite was

relatively massive but was cut by vertical and horizontal joints.. Sulfuric
acid has attacked the rock, working inward from the borders of the joint
blocks in a manner comparable to spheroidal weathering. Well-crystallized
sulfur and a little "paint" cinnabar were deposited between the concentric
shells and adjacent to the massive cores of the "boulders." Anderson ( 5, p.
650) states that· the spheroidal shells consist of opalized andesite. Everhart
(39, p. 140-141) believed that the shells consisted of "white to gray clay"
and that opal, although extending down a few feet into the boulder zone,
was largely restricted to the overlying leached zone. Cinnabar and pyrite
formed stringers and seams throughout the clay between the "boulders".
The basal zone in the andesite, consisting of relatively fresh rock ac-
cording to Le Conte and Rising (77, p. 26-27) was characterized by nearly
horizontal and vertical joints containing blue clay and hydrous silica "in soft
cheesy condition. . . . This half-consolidated gelatinous silica, evidently very
recently deposited-is nearly always . . . streaked and clouded with cin-
nabar." Clay of this zone, according to C. P. Ross (written communication)
was determined to be kaolinitic by C. S. Ross of the Geological Survey, and a
chalky white clay replacing the flow near its base was found to be nearly pure
halloysite (or endellite ?) with an index of refraction of 1.544.
The basal zone of the andesite must have been below the water table prior
to mining activity. In the Wagonspring pit north of the large Herman pit
(39, plate 21), the top of the basal zone is approximately 1,375 feet in alti-
tude. Springs that were seen by Veatch ( 129, p. 17) had ranged from at
least 1,350 to an upper limit of about 1,385 feet. The base of the andesite
flow in the Wagonspring pit is less than 1,350 feet in altitude and must have
been well below the water table.
In the early studies, little attention was given to rock alteration below the
andesite. The lake sediments, according to Everhart (39, p. 141), are more
extensively kaolinized than the lava flow. Some dark clastic material was
. found by C. S. Ross to be a kaolinitic clay (C. P. Ross, written communica-
tion).
In the eastern part of the Herman Pit, Franciscan rocks are at and near
the original surface and are within the zone of acid alteration. The dominant
clay mineral is kaolinite ( 139).
Deep Alteration.-Where Franciscan rocks are below the acid zone,
alteration is inconspicuous except locally along fault zones (39, p. 141).
Unspecified carbonates and clay minerals occur locally as replacements and
as vein matter. The apparent absence of pronounced deep alteration is an
outstanding characteristic of Sulphur Bank and distinguishes it from the other
hot spring systems that have been discussed.
Ore Components.-Quicksilver was absent in the top of the leached zone.
According to several authors, cinnabar became prominent near the base of
this zone, but Le Conte and Rising (77, p. 26) state that quicksilver first
became prominent in the "boulder" zone, where it was found intimately as-
sociated with hydrous silica and with sulfur between concentric opaline shells
surrounding "boulders". All of the quicksilver may have been limited to
120 DONALD E. WHITE
depths below the previously existing water table but it is probable that a
small part was transported by vapors for short distances above the water
table.
The most extensive and richest ore bodies were found in the lower
part of the andesite flow and in the upper part of the lake beds immediately
below the andesite ( 10, 77, 39). Cinnabar is described as occurring with
rather abundant pyrite, some marcasite, "cheesy" and normal opal, and
crystalline silica. Cinnabar both impregnates the sediments, and occurs in
irregular seams.
At greater depth, in the Franciscan group, cinnabar is much more closely
restricted to principal faults and breccia zones, where it occurs with quartz,
chalcedony, marcasite, calcite, and some opaline silica. According to Ever-
hart ( 39, p. 127), ore bodies in the Franciscan rocks are controlled by the
intersections of faults, and have steeply pitching pipelike forms.
The first and only published record of stibnite at Sulphur Bank is by
Everhart ( 39, p. 127, 138, 139), who considers this mineral to be late in the
paragenetic sequence, associated with sulfates and native sulfur at the orifices
of fumaroles and near the hot springs. Earlier authors have not mentioned
stibnite although significant observations were recorded by C. P. Ross:
When (Sulphur Bank was) visited in October, 1938, hot water that issued from
joints in clastic beds just below the (andesite) was accumulating a deposit con-
sisting of bands of nearly white, slightly iron-stained aragonite and loosely co-
herent needles of stibnite, more than one-half inch long. No quicksilver mineral
was present but chemical tests show a little of the element is present. As this part
of the quarry was excavated in April, 1938 (letter of Worthen Bradley, November
25, 1938), the deposit, which was several inches thick, must have formed within a
few months of the date it was examined. (Written communication).
Ross's specimens were examined in 1945 by the author, who is in
complete agreement that they must have formed at the surface on the discharge
apron of an active hot spring. A tiny euhedral crystal of cinnabar was found
to be attached to stibnite. In the writer's opinion the crystal probably grew
in place but Ross believed it was transported mechanically and had no par-
ticular significance.
SUMMARY OF THERMAL SPRING SYSTEMS
The principal characteristics of the five described spring systems are sum-
marized in Table 1. Except at Sulphur Bank, surface temperatures are near
boiling and the near-surface temperatures are close to the boiling points for
pure water at prevailing hydrostatic pressures. These four near-boiling
spring systems deposit siliceous sinter at the surface and appear closely re-
lated to volcanism. Near-surface geothermal gradients are very high, and
very great heat flows demand a volcanic source. Most of the mineral com-
ponents and a small part of the water are believed to be volcanic but most of
the water is clearly of surface origin (2, 140). Recent isotope study has
provided spectacular confirmation of this view (25a).
In the volcanic spring systems, near-surface wall rocks are likely to show
little or no alteration, unless leached by sulfuric acid near and above the
water table. Nearly all rocks 100 feet or more in depth and subjected to
thermal solutions at near-boiling temperatures show some evidence of altera-
tion. Argillic minerals, quartz, adularia, chlorite, carbonates, zeolite, and
pyrite are found, but few generalizations concerning favorable environments
of each seem valid from present data. Effects of recent thermal activity on
the deeper Norris core are relatively slight because of stability of most of
the minerals. At Yellowstone and Steamboat Springs, adularia, the zeolites,
and chlorite appear to favor a slightly alkaline environment; the montmoril-
lonite and illite clay minerals appear to result from reaction of C0 2 and
silicate minerals. Available evidence from Wairakei, however, does not seem
to support these conclusions.
Veins and veinlets are prevalent in core from the Upper Basin and Steam-
boat Springs and contain opal near the surface. Opal also occurs in sinter
or acid-leached wall rocks of all high temperature systems. Where tempera-
tures are higher than 100° C, opal is ordinarily not found more than a few
feet below the water table, although a little opal, in part converted to
chalcedony, occurs at depth in Norris. Chalcedony and quartz are the usual
silica minerals at greater depths and at higher temperatures. Temperature
and rate of deposition are believed to be critical factors in determining which
silica mineral is deposited.
The spring deposits of high-temperature systems are likely to contain
traces of gold and silver and small amounts of other metals, but the explored
parts of the systems have revealed no concentration of metal recoverable at a
profit under ordinary conditions. Of the near-boiling systems, Steamboat
Springs is the only one containing quicksilver, but cinnabar appears to be
restricted to the upper few feet of the spring deposits.
Sulphur Bank is the only well-explored active spring system with present
temperatures ·well below the boiling points of pure water at prevailing pres-
sures, but this deposit, containing a notable concentration of quicksilver, is
also the only one of the five that was mined commercially for its metal content.
The presence of opaline silica at depths of 200 or 300 feet below the water
table may indicate the existence of relatively low temperatures in the past,
which in turn may explain the absence of conspicuous deep hydrothermal
alteration. In the author's opinion the distribution of sulfur and quicksilver
is also best explained by relatively low temperatures in the past.
The near-surface activity of the spring systems is dependent on many
factors, including structure, topography, ground-water relations, compositions
of the waters, temperature relations, and rates of discharge. The waters of
all five hot spring systems are believed to be near-neutral at depth, but those
of the Upper Basin are somewhat more alkaline than the others. As the
waters approach the surface they may become more alkaline because of boiling
and exsolution of C0 2 , or, under favorable conditions, more acid because of
superficial oxidation of H 2 S. The possible existence of deep acid water in
the Norris Basin is also recognized.
Thermal springs may deposit siliceous sinter, travertine, other special types
of deposits, or no significant deposit at all. Four of the five spring systems
122 DONALD E. WHITE
considered in the present review are of the high temperature sinter-depositing

type. Most other types are not represented because they have not been
explored at depth or because associated vein and alteration minerals have not
been studied.
CRITERIA RELATING ORE DEPOSITS TO HOT SPRINGS
A number of criteria have been used in the past to relate ore deposits
to hot springs in general, or to a specific hot spring. A few criteria are
convincing and are difficult to explain without proposing a hot-spring origin,
but other criteria carry little conviction unless supported by independent
evidence. ·
Where an ore component is found in a spring deposit of an active thermal
area, and the water is shown to be transporting the ore component, the evi-
dence of a relationship appears conclusive. The ultimate source of the ore
component and the mode of transport and deposition may be in doubt, but
not the fact of deposition.
If active springs no longer exist near a deposit clearly similar to known
spring deposits, ancJ. other reasonable explanations are lacking, the deposit
and any associated ore components are assumed to be related to springs.
If ore components are concentrated in Quaternary rocks (other than spring
deposits) from which thermal springs emerge, the springs are assumed, with
little doubt, to have introduced the ore component. This is true even
though the springs are not clearly depositing ore at the present time, unless a
more reasonable explanation can be proposed. The concept of paragenetic
sequence of deposition of vein minerals is well established in mining geology.
Minerals deposited by near-surface spring systems are also likely to change
with time.
Largely because alternative explanations are more apparent, other re-
lationships are believed to be less reliable in determining whether a specific
ore deposit was formed by thermal springs. If the ore components are in
a vein from which thermal springs are flowing, the evidence for a genetic
relationship is not conclusive because earlier activity of some unspecified
type may have introduced the vein minerals. The relation between vein and
thermal waters could be purely structural rather than genetic.
Some deposits appear related to the present topographic surface and were
perhaps formed by spring systems influenced by topography or by the water
table, but other possibilities must also be considered seriously. The acid-
leached zone produced above and near the water table of some hot-spring
systems has characteristics that may be recognizable even after the spring
system has become extinct and considerable erosion has taken place. How-
ever, the oxidized zone of sulfide ore bodies has many similar characteristics,
and such an origin must also be considered.
Deep alteration of the explored hot-spring systems shows zoning with
depth, and similar zones may be recognizable in some ore deposits. The
uncertainties may be great, except for those ore deposits with little erosion
below the original water table. The near-surface rocks of extinct spring
systems may show little alteration of any type, even near the principal struc-
tures, but the intensity of alteration is likely to increase markedly with
depth if the wall rocks were of susceptible types and the temperatures of
the ore solutions were sufficiently high.
Some epithermal ore deposits are characterized by high temperatures at
the present time that are not explainable by oxidation of sulfides. The
temperature relations may be relict from an earlier stage of ore formation,
or late thermal solutions unrelated to the ores may merely be utilizing the
same permeable channelways. Other ore deposits are characterized by ab-
normal quantities of C0 2 , H 2 S, and methane in underground workings.
Although abnormal gases and excess temperature are not reliable indications
of a relation to thermal springs, they characterize a notable proportion of
quicksilver and epithermal gold-silver deposits.
ORE DEPOSITS WITH SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THERMAL SPRINGS
For present purposes, the ore deposits have been separated into groups ac-
cording to mineral content. Within each major group, the deposits that
appear to the reviewer to be most clearly related to hot springs are considered
first and those of less certain relationship are considered last.
Quicksilver and Antimony Deposits

The outstanding deposits at Sulphur Bank and at Steamboat Springs have
been previously discussed.
Ngawha, New Zealand.-Quicksilver deposits in the Ngawha Lake basin
of North Auckland have been. described by Bell and Clarke (11, p. 87-92) and
by Henderson ( 61). Quicksilver deposits are intimately associated with a
group of hot springs near the western side of the lake basin. Recent basalt
lies immediately to the north, and several nearly circular ponds within the
basin, now filled with warm water containing suspended sulphur, may be
explosion craters. The principal quicksilver-bearing area, known as the
Ohaeawai hot springs, contains numerous pools of thermal water with little
or no discharge and a few flowing springs ranging from 30° to 81° C in
temperature. The waters are characterized by alkali chlorides and bicar-
bonates. Water from a nondischarging vent in one of the quicksilver-bearing
areas is reported by Bell and Clarke (11, p. 38) to contain 2.1 ppm of H 2S,
0.13 ppm of As 2 0 3 , and the astonishing amount of 3.2 ppm of quicksilver.
A trace of gold, 0.000083 ppm, has also been reported in another water
sample. Near-surface lake beds in the basin are acid leached, and low-
discharging thermal pools are acid because of atmospheric oxidation of H 2 S.
Quicksilver is apparently being deposited with siliceous sinter ( 11, p. 38;
61, p. 57). Cinnabar is also abundant in the upper few feet of the deposits,
which have been described as acid-leached lake beds and also as sinter. The
cinnabar ( 11, p. 87) is associated with native mercury, sulfur, marcasite,
bituminous matter, hydrocarbons, chalcedonic quartz, and a little stibnite.
Coatings of cinnabar are frequently found on the carbonized roots of trees
in the lacustrine beds.
124 DONALD E. WHITE
The total production of quicksilver from the area is· not known but is
probably not large.
Coso District, California.-The Coso district, which includes Coso hot
springs, is in Inyo County, California. The district produced 231 flasks of
r1uicksilver between 1935 and 1939 ( 108) and contains three principal deposits
and several minor ones, including the active hot springs. The springs are
the acid-sulfate type and occur along a recent fault with a 10-foot scarp bound-
ing the east side of the Coso Range ( 49).
Steam vents and moist hot ground characterize much of the spring area,
as well as the Devil's Kitchen and Nicol quicksilver deposits, which are about
2 miles to the southwest and some hundreds of feet higher in altitude. Tem-
peratures as high as 95¥2 ° C have been measured in the fumaroles by C. P.
Ross (written communication). A temperature of 113 ° C was reported in a
drill hole of the U. S. Bureau of Mines ( 35), but supporting data proving
superheat are lacking. The dominant gas other than steam is C0 2 , but
small amounts of nitrogen, argon, and H 2 S are also present, and a trace of
mercury vapor was also definitely identified. When copper plates were
suspended in hot drill holes, the plates became tarnished from reaction with
H 2 S of the rising gases ( 35, p. 4). The copper sulfide "soot" was found to
contain as much as 0.44 percent of Hg, Mercury vapor was also identified
in steam vents by means of an ultraviolet light and willemite screen. Most
of the minor quicksilver deposits of the district are associated with steam
vents or with moist warm ground.
The rocks of the region consist of a granitic complex related to the
Sierra Nevada batholith, overlain by only slightly eroded Quaternary rhyolites
and basalts. Volcanic ash and alluvium form a superficial cover in places.
Fraser, Wilson, and Hendry ( 49) believe the quicksilver is associated with
acid-leached granitic rocks overlain by rhyolite tuffs and lavas. Ross and
Yates ( 108, p. 403) agree in regard to the basement rock but state that the
overlying rock is hot-spring sinter. During a brief visit to the area in
1947, the author found that much if not all of the rock mapped as sinter by
Ross and Yates is probably a product of acid alteration.
The cinnabar is fine grained and is the type that blackens in sunlight ( 34).
It is accompanied by opal, chalcedony, fine-grained to coarsely crystalline
native sulfur, hydrous sulfates of several types, and some iron oxide.
Kaolinite occurs in veinlets and is abundant in partly opalized rocks. Pyrite
has been noted in places.
Boiling Springs, Idaho.-Cinnabar was recognized by C. P. Ross in
1952 in the vents and on the discharge apron of a group of springs on the
Middle Fork of the Payette River (personal communication, 1953). The
springs were visited by the author in the summer of 1953.
Small amounts of cinnabar occur in the spring vents and on the dis-
charge aprons within a few feet of the vents. The total quantity of visible
quicksilver is probably less than a pound. Dark material still farther down
the slopes was thought to be metacinnabar but according to F. A. Hildebrand
of the Geological Survey it is almost entirely an amorphous manganese min-
eral. Hildebrand found relatively large quantities of metacinnabar on one
dark specimen that also contained cinnabar. The cinnabar was clearly de-
posited by the present spring system within very recent years. Evidence
that cinnabar is actually being deposited at the present time, however, is not
entirely clear.
Cinnabar is conspicuous near these vents, in part because other notable
deposits are absent. Although the springs are near boiling (88° C), they
have deposited traces of calcium carbonate but no siliceous sinter. The total
quantity of visible cinnabar is indeed very small, but the evidence of relation
to hot springs is conclusive.
The water is relatively dilute and moderately alkaline with a pH of 9.20.
Other notable characteristics are the relatively high fluoride content (10.5)
ppm and the absence of sulfide. A search was made for sulfide at the springs
by adding CdC1 2 ; the test was negative.
Skaggs Springs, California.-The Skaggs Springs quicksilver mine,
Sonoma Co., California, is associated with warm springs. Everhart ( 39a,
p. 385) states that the springs occur in the younger sedimentary rocks along
faults that appear to have formed part of the structural control for the quick-
silver deposits. Metacinnabar occurs with realgar, orpiment, crystalline and
amorphous hydrocarbons, and rare cinnabar, in veins and impregnations in
Cretaceous(?) sandstone. The veins consist largely of dark opal locally
mixed with fine grained quartz and chalcedony; sandstone near the mine is
cemented in part by opal. Hydrocarbons appear to be somewhat more abun-
dant in the upper levels. Realgar and orpiment, on the other hand, are not
abundant except locally on the 135 ft level, which is the deepest in the mine.
Everhart also states (39a, p. 390) :"Along the creek 250 to 600 feet north-
west of the shaft collar, . . . much realgar is being deposited, together with
metacinnabar, as irregular masses in open spaces along the silicified veins
around the five hot springs."
No mention is made of abnormally high temperatures in the mine work-
ings. Everhart does comment, however, on a large flow of cold water and
methane encountered on the 100 ft level.
Puhipuhi Deposits, New Zealand.-Cropp (27) and Henderson (61) have
described quicksilver-bearing siliceous sinter deposits at Puhipuhi (Mount
Mitchell) 22 miles east of the Ngawha deposits that have been described.
The sinter, apparently of late Pliocene age, consists of microcrystalline quartz
with a little opal, is well-stratified, and contains thin irregular layers of white
cavernous sinter. The rock is probably similar to chalcedonized sinter of
some of the older spring deposits at Steamboat Springs, Nevada ( 16, p. 223),
but silicification of volcanic tuffs ( 144, 147) is anoth~r possible origin.
Quicksilver is concentrated at the base of the siliceous blankets. Cropp (27)
states that 16 tons of metal was produced by 1922.
Sulphur, N evada.-Small qu~ntities of quicksilver are found in the
Sulphur district in Humboldt County, Nevada ( 1, 7). Many thousands of
tons of sulfur have been produced from this district since the 1870's. Cinna-
bar is a minor mineral associated with sulfur and to a less extent with alum
and alunite. Quicksilver is not ordinarily recovered, but Bailey and Phoenix
126 DONALD E. WHITE
(7) indicate a production of 25 flasks of quicksilver up to the end of 1943.

According to these authors (p. 108) :
The rocks consist of interbedded rhyolite agglomerates and tuffs which are locally
silicified and impregnated with sulfur and some alum, and still more locally coated
and filled with cinnabar.... Considerable alluvium mantles the incipient opalite .
. . . Finely crystalline cinnabar occurs as sugary coatings around fragments of
both .unsilicified and silicified tuff and agglomerate in several places. Only in a
few small areas was the cinnabar seen to be disseminated through the silicified
tuffs forming typical opalite ore. That the cinnabar is later than the sulfur is
indicated by thin coatings of cinnabar in small vertical tubules in the sulfur.
No thermal activity is now evident in this area, but the author has detected
a strong odor of H 2 S in some of the short ·underground adits of the Devil's
Corral workings.
Other Hot Spring and Fumarole Deposits.-Cinnabar has also been found
with sulfur in the vicinity of Bradys hot springs (also known as Springers. or
Fernley hot springs), about 18 miles northeast of Fernley in Churchill County,
Nevada (7, p. 51). Cinnabar was found around an active hot-spring vent,
accompanied by sulfur and gypsum. The springs have deposited siliceous
sinter. Partial analyses of the waters indicate compositions similar to those
of Steamboat Springs. Four water samples ranged in pH from 6.64 to 7.43.
Stearns, Stearns, and Waring ( 121, p. 127) state that small amounts of
cinnabar are deposited by the Casa Diablo hot springs in Mono County,
California. No quicksilver mineral was recognized at this locality by the
author.
In the Wildhorse quicksilver district, Lander County, Nev., Dane and
Ross (28) found some banded siliceous hot-spring sinter above mineralized
Triassic sedimentary rocks and Tertiary fanglomerate.
Calcareous and siliceous deposits believed by Averitt (Sa) to be hot spring
travertine and sinter are associated with the quicksilver deposits of the Knox-
ville district in Napa, Yolo, and Lake Counties, California. The spring
deposits are localized along the same fault that has controlled the principal
mines. The sinter apparently contains some quicksilver, but not in any
appreciable quantity.
Another deposit similar to that at Sulphur occurs in the Alum district, 10
miles north of Silver Peak in Esmeralda County, Nevada (119). The deposit
consists largely of alum associated with native sulfur, gypsum, and very minor
cinnabar.
A few flasks of quicksilver have been produced from another sulfurous
type of deposit in the north end of the White Mountains in Mineral County,
Nevada (7, p. 131-132). The workings are in silicified tuffs, with cinnabar
occurring as veinlets and coatings on boulders in the crush zones. Much
gypsui11 and moderate amounts of sulfur accompany the ore.
Huitzuco, M exico.-The well-known Huitzuco quicksilver-antimony de-
posits in Guerrero, Mexico, have been studied by Vaupell (128) and later in
considerable detail by McAllister (87). Through 1943 the district has
yielded at least 72,000 flasks of quicksilver and 738 metric tons of antimony.
According to McAllister, Cretaceous ( ?) limestone was folded, faulted,
and intruded by small stocks of biotite granite porphyry. Fine-grained lime-

stone breccia was selectively dolomitized, and more massive limestone was
replaced by anhydrite ; near the surface, anhydrite was changed to gypsum.
Pleistocene terrace gravels, now as much as 120 meters above present stream
levels, were deposited. Solution cavities showing strong vertical controls
were then formed in gypsum and were filled by slumping of the terrace gravels.
Vaupell ( 128) believed the cavities were geyser tubes, but McAllister ( 87)
presents convincing evidence in favor of downward-trickling surface water
controlled by gravity when the water table was sufficiently low. Both authors
believe that quicksilver was deposited in the cavity-filling, thereby relating a
stage of ore deposition to a topographic surface only slightly higher than the
present surface. Livingstonite (HgS · 2Sb 2 S 3 ) and stibnite selectively re-
place dolomitized breccia and some of the rubbly fill of large cavities that were
favorably situated.
Gangue minerals of the ore include a little selenite, calcite, native sulphur,
graphite, fluorite, and minor pyrite. McAllister's section of the La Cruz
mine (87, Plate 21) indicates that dolomite extends at least to a depth of 235
meters below the surface but that anhydrite is largely restricted to depths of
less than 210 meters. This relation suggests to the present author that the
sulfate of the anhydrite is related to near-surface oxidation of hydrogen sulfide.
The deepest winze in the mine is named the "Pozo Hediondo" or "stink-
ing winze" because of noticeable hydrogen sulfide released from the rocks
(McAllister, personal communication). An odor of H 2 S was also noted at
the southwest face of the El Carmen level about 150 meters below the surface.
No abnormal temperatures were noticed in the mine.
Vaupell ( 128, p. 11, 13) states that the water level in the La Cruz mine
when undisturbed by pumping is 130 meters below the collar of the shaft.
The regional water level, therefore, has been lowered by about this amount
since the cavity fillings were mineralized.
Tuscany, Italy.-The quicksilver and antimony deposits of Tuscany have
been described by Eckel (36), Dessau (32, 33), and Lindgren (85, p. 475).
The ores occur in Triassic and Tertiary rocks. Antimony is dominant in the
southern part of the region in the Manciano district and quicksilver in the
northern part near Monte Amiata. This mountain is a trachyte volcano of
Quaternary age and is considered to be related to the ore deposits.
Many hot springs and gaseous emanations exist in the region. The hot
springs contain carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, and some deposit
travertine or sulfur. The gas vents yield warm gases consisting largely of
C0 2 with significant H 2 S and appear to be related in space and in origin to
the hot springs. The mines are not greatly troubled with hot water, but
gaseous emanations are a real problem in places. Present hot-spring areas,
however, are generally not regarded by the miners of the region as favorable
for exploration.
The trachyte of Monte Amiata is largely unaltered but is locally replaced
by clay minerals apparently related to hot-spring activity ( 36). The clays
appear confined to hot spring areas and to fault zones associated with ore
deposits. In places massive limestone has been replaced by clays of the
128 DONALD E. WHITE
hydromica or illite type. In the Abbadia mine the ore is entirely in clay
near the borders of limestone blocks. The clay zone also contains blocks
of trachyte and is overlain by trachyte, the basal part of which is a black
clay gouge.
The quicksilver ores consist of cinnabar, a little native quicksilver, and
perhaps some metacinnabar. Pyrite and marcasite are generally the only
other sulfide minerals, but stibnite is found in some mines and is the dominant
ore mineral in the southern part of the region. Calcite occurs in veinlets and
in vugs, and a little gypsum containing cinnabar has been found.
The principal antimony deposits occur in the Manciano district ( 32, 33).
Tabular or sheetlike replacement ore bodies are in. Upper Triassic dolomitic
limestone adjacent to depositional or fault contacts with overlying relatively
impermeable Tertiary strata. Hot springs and gas vents. also characterize
this district, and many of the mines contain troublesome gases, but present
hot springs are not considered particularly favorable for ore.
General Discussion of the Opalite Type.-The so-called opalite type of
quicksilver deposit generally consists of powdery cinnabar in a siliceous
blanket of chalcedony, opal, or fine-grained quartz. The deposits were con-
sidered for a number of years to be siliceous sinter deposited by hot springs
( 114, 34a, 103).
Yates and Roberts ( 144, 147) later concluded that most deposits of the
"opalite" type are not surficial hot-spring deposits but were formed by silicifi-
cation of permeable volcanic ash, tuff, sediments, and more rarely, other types
of rocks. As examples, they cite the Opalite district in Oregon and Nevada,
the National, Ivanhoe, and Gold banks districts in Nevada, and the Weiser
district in Idaho. They state ( 147) :
The opalite deposits are, in general, nearly fiat-lying tabular bodies, which rudely
conform to bedding, but some extend along steep fault zones. The opalite is
dominantly composed of chalcedony with minor quantities of opal and quartz, and
may be dense, porous, or a recemented breccia. Cinnabar, intimately mixed with
silica, occurs in fractures, cavities, and along lines of microbrecciation as well as
disseminated in the massive rock
It is believed that the deposits were formed at shallow depths and that the depth
of deposition was controlled by ground water level. The existing rock was first
replaced by opal which was either dehydrated to chalcedony or was replaced by
that mineral. Cinnabar was deposited from siliceous water after the major
silicification was concluded. Locally clay minerals were formed, in part at least,
after the major silicification but before much of the cinnabar had recrystallized.
In a few places calcium carbonate formed during a final stage of thermal activity,
Bailey and Phoenix ( 7) summarized the data for the Nevada opalite de-
posits, which include most of the known deposits of this type. These authors
(p. 17) agree with Yates and Roberts and apply the term "opalite" to
chalcedonic and opaline rocks formed by the nearly complete replacement of
volcanic tuffs and tuffaceous sediments and, less commonly, of other volcanic
rocks. Most of the opalite deposits occur in volcanic rocks of Miocene age,
but some are probably in even younger volcanic rocks. As the majority of
these rocks in Nevada are nearly horizontal, most opalite deposits are also
nearly horizontal, but some are inclined or flexed.
The typical opalite blanket is 500 to 750 feet in maximum diameter and
30 to SO feet thick, but only a part of the blanket is ore. The dominant ore
mineral is cinnabar, but native mercury, calomel, and oxychlorides are found
in small amounts. The opalite gangue is chalcedony, opal, or rarely micro-
crystalline quartz. Alunite and montmorillonite are widespread in several de-
posits; pyrite is very rare or absent. In some deposits, minute crystals of
cinnabar are disseminated in favorable beds. An example is the Silver Cloud
mine, Ivanhoe district, Elko County (7, p. 61). The distribution of cinnabar
in some other deposits is controlled by steep faults and fractures. In a more
erratic type, the cinnabar is disseminated in scattered bands, only in part
connected by veinlets.
Weiser District, Idaho.-The Idaho-Almaden deposit near Weiser, Idaho,
is one of the most interesting deposits of the opalite type. According to
Anderson ( 3), it was first discovered in 1936 and had become a moderately
large producer by 1939. An opalite blanket nearly a mile long and as much
as half a mile wide occurs as an alteration product of sandstone and shale of
the Miocene and Pliocene(?) Payette formation. The deposit lies at the
present topographic surface, on and near the crest of Nutmeg Mountain, and
is on the flattened top of a broad steep-limbed anticline. The principal ore
body is in a local undrained depression on the crest of the anticline and is
250 feet long, 175 feet wide, and an average of 18 feet thick. Anderson
believed that solutions dissolved and removed a large part of the rock and
filled openings with silica gel, which consolidated as opal. The quantity of
opal was not sufficient to fill the voids produced by solution. Some of the
decrease in volume may be related to dehydration of silica gel. Collapse of
the cavernous rock may have been one of the causes of the local structural
depression on Nutmeg Mountain as well as a cause of the fractures in the
opalized rock. Anderson also states (p. 8 and 9) :
As the quicksilver mineralization took place after beds that include the Idaho
formation (Pliocene and Pleistocene) had been folded, it cannot be older than
Pleistocene. Since the local structural depression on Nutmeg Mountain is thought
to have formed after erosion had beveled the folded rocks but before the beveled
surface had been dissected, the mineral deposition must have occurred just before
or during the early stages of the present cycle of valley cutting.
Dane and Ross (29) later made a more extensive study of the deposit
and have added considerable mineralogic and structural data. Clay minerals
are abundant, locally exceeding SO percent of the opalized rock. C. S. Ross
of the U. S. Geological Survey assisted in the investigation of the clay minerals
and found that beidellite was dominant, but that nontronite, kaolinite, and
halloysite were also present. The spacial relations of the different clays
within the altered ground is not described.
The structural uplift of Nutmeg Mountain, according to Dane and Ross,
is flat-topped with moderately steep flanks and trends northeast, transverse to
the regional structure. The uplift is so irregular in cross section and so intri-
cately broken as to suggest to these authors that it did not form from
tangential compression but resulted from forcible intrusion at depth.
The blanketlike opalite is generally parallel to the bedding where dips are
130 DONALD E. WHITE
nearly horizontal and grades laterally into unaltered material. Where the
beds are steeply inclined, however, the opalitic material tends to remain nearly
horizontal rather than to extend far down the dip of the beds. The cross
sections accompanying the report illustrate to a striking degree the tendency
for the opalite blanket to conform to the present topography.
In some places where the rocks have not been extensively opalized, alter-
ation has penetrated from all sides of joint blocks, leaving the rock in the
core of the blocks comparatively fresh. The alteration has developed ex-
foliation shells, comparable to some types of weathering and similar to the
"boulder" zone of alteration described in the Sulphur Bank andesite flow.
The shells are curved, and the cores of relatively fresh rock are roughly
spherical, producing "boulders" of arkose embedded in altered material. In
some places the spaces between shells are filled with cinnabar.
Opalite District, Oregon and Nevada.-The Opalite district is in Malheur
County, Oregon, and Humboldt County, Nevada (144, 7). The deposits are
similar in several respects to the Weiser deposit. Miocene volcanic rocks
are overlain by thin-bedded lake sediments. These sediments were silicified
and mineralized during or soon after Pliocene faulting. Apparently at a
slightly later time, Pleistocene(?) alluvium and hot-spring travertine were
deposited. A remarkable feature of the Opalite mine is selective opalization
of some lake beds, although similar beds below the opalite blanket were
altered to clays rather than to opalite. The base of the opalite is relatively
sharp and in general is parallel to the low-dipping lake beds. This abrupt
change in the character of the alteration led Yates ( 144) to suggest that
opalization occurred where rising hydrothermal solutions were changed
abruptly by mixing with a sheet of ground water moving down the dip of the
beds.
An alternative explanation for the opalite deposits of the Opalite and
Weiser districts, and perhaps elsewhere, involves a control by the water table,
similar to that of Sulphur Bank, Steamboat Springs, Norris Basin, and
Wairakei in New Zealand. The opalite may be a residual concentration
of silica formed by acid leaching above the water table. Sulfuric acid pre-
sumably resulted from oxidation of H 2 S. If opalite has originated in such a
manner, the cinnabar was transferred in a vapor phase above the water table.
Deposits with Abnormal Temperatures or Gases.-Although most quick-
silver deposits have been developed only to shallow depths, a relatively large
proportion of the underground workings have encountered abnormally high
ground temperatures or notable quantities of C0 2 or H 2 S. The Valley
mine in the eastern Mayacmas district in California was the site of the first
discovery of quicksilver in the district. The mine was abandoned in 1890
because of excessive hot water and gases, and now supplies hot water to the
Aetna hot-springs resort ( 145, p. 260; 131, p. 156-159). .According to
Forstner ( 47), strong emanations of "fire gas" or methane in the Great
Eastern mine of the same region was injurious to the eyes of the miners.
H 2 S was found in the .Cloverdale mine of the western Mayacmas district ( 6,
p. 214), and abundant C0 2 was encountered in the Buckeye mine.
The Elgin mine in the Wilbur Springs district, Colusa County, California,
is about 20 miles northeast of Sulphur Bank. This mine also encountered

hot water and abnormal gases (131, p. 104-106; W. B. Meyers, U. S. Geo-
logical Survey, written communication). Meyers found that the largest
spring of the mine area had a temperature of 66.7° C and a discharge of 9%
gpm in September 1943. This is the highest temperature that has been
recorded in the Wilbur Springs district. The Abbott mine in the same
district is characterized by noticeable H 2 S. Temperatures in parts of the
mine are relatively high. Frank Dickson found temperatures as high as
33° C in a drift on the 200-foot level (personal communication).
Gases have constituted a serious hazard in parts of the New Idria mine in
San Benito County, California. Becker ( 10, p. 308) stated that combustible
gases, probably largely methane, escaped in great quantities during driving
of the Bell tunnel, resulting in a disastrous explosion. Huttl (65a) mentions
hydrogen sulfide in addition to methane. Even though the mine has been
developed through a vertical range of more than 1,400 ft, there is no evidence
from published .sources of information to indicate abnormally high tempera-
tures.
Abundant C0 2 has been found in parts of the New Almaden mine, Santa
Clara County, California, particularly in some of the deeper workings ( 6a).
According to Bailey, C0 2 was found in places
in such abundance that it many times drove the miners from the working face and
in some of the deepest levels it is reported to have been under sufficient pressure
to "burst the face out". It was so abundant in a 1400-level crosscut ... that when
the crosscut was abandoned it was bulkheaded, and the gas was piped to the surface,
compressed in metal containers, and sold for commercial use.
Bailey notes that cold springs evolving C0 2 occur in at least three places near
the mine. One of these has deposited a thin layer of travertine. There is no
evidence for abnormal temperature either in the springs or in the mine
workings. ·
The Oceanic mine in San Luis Obispo County, California, was developed
400 feet below the main haulage level, but the lower workings have been
closed since 1926 because of excessive gas that is said to have killed several
men (C. P. Ross, written communication) .
The deeper underground workings of the Cordero mine in the southern
part of the Opalite district in Nevada have been developed since the reports
of Yates (144) and Bailey and Phoenix (7) were published. The author
found the lower workings noticeably hot, in the order of 30° to 35° C, but no
precise temperature measurements have been made. The rocks are consider-
ably oxidized down to the 500 level, but the 600 level shows practically no
oxidation and is probably below the recently prevailing water level (L. W.
Staples, personal communication). Wells downslope from the mine yield
hot water. A well about half a mile from the mine shaft is 580 feet deep and
yields water at a temperature of 59° C. A second well about 100 feet farther
downslope and 550 feet deep yields water at a temperature of 48° C. A
water sample from the latter well, collected by the author, was relatively dilute
and had a pH of 7.62.
132 DONALD E. WHITE
The Chisos mine in the Terlingua district of Texas encountered warm

water in the lower levels ( 148). Temperatures were not measured but were
estimated to be in the order of 35° to 40° C. Methane and H 2 S were found
in objectionable amounts in parts of the Two-Forty-Eight mine, and ground
temperatures were considerably higher than normal.
Becker ( 10, p. 21) mentioned large quantities of C0 2 that were en-
countered in the Santa Cruz mine, province of Ancachs, Peru.
Deposits Near Hot Springs.-A considerable proportion of quicksilver
deposits occur near thermal springs, but the relationship is seldom sufficiently
clear-cut to suggest genetic connections for individual examples. The Clear
Lake region of California includes Sulphur Bank, Wilbur Springs, and
Mayacmas quicksilver districts, some deposits of which have been discussed.
The area also contains numerous hot springs ( 131, 121), but Sulphur Bank
is the only deposit where a genetic relation to hot springs can be demonstrated
clearly.
Abnormal temperature and gases are not mentioned in connection with
the Huancavelica mine in Peru ( 10, p. 21-23; 146), but extensive hot-spring
travertine as much as 500 feet thick occurs in the valley adjacent to the mines.
Becker (10, p. 21) states that hot sulphur springs in the Youli district of
Peru emerge just below quartz veins containing cinnabar and pyrite.
Manganese and Tungsten Deposits

Manganese has been deposited in a few hot-spring areas, of which several
are notable for associated tungsten.
Uncia Hot Springs, Bolivia.-Lindgren (84) has described a manganese-
tungsten hot-spring deposit in the valley below the Uncia tin mines in the
eastern Cordillera of central Bolivia. Travertine spring deposits cover an
area of 10 acres and attain a height of about 100 feet above the nearby creek.
Springs emerge near the present valley bottom at temperatures as high as
60° C, but the upper parts of the terrace are no longer active because the
water table was lowered as a result of entrenchment by the creek. Lindgren
states that the water is "clearly of the sodium chloride type", with a little H 2 S
but not much C0 2 •
Lenses of flinty brown opal are contained in the horizontally bedded
travertine and are associated with small dark-brown masses of manganese
dioxide, streaks of barite crystals, and calcite. "Patches" of brown to black
earthy matter rich in manganese form larger lenses of porous black manganese
ore as much as 3 feet thick in the travertine.
The manganese mineral is psilomelane, which appears to be a colloidal
deposit. Tungsten occurs with psilomelane, and the grade of the ore ranges
from at least one-half to probably several percent of W0 3 , according to
Lindgren. Barium and small amounts of copper and lithium also occur with
the ore.
Michael Fleischer of the Geological Survey (personal communication) has
determined the tungsten content of Lindgren's specimens, which were loaned
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The close relation of barium
and tungsten to manganese is apparent in Table 2.
Abraham Hot Springs, Utah.-Manganese-bearing hot-spring deposits in

Juab County, Utah, have been described by Callaghan and Thomas (24) and
later by Crittenden (26, p. 24--25). In 1929 and 1930, 714 long tons of
ore containing 20.8 per cent of manganese were shipped from the property.
A broad travertine cone 1,600 feet in diameter and as much as 15 feet
high is believed to have formed after the last dessication of Lake Bonneville.
The springs have a relatively high rate of discharge, estimated to be more than
1,200 gpm, and are rather saline, containing an average of 3,900 ppm of
dissolved solids. Callaghan and Thomas assume that the waters are alkaline
because they contain bicarbonate, but such an assumption is not justified.
The author has found that most travertine-depositing thermal waters have
pH's that range from 6 to 71;2 at the spring vents. As the water flows down
the discharge aprons the pH rises because of loss of C0 2 to the atmosphere.
Calcium carbonate is precipitated because bicarbonate is converted to car-
bonate, which combines with available calcium. In 5 water analyses pub-
lished by Callaghan and Thomas, manganese ranges from 0.3 to 1.20 ppm,
TABLE 2
ANALYSES OF TUNGSTEN AND MANGANESE-BEARING DEPOSITS OF THE UNCIA HOT SPRINGS,
BOLIVIA (M. FLEISCHER, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY)
Specimen WOa v.o. Mn BaO• Insoluble
M. I. T. 11B-5583-9425 2.19 None 19.4 5.86 53.5

M. I. T. 13B-5585-9427 2.09 None 14.5 4.99 57.1
M. I. T. 12B-5584-9426b 0.38 None 2.13 0.66 76.4
M. I. T. 10B-5582-9424° 0.01 None 0.06 0.12 4.5
a BaO soluble in dilute HCI.

b Chiefly jasper.
c Chiefly calcite.
which is considerably higher than average hot-spring water. No appreciable

manganese appears to be depositing at the present time. The springs range
in temperature from 43° to 83.3° C.
The manganese is concentrated in a bed about a foot thick and is generally
covered by 1 to 2 feet of porous calcite travertine. The manganese, according
to Callaghan and Thomas, was deposited during a definite epoch in the history
of the springs. The original material was probably wad, which was then
reworked and recrystallized into psilomelane andpyrolusite. A sample of the
ore contained 33.24 percent Mn, 4.28 percent BaO, less than 0.01 percent
PbO, and no detectable W0 3 •
The spring deposit is assumed to lie on Lake Bonneville sediments and is
near the border of a Pleistocene basalt flow that was erupted from Fumarole
Butte, 4 miles northwest of the springs. Warm moist vapor ranging in
temperature from 17° to 23° C was being emitted from crevices in this butte
when visited by Gilbert (53a).
Callaghan and Thomas conclude that probably all the chemical constitu-
ents of the waters are leached from underlying rocks by circulating ground
waters, although no critical evidence is presented for or against a magmatic
134 DONALD E. WHITE
source. Thomas is of the opinion that Quaternary volcanic activity has re-
sulted in a high geothermal gradient throughout the nearby region.
Saline Valley Warm Spring) California.-ln the northeastern part of
Saline Valley, Inyo County, California, where a major tributary valley enters
from the northeast, an extensive travertine blanket has been deposited by hot
springs (R. J. Roberts, U. S. Geological Survey, personal communication).
Layers of tungsten-bearing manganese oxide are interbedded with the traver-
tine. The occurrence is similar in some respects to the Uncia deposits in
Bolivia described by Lindgren (84). The Upper Warm Spring of Saline
Valley emerges in the area of the travertine blanket but is not now depositing
manganese oxides or tungsten.
East Range Deposits, Nevada.-A travertine spring terrace is near the
north end of East Range about 12 miles southwest of Winnemucca in Hum-
boldt County, Nevada (70, p. 1369-1370; 44). R. J. Roberts (unpublished
data, U. S. Geological Survey) examined and mapped the area in 1939. The
travertine terrace is 575 feet long and as much as 180 feet wide. It ranges
from 4420 to 4440 feet in altitude, which is slightly above the highest level
of late Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.
The travertine is light brown and for the most part is very porous. A
sample of a layer 6 inches thick collected near a spring at the north end of
the terrace contained 9 percent Mn and 0.3 percent W03 • The present spring
is not depositing travertine.
The author found the northern spring to be only mildly thermal, with a
temperature of 21° C. It is reasonable to believe that the springs were more
active and higher in surface temperature when the level of Lake Lahontan was
near its maximum altitude and the surrounding water table was relatively
high. The terrace, in fact, was probably formed for the most part during a
high lake stage.
Roberts also mapped tungsten-bearing manganese veins 2 miles south
of the spring deposit, on the west border of the East Range. The veins
consist largely of calcite with films of manganese and iron oxides. Other
gangue minerals are quartz, chalcedony, and gypsum. Roberts believes (per-
sonal communication) that these veins are the "roots" of spring deposits now
removed by erosion. They are no doubt older than the nearby travertine
spring deposit but are probably genetically related.
Evans Lime Quarry, Utah.-The Evans lime quarry in the Jordan Nar-
rows region, Salt Lake County, Utah, has produced a few hundred tons of
low-grade manganese ore (90; 26, p. 34-35).
A knoll or mound of calcium carbonate is believed to be a spring deposit
because other logical possibilities are lacking. The knoll is about 50 feet
below the highest Lake Bonneville shoreline and is covered by a thin veneer
of lake deposits and Recent gravel. Vertebrates, probably early Pleistocene
in age, were found in the travertine.
Four semicircular pits as much as 200 feet in diameter were dug into
the knoll for lime. Manganese oxides were accidentally found in the bottom
of the pits at a depth of about 30 feet. The ore is in waddy masses, replacing
or filling interstices between travertine blocks. Most of the ore is low
in grade, wii:h a high content of clay or calcite. Local nodules and veinlets
of high-grade pyrolusite also occur.
Sodaville Deposits, Nevada.-Narrow veins of chalcedony, quartz, and
calcite contain tungsten-bearing psilomelane, according to Ralph Roberts of
the U. S. Geological Survey (unpublished map and assay data). The veins
are in pre-Tertiary chert that is surrounded by alluvium without veins.
The Sodaville warm springs (121, p. 163) emerge from marshy ground
and travertine about a third of a mile east of the vein deposits. The maximum
present temperature of the springs is 38° ·C. In Roberts' opinion (personal
communication), travertine at one time probably capped the veins but has
since been removed by slight erosion. The veins are believed to be the
"roots" of former hot springs.
Where manganese is high, tungsten also appears to be high. A sample
with 40.3 percent Mn and 7.2 percent Fe contained 3.0 percent W0 3 • Ore
that is high in iron, on the other hand, is low in tungsten. Another sample
with 1.2 percent Mn and 35.4 percent Fe contained only 0.05 percent W0 3 •
Golconda, Nevada.-The Golconda manganese-tungsten deposits, first de-
scribed by Penrose (99) and later by Kerr (70, 71) and Ferguson, Roberts,
and Muller ( 45), are similar in some respects to the deposits of the Uncia
hot springs of Bolivia. The Golconda deposits were mined by open-pit
methods from 1941 to 1945, and tungsten wasrecovered by chemical leaching.
During this interval, 83,739 units (837 tons) of W0 3 was produced from
105,591 tons of ore (personal communication, Chas. H. Segerstrom, Jr.,
President of the Nevada-Massachusetts Company).
According to Kerr (70, p. 1360) :
The tungsten deposit lies just above the former high water level of Quaternary
Lake Lahontan . . . . Tungsten-bearing manganiferous and ocherous deposits un-
derlie calcareous tufa. The tungsten ores lie blanketlike on an erosion surface
which truncates tilted Triassic sediments. Beneath the blanket deposits are veins
of similar mineralization which are thought to have provided the source of the
overlying ores.
The tungsten-bearing layers, as much as 20 feet thick, generally underlie
the travertine. In places, however, a little travertine underlies the ore.
The blankets as well as the veins in the pre-Tertiary rocks are high in
tungsten, containing as much as 7 percent of W0 3 • The manganiferous ore,
in contrast to the ocherous ore, is high in barium.
Penrose (99) suggested that the manganese and tungsten were deposited
from hot springs, but the travertine was probably deposited as lithoidal tufa
during a high stand of Lake Lahontan. Kerr (70) points out, however, that
the deposits are about 100 feet above the highest (late Pleistocene) shoreline
of the lake.
The older spring deposits are partly eroded, and thin younger travertine
occurs between the older mounds. A little water of high salinity still seeps
from these areas but is apparently cold.
The deposits have been mapped and studied in detail by Paul Bateman of
the U. S. Geological Survey (written communication). According to Bate-
man, as much as 6 feet of tungsten-bearing ferruginous and locally mangani-
136 DONALD E. WHITE
ferous clayey gravel rests on steeply dipping Cambrian rocks or in clay above
the Cambrian rocks. Much of the ore is overlain by travertine as much as
20 feet thick, which in turn is generally overlain by 5 to 20 feet of gravel.
In the southwest part of the area, however, layers of clay and travertine
are intercalated with and grade laterally into gravel as much as 60 feet thick.
Most of the ore has been found from 4,475 to 4,600 feet in altitude or about
95 to 220 feet above the highest Lahontan shoreline in the Fallon area of
western Nevada (personal communication, Roger Morrison, U. S. Geological
Survey).
Bateman agrees with Kerr that the travertine is most probably a spring
deposit rather than tufa of Lake Lahontan and that most of the tungsten has
been deposited from water emerging from a fissure in phyllite beneath the
deposit. He suggests, however, that most or all of the travertine was de-
posited from water emerging from a parallel fissure in limestone up the pedi-
ment slope from the deposits. The springs may have been most active when
the lake levels were high and when the local water table was at or near
the surface.
The relative ages of the travertine and the tungsten-bearing material has
not been established to Bateman's satisfaction. Barium occurs with the
manganiferous tungsten deposits, and barite nodules have been found locally
in the travertine. In places manganese veinlets penetrate upward into traver-
tine, but these could be late or secondary. It is likely, however, that travertine
and tungsten-bearing material were deposited contemporaneously, the former
at the surface and the latter at depth. Such an explanation, it may be pointed
out, is consistent with the fact that in the Bolivian and Evans lime quarry de-
posits, the manganese is concentrated below the surface in lenses, "patches",
and irregular masses that at least in part are later than the immediately en-
closing travertine.
Hot springs now exist in the town of Golconda (99, 121). The maximum
temperature is about 65° C, and the discharge is approximately SO gpm
(T. W. Robinson, U. S. Geological Survey, personal communication). Pen-
rose states that the associated spring deposits contain considerable manganese.
Deposits Near Mayer, Arizona.-Southeast of Mayer, Yavapai County,
Arizona, psilomelane lenses occur in magnesian travertine believed by Jones
and Ransome (67a) to be a hot spring deposit. The travertine also contains
bands and nodules of waxy white and yellow chert. According to D. F.
Hewett of the U. S. Geological Survey (personal communication), the as-
sociated silica is present in more impressive amounts than for any other
manganese deposit with which he is acquainted. He states that the dominant
silica mineral is opal. Similar silica lenses have been noted in the spring
deposits of Uncia, Bolivia (84).
Other Manganese-bearing Travertine Deposits.-According to Weed (133,
p. 600), several springs of the Firehole Lake group in the Lower Basin of
Yellowstone National Park are depositing considerable amounts of manganese
oxide. Steady Geyser is particularly worthy of mention. Most of the
travertine is light brown to black, with color dependent upon the amount of
admixed manganese oxide. The author has also found small amounts of
manganese oxide associated with travertine of the Hillside Springs in the

northwestern part of the Upper Geyser Basin.
Sedimentary Manganese Deposits.-Much of the extensive literature con-
cerned with the sedimentary manganese deposits refers to thermal springs as
possible sources for the manganese (62, 64, 65, 96, 97, 98, 124, 74, 88).
Many of the sedimentary manganese deposits are associated with submarine
volcanic rocks and marine limestone and chert, but others are associated with
nonmarine volcanic rocks and sediments. At least a part of the manganese
generally appears to be syngenetic in relation to enclosing rocks, but some
manganese is generally redistributed.
In most of the published reports the evidence supporting a relation to
hot springs is meager and depends largely on the fact that other modes of
origin for the manganese are considered inadequate or improbable.
Park (96, 97, 98) and Taliaferro and Hudson ( 124) emphasize the as-
sociation of the marine sedimentary deposits with submarine volcanic rocks.
Park's 1946 paper (98) provides particularly convincing evidence for a re-
lationship. The quantity of manganese concentrated riear the top of a pillow
lava flow is roughly proportional to the thickness of the flow. Manganese
was probably leached from the spilitic volcanic rocks at the time of albitization
and was precipitated at or near the then-existing ocean floor. The association
of manganese with zeolites, quartz, and albitized volcanic rocks is the principal
evidence that the manganese-depositing waters were warm rather than cold
( 62, 96, 97). The heat was probably supplied by the cooling submarine lava
flows, which supplied the energy for convection systems consisting of cir-
culating ocean or connate water. Some C0 2 may also have been evolved
from the lava flows. The thermal waters could dissolve calcium, manganese,
and silica, which would be precipitated upon mixing with cold alkaline ocean
waters at the surface of the flow. In-flowing ocean water presumably supplied
soda for albitization of the spilitic rocks.
Bedded syngenetic manganese deposits occur in late Tertiary lake and
playa deposits of southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona (64, 65, 74,
88). The sediments are underlain by extensive flows and agglomerates of
probable Miocene age. Most of the ore deposits are near the borders of
structural basins, and the long axes of the deposits are parallel to the borders
(88). The presence of lead and copper as well as a zeolite, philipsite, in the
manganese deposits led Hewett ( 64) to suggest hot springs as the direct
source of the ore minerals. McKelvey, Wiese, and Johnson (88) believe
that depth of water and proximity to . shore may have been significant in
localizing the ore.
A likely source of the manganese of nonmarine deposits was the underlying
volcanic rocks of intermediate and basic composition. Near-neutral cir-
culating waters containing free C0 2 derived from the volcanic rocks or from
a deeper source could leach manganese as soluble bicarbonate. The waters
were probably warm or hot and rose along faults near the borders of the
basins. The waters emerged into alkaline lake waters or migrated out from
fissures into recently deposited lake sediments, and the manganese was pre-
cipitated.
138 DONALD E. WHITE
Association of Non-marine Sedimentary Deposits with Lakes.-Many of

the non-marine manganese deposits considered in this review are associated
with lake sediments or with shorelines of former lakes. This is true of
Abraham hot springs, Utah; East Range deposits, Nevada; Evans lime
quarry, Utah; Golconda, Nevada; the Firehole Lake springs, Yellowstone
National Park, and some of the Tertiary sedimentary deposits of the Great
Basin. Hewett (61a) has described a manganese deposit in Bannock County,
Idaho, that is associated with Pleistocene lake beds. Although he has not
specifically proposed a hot spring origin for this deposit, such an origin is
a likely possibility.
Gold and Silver Deposits
Hat Spring Deposits.-Small amounts of gold and silver have been found
in a number of hot spring deposits. Weed (133) reported "50¢ to $1.50
gold per ton" in hot spring limonite associated with extensive travertine de-
posits of Anaconda hot springs, Montana; silver was not reported. For some
years the travertine was a source of flux for the Washoe copper smelter at
Anaconda. Limonite was largely restricted to a zone 10 to 20 feet below the
surface, where it clearly replaced travertine. In this respect the iron is similar
to some of the manganese spring deposits that have been described.
The travertine spring deposits of Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, contain a
little fluorite and traces of gold and silver ( 83, 85). The precious metals,
however, have seldom been noted in hot-spring travertine, but trace amounts
appear to be characteristic of most siliceous sinters. The siliceous spring de-
posits of Steamboat Springs, Nevada, which have been discussed, are known
to contain as much as Ya oz of gold and 11,4 oz of silver per ton ( 16). New
Zealand siliceous sinters have been known for many years to contain gold
and silver. A sample from Whakarewarewa, quoted by Grange (55, p. 119),
contained about 0.06 oz of gold and 4 oz of silver per ton. W. Donovan care-
fully assayed a number of other New Zealand sinters, finding as much as
0.17 oz of gold and 0.27 oz of silver per ton. Hot-spring sinter from the Casa
Diablo hot-spring area in Mono County, California, contains as much as 1f2 oz
of silver per ton but only a trace of gold (analyses by Sharp-Schurtz, Lan-
caster, Ohio). Weed ( 133) 'states that veinlets of gold-bearing pyrite are
formed by the hot waters of Monarch Geyser in Norris Basin, Yellowstone
Park
In the hot-spring sinter deposits, silver is generally in excess of gold by
weight. The silver content of the Anaconda travertine and the Norris Basin
veinlets is not known.
Tonopah, Nevada.- This famous silver district has been studied most
extensively by Spurr ( 120), Bastin and Laney ( 8), N alan ( 92, 94), and
Broderick (17).
Nolan,(93, p. 634) has summarized the geology:
The Tonopah district, in Nye and Esmeralda Counties, Nevada, has produced more
than $150,000,000 in gold and silver since its discovery in 1900. The gold-silver
ratio is close to 1:100. The ores are found either in a persistent curved fault
whose throw amounts to 2,000 ft., or in minor faults that are genetically related
to it. The wall rocks are a thick series of essentially conformable tuffs, breccias,
flows, and sills. Propylitization is widespread in the less siliceous rocks but seri-
citization, adularization, and silicification are common near the ore shoots. The
ore minerals include electrum, argentite, and various silver sulpha-salts. Base-
metal sulphides, quartz, a mixed carbonate (commonly rich in manganese), adu-
laria, and barite are the most important gangue minerals. Small quantities of
selenium are present in the electrum. The ores appear to be limited to a· vertical
zone of 1,000 to 1,500 ft., the upper surface of the zone being convex upwards.
The less siliceous rocks were albitized at an early stage and were replaced by
chlorite, calcite, and quartz. These rocks are dominant on the borders of the
district. A more restricted quartz-adularia-sericite facies reached its maxi-
mum development in the central part of the district, perhaps directly above
a buried intrusion that Nolan believes is necessary to explain the remarkable
structural features of the district.
A little cinnabar has been reported from the west end of the district (7,
p. 146).
Abnormally high ·ground temperatures were first emphasized by Spurr
( 120), who found a geothermal gradient of about 1o C per 67 feet of depth
in the Ohio Tonopah shaft. The temperature was 25¥2 ° C at a depth of 766
feet below the surface. This is nearly double the "normal" geothermal gra-
dient of the earth, according to Van Orstrand ( 127). At a later time, when
the mines were much deeper, Bastin (8) recorded temperatures as high as
41 o C. Since the ore deposits are pre-upper Miocene in age, the re.latively
high ground temperatures may be entirely unrelated to ore-forming processes.
On the other hand, relatively high temperatures appear to characterize a
number of other middle Tertiary epithermal deposits that have been mined to
sufficient depths for the geothermal gradient to be noticed. Oxidizing sulfides
are commonly assumed to account for the high temperatures. Igneous intru-
sions at depth, however, were presumably the source of the precious metals
and may still be the source of the abnormal heat flow.
Comstock District, Nevada.-This great district, with a production of
nearly $400,000,000 in silver and gold, is only 7 miles southeast of Steamboat
Springs. The general geology of the region has been discussed by Becker
(9) and others, and more recently by Gianella (52), Coats (25), Calkins
(22), and Thompson ( 125). Silver minerals and base-metal sulfides occur
in veins of quartz and carbonate. The ratio of gold to silver is about 1:40.
Ore has been mined to a depth of 3,000 feet, but none of the bonanzas ex-
tended below about 2,000 feet.
Widespread "propylitic" alteration of andesitic rocks produced greenish
mineral assemblages containing chlorite, epidote, albite, calcite, and pyrite.
This alteration shows little relation to faults, fractures, or veins, and when
oxidized at the surface it yields the bleached areas that have been mapped
by Calkins and Thayer ( 23). A zeolitic alteration, according to Coats (25),
seems to be controlled by mineralized fractures. An intense alteration adja-
cent to the veins is characterized by clay with a marked excess of potash over
soda. According to Lindgren (80, p. 647):
There can scarcely be any doubt that these clays really consist of 30 to 40 percent
of finely divided sericite, mixed with some quartz and residual rock.
140 DONALD E. WHITE
One of the characteristics of the Comstock Lode suggesting proximity to

the original surface at the time of ore deposition is the widening and upward-
flaring of the vein system ( 9, Atlas sheet V and VII) .
Prior to Thompson's recent regional studies ( 125), the ore deposits were
thought to be older than the Kate Peak andesitic series of Miocene and pos-
sibly early Pliocene age. Thompson, however, found that quartz veins of the
Comstock system cut dikes and other intrusives that are phases of Kate Peak
volcanism. In addition, the Kate Peak series has been intensely altered over
large areas, similar to the older rocks near the Comstock. Thompson believes
that the Comstock mineralization is probably as young as the Kate Peak series
but is slightly older than the Truckee formation of Pliocene age.
Temperature relations in the mines have been discussed by Becker (9)
and Reid (102). Becker recorded a temperature of 76.7° C at a depth of
3,080 feet in the Yellow Jacket shaft. Water discharging at the point of meas-
urement was strongly charged with H 2 S and was a serious inconvenience to
the miners. The geothermal gradient was found to be about 1° C per 60 feet
of depth. Reid found water temperatures ranging from 46° to 81 o C.
In Thompson's opinion, the high temperatures and H 2 S are evidence that
processes associated with deposition of the Comstock ore may not have stopped
in the Tertiary but may have continued on a minor scale to the present time.
He recognizes the fact, however, that the flow of heat and gases may be more
closely related to Quaternary activity at nearby Steamboat Springs than to
the late Tertiary activity.
Gold-silver Deposits Containing Adularia.-Hydrothermal potash feldspar
has been described under a variety of mineral names, and some doubt exists
concerning mineralogic relationships to other potash feldspars ( 13, 75, 54).
For convenience, all hydrothermal vein and replacement potash feldspars are
throughout this review referred to as adularia, regardless of crystal habit.
Adularia is characteristic of three of the four high-temperature spring systems
described in the first part of this review. The three include the Upper Basin
of Yellowstone, Steamboat Springs, Nevada, and W airekai, New Zealand.
Evidence has been presented that the high-soda potash feldspar described by
Fenner (40) at Norris Basin, which is the fourth high-temperature spring
system, is pneumatolytic and related to extrusion of the rhyolite tuffs.
The association of adularia with epithermal precious-metal deposits was
first recognized by Lindgren (78, 79, 80). Nolan (93) has reviewed the de-
posits of this type in the Western States. (See also 42, 43.) The principal
gangue minerals are identified for 26 of the districts, and adularia is men-
tioned in 18 of these; without doubt, the mineral is one of the most character-
istic of the epithermal precious-metal deposits. Of 19 deposits in which silver
is more abundant by weight than gold, 13 contain adularia; of 7 deposits in
which gold is more abundant, 5 contain adularia (one of these may have con-
tained more silver).
Adularia is also known to occur in other epithermal precious-metal deposits
not considered in Nolan's summary. These include the late Tertiary veins
of Marysville; Montana ( 73), the south part of the Bonanza district, Colorado
( 18), the Yellow Pine district, Idaho ( 135, and unpublished data of the au-
thor), and a number of minor districts in California and Nevada ( 64a).

Adularia has also been described from the Waihi district, New Zealand ( 46,
91), Guanajuato, Mexico (130, 85), and Pachuca, Mexico (85, p. 491).
Recent studies show a very limited solubility of albite in the potash feldspar
lattice under equilibrium conditions at low temperature ( 118, p. 91; 13, 75).
Relatively pure adularia from mineral deposits has seldom been analyzed, but
the more·reliable analyses (78, 120, 117, 113, 72, 104, 95) are similar to the
hydrothermal adularia Fenner ( 40) described from the Upper Basin. These
have less than 10 percent of albite in solid solution and several are as low as
2 percent. Although pure material has not yet been analyzed, the adularia
at Wairekai, New Zealand (122), and Steamboat Springs, Nevada, is known
to be low in soda.
A high soda content has been reported for some hydrothermal potash feld-
spar, but low total alkalies of some of the analyses indicate so much impurity
that they are without significance. An example that has been quoted by Lind-
gren (85, p. 447) is from Gold Springs, Utah (20, p. 566), and contains only
2.74 percent of total alkalies. Lindgren (85, p. 447) also cites Finlayson's
analysis of feldspar from Waihi, New Zealand ( 46), as an example of adularia
high in soda (4.11%). Morgan (91, p. 88), however, found nothing but
low-soda vein feldspar in the Waihi district and was unable to confirm Fin-
layson's conclusions, which must be considered questionable. The high-soda
feldspar described by Fenner ( 40) from Norris Basin has been discussed, and
is believed to be sanidine related to extrusion of the welded tuffs. No reli-
able example of hydrothermal potash feldspar with more than about 10 percent
of albite in solution is known.
Of interest is the fact that the purest natural potash feldspar known to the
author is authigenic and is from a limestone in Switzerland ( 100). This feld-
spar, with a calculated albite content of only 1.3 percent, surely formed at a
low temperature. There is a definite possibility that the soda content of hydro-
thermal potash feldspars may be a useful geothermometer. Present obstacles
to such a use are the uncertain mineralogic relations of the potash feldspars
( 13, 75, 54) and inability to synthesize the low-temperature modifications.
More analyses of hydrothermal potash feldspar free of unreplaced plagioclase
and other impurities are needed, particularly from different depths within the
same vein system.
Of the deposits containing adularia, some are also notable because of ab-
normal temperature or the presence of gases. These include Tonopah, N e-
vada (120, 8); Waihi, New Zealand (91, p. 116-118); Guanajuato, Mexico
(130); Cripple Creek, Colorado (81); and De Lamar, Idaho (78). At De
Lamar, in addition, siliceous hot-spring sinter crops out not far from the veins.
Goldfield, Nevada.-The rich gold ores of the Goldfield district, described
by Ransome ( 101), are associated with quartz, alunite, kaolinite, and pyrite,
in volcanic rocks. Ransome concluded that the ground surface at the time of
ore deposition was only a few hundred feet above the present surface, and that
sulfate of the alunite was formed by near-surface oxidation of H 2 S. Searls
( 115) revised some of Ransome's geology and proved that mineralization was
earlier than the Esmeralda lake beds rather than later, as Ransome had be-
142 DONALD E. WHITE
lieved. No evidence was found to indicate the position of the ground surface
during ore deposition.
If the sulfate radical of alunite is formed by near-surface oxidation of H 2 S,
alunite should decrease in quantity with depth. Searls states ( 115, p. 17)
that alunite persisted to the base of a thick latite lava flow, about 1,000 feet
below the surface, but alunite was less abundant and kaolinite and pyrite more
abundant than in the upper workings. Searls found evidence for leaching of
calcite veins in calcareous shale for a distance of 10 to 40 feet below the base ·
of the latite, and inferred that the ore solutions were acid at this depth.
Flathead Mine, M ontana.-According to Sherron ( 116, 116a), the Flat-
head mine contains rich silver ore bodies in volcanic rocks that are altered to
alunite, halloysite, fine-grained quartz, jarosite, and barite. Phenocrysts of
the porphyritic latite of the country rock are leached, leaving residual casts.
Sherron believes that the crests of nearby ridges were never buried by volcanic
rocks and the outcrops of the present ore bodies were not more than 400 feet
below the surface at the time of ore deposition. ·
Genetic Significance of Alunite.-In the Silica Pit area of Steamboat
Springs, the author found alunite and kaolinite related to surface oxidation of
H 2 S to extend no deeper than 40 feet below the water level. It is significant
that anhydrite in the Huitzuco district, Mexico (87), replaces limestone to a
depth of about 700 feet and is underlain by limestone with little or no anhy-
drite. This relation seems best explained by a moderately deep penetration
of sulfate formed by surface oxidation of H 2 S and circulated in a convection
system.
Iwao (67) has discussed the origin of the alunite deposits of Japan. Al-
though he infers a deep origin for the sulfate of the altering solutions, a num-
ber of his geologic sections shows restriction of the alunite ore to shallow
depths. Near-surface oxidation of H2S appears to be the· most satisfactory
explanation of the relationships.
There is other evidence, however, that points to a deep origin for the sul-
fate of some deposits. Butler ( 19), Schmedemann ( 110), Willard and Proc-
tor (142a), and Parker (98a) are among those who have favored such an
ongm. Lovering ( 85a) has presented evidence for the existence of relatively
deep acid solutions at Tintic, Utah, during several of the alteration stages..
Burbank ( 18a, 18b) is convinced that in the Red Mountain district of Colo-
rado acid gases and condensates were derived from alkaline solutions at depths
that were far below the water table. The rare acid hot springs of relatively
high discharge have been discussed briefly in connection with Norris Basin of
Yellowstone National Park. These springs are additional evidence for the
existence of deep acid waters, with acidity probably due to sulfuric acid rather
than to free halogen acids. None have been studied in detail, and the origin
of the acid is not clear.
If the oxygen of the sulfate is of direct atmospheric origin or is carried to
depth by meteoric water, the "Goldfield type" of epithermal deposit is clearly
related to hot springs.
Getchell Mine, Nevada.-The Getchell mine has been described recently
by J oralamon ( 69). The ore minerals include pyrite, orpiment, realgar,
arsenopyrite, marcasite, pyrrhotite, stibnite, cinnabar, and fine-grained gold,

silver, and magnetite in a gangue of quartz, chalcedony, calcite, chabazite, and
amorphous carbon. The mineral assemblage is similar in most respects to
that of the White Capps mine in the Manhattan district, Nevada (41), and
to that of Steamboat Springs (Table 1).
The ore bodies consist of a relatively shallow blanket with three funnellike
projections extending down into regions of sparse mineralization. The struc-
tural characteristics suggest shallow depth of formation.
Fluorite Deposits
Fluorite-depositing springs occur in a few localities associated with fluorite-
bearing veins. The veins have been described as originating from ancestral
springs genetically related to the present springs. The mineralogy.of one or
two of the localities suggest that, if a genetic relation does exist, considerable
erosion and lapse in time has occurred.
Ojo Caliente, New Me.:rico.-Old travertine spring deposits occur about
500 feet in altitude above the present fluorine-bearing hot springs of Ojo Cali-
ente (83, 85). The travertine consists dominantly of calcium carbonate but
also includes nearly one· percent of fluorite. A vein near the spring deposit
contains white fluorite and a little barite. The travertine and vein material
also contain traces of gold and silver. Although the vein has not been traced
to the travertine, both features appear to be controlled by the same structure.
Lindgren believes that the nearby stream has been entrenched as much as sev-
eral hundred feet since the travertine was formed. The present Ojo Caliente
springs issue near the stream level. A recent water sample collected by J. D.
Hem of the U. S. Geological Survey contains 16 ppm of fluorine and 25 ppm
of calcium. The fluorine in particular is relatively high for thermal waters of
this type.
Poncha Springs, Colorado.-The Poncha Springs fluorspar deposits crop
out several hundred feet above Poncha Springs (109, 126). Fluorite occurs
in botryoidally banded veins 2 to 3 inches thick in the central part of a shear
zone. The veins contain thin films of manganese oxide and coatings of red
clay. The hot springs below the mine working discharge at temperatures as
high as 67° C and contain about 12 ppm of fluoride and 17 ppm of calcium.
R. T. Russell (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Cincinnati) has found that
fluorite is a minor constituent of the travertine being deposited by the present
springs.
Browns Canyon District, Colorado:-In the Colorado mine of the Browns
Canyon fluorspar district, not far from Poncha Springs, a high-fluoride water
containing 13 ppm ofF was found on the 100 level (109, 126). The water
may be largely or entirely of surface origin, but its temperature of 19:lj2 ° C is
above the mean annual temperature of the region. A warm spring issues near
the mine at a temperature of 22° C; its fluoride content is 15 ppm.
Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado.-Hot waters issue from ore-bearing veins
in Tertiary volcanic rocks at Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado (38). The prin-
cipal vein contains fluorite, pyrite, some silver, and a small amount of gold.
144 DONALD E. WHITE
The surface is strewn with large barite crystals, fluorite, jaspery silica, sugary
calcite, and pyrite. Three hot springs ranging from 57° to 66° C now exist
in the area. One of the springs issues from the vein and has deposited traver-
tine in an area about 400 feet long and 300 feet wide. The travertine contains
0.22 percent F, 0.007 percent ZnO, and 0.045 percent BaO. No modern
analyses of the waters are available.
Bruffeys Hot Springs, Nevada.-Stearns, Stearns, and Waring (121)
state that old travertine deposits of Bruffeys hot springs in Eureka County,
Nevada, contain barite and fluorite. The present springs range up to 67° C
and deposit travertine that is apparently devoid of barite and fluorite.
Arsenic Deposits
Weed and Pirsson ( 134) found notable quantities of realgar and orpiment
in Norris Basin and in the Crater Hills area of Yellowstone Park. The dis-
tribution of arsenic, in part as scorodite, is also discussed by Hague (58) and
by Allen and Day (2, p. 138-139, 485). Arsenic minerals appear to be
characteristic of several areas containing "mixed" waters, which are chloride-
bicarbonate waters acidified near the surface by oxidation of H 2 S. Arsenic
is present in the thermal waters of Steamboat Springs ( 10, 16), the Aleutian
Islands (21), Algeria (57), and probably occurs in many other volcanic hot-
spring. waters, although it may not be conspicuous in associated spring
deposits.
Barium and Lead Sulfate Deposits
.Hokutolite, which is a mixture of barium and lead sulfates, has been de-
scribed as a deposit of Hokuto hot springs of Formosa ( 66). Small yellow-
gray to brown rhombic platy crystals are deposited as a crust along the out-
flow channel. The spring water, according to analyses, contains 7 ppm of
BaS0 4 and a trace of PbS0 4 • The Shikayu (Shibakuro) spring deposit in
Akita Prefecture, Japan, has a maximum thickness of 6 em, according to
Ishizu ( 66). The water, according to Suganuma ( 123), contains 1.1 ppm
of BaSO 4 and 0.9 ppm of PbSO 4 •
Jarosite and Phosphate Deposits

Bemmelen ( 12) has described phosphate and jarosite deposits of Tjiater
hot springs of Java. The deposits are a few acres in extent and consist largely
of mixed jarosite and iron oxide. The zone highest in jarosite is locally more
than 10 m thick, generally occurring below about 3 m of mixed jarosite and
iron ore. The deposit has been explored rather extensively and has been
found to contain about 500,000 tons of jarosite ore containing more than 6
percent of potash and 300,000 tons containing 4 to 6 percent. Half a million
tons of iron ore contain about SO percent of Fe 20 3 •
Near the surface of the deposit, a zone about 1 m thick consists of about
20 percent P 2 0 5 , 45 percent Fe 2 0 3 , 3 percent As 2 0 3 , and 4 percent S0 3 •
Most of the remainder of the ore is water with minor lime, potash, soda, and
silica. The phosphate "sinter" is soft and very porous and is light yellow to
brownish yellow. Bemmelen suggests that near the surface of the deposit,
jarosite oxidized to limonitic products. Phosphate and sulfate were then
absorbed from the spring waters, which had presumably changed in composi-
tion since the jarosite had formed.
The deposits were probably formed by acid hot-springs of volcanic origin.
Zeolite Deposits
Plombieres, France.-The well-known hot springs at Plombieres have been
of interest to many geologists (30, 31, 85, 86) because bricks and cement in
the Roman baths contain hydrothermal minerals deposited since the baths were
built 2,000 years ago. Apophyllite, chabazite, opal, chalcedony, trydimite,
fluorite, and calcite have been deposited in the pore spaces of the brick and
cement, and crusts were formed in places on the masonry surfaces. Little or
no replacement has occurred, either in the masonry or in the granitic wall
rocks, but some of the chabazite and calcite may replace the old lime mortar.
The springs issue at a temperature of 70° C (85, p. 70) and are low
in dissolved solids, containing only small amounts of fluoride and other
components.
Boulder Hot Springs, Montana.-Boulder hot springs, according to Weed
( 132), issue from veins that contain chalcedony, quartz, calcite, stilbite, opal,
and a little adularia, gold, silver, and copper. The adjacent granite is altered
to sericite, kaolinite, and a little chalcedony. The springs issue at tempera-
tures as high as 73° C. Although little or no material is being deposited now,
the higher group of springs issue in an inconspicuous area of spring "sinter".
Weed was convinced that the hydrothermal minerals· were formed by the
present as well as the ancestral springs. The relation here and in similar
situations elsewhere between veins and present springs may be at least in part
that of structural control, with no genetic connection.
Ritter Hat Springs, Oregon.-Hewett, Shannon, and Gonyer ( 63) have
described a mildly alkaline spring in basalt that appears to be depositing
calcite, chabazite, mesolite, analcite, stilbite, and opal.
Hunters Hot Springs, Montana.-Weed (133) has described Hunters
hot springs, which emerge from a vein of gypsum seamed by stilbite and a
little calcite. Weed believed the waters were depositing stilbite and possibly
gypsum, but the evidence does not appear to be conclusive. The water issues
at a temperature of 641f2 ° C. It contains abundant C0 2 and some H 2 S, and
is therefore probably near neutral.
High-temperature Fumarolic Deposits

Although this review of the literature is primarily concerned with hot
springs rather than high-temperature volcanic fumaroles, the latter should be
mentioned. Zies' work (149) in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is
outstanding in proving vapor transport of iron, copper, zinc, manganese,
and other metals in fumaroles. The high-temperature minerals were later
decomposed by acids when temperatures had decreased to the boiling point.
146 DONALD E. WHITE
Fries and Foshag (50, 51, 48) have described cassiterite deposits of a
fumarolic type that are closely related in origin and in time to the rhyolitic
lavas in which the deposits occur. The veins appear to have formed near the
then-existing surface, and some were deposited prior to the burial of the
enclosing rhyolite by later lava flows.
CONCLUSIONS AND SPECULATIONS
Most ore deposits showing relatively close relationships to thermal

springs fall into four major groups on the basis of the outstanding metal or
mineral. The four are quicksilver (and antimony), manganese (and
tungsten), gold-silver, and fluorite. Minor groups are also recognized.
A few quicksilver deposits are clearly related to thermal springs. The
most notable of these are Sulphur Bank, and Coso, California, and N gawha,
New Zealand. Most other quicksilver deposits are less clearly related to
hot springs, but many have characteristics suggesting recency of thermal ac-
tivity or a relationship to ground surface and water table.
The thermal waters that appear to be most closely related to quicksilver
deposits are near-neutral ;- present springs provide no support for the theory
that quicksilver is transported in alkaline sulfide solutions. In general, the
highest dissolved ~olids and total sulfide content are found in near neutral
waters. Although thermal waters are known with pH's as high as 10.0, the
most alkaline waters are relatively dilute, and none is known to contain
more than a few parts per million of sulfide.
Although the origin of the quicksilver-depositing solutions has not been
considered in detail; the author speculates that a few deposits were formed
by solutions of volcanic water greatly diluted by meteoric water of deep
circulation; temperatures and total heat flow for these few deposits were
high, and quicksilver was not fixed except near the surface, commonly above
the local water table. Possible examples of the latter are the Coso and
Steamboat Springs (Silica Pit) deposits and those of the opalite type.
The quicksilver of . some other deposits, including Sulphur Bank,
Mayacmas, and Wilbur Springs districts in the Clear Lake region of Cali-
fornia, may not be volcanic in origin in spite of association, as at Sulphur
Bank, with volcanism as recent as the Pleistocene. The present thermal
waters of these districts are commonly relatively high in dissolved solids
and low in temperature (131, and unpublished data of the author); there is no
evidence for extensive dilution with surface water or for cooling through
contact with cold rock, as in a newly formed spring system, to explain the
temperature relations. These and other characteristics of the spring waters
suggest that they may be dominantly connate in origin. Volcanism may
supply some of the heat and may be related to the deformation that produced
the channels for escape.
Some manganese deposits are clearly of hot-spring origin. A few of
these also contain notable amounts of tungsten although only Golconda,
Nevada, has been an important producer. Most bedded manganese deposits,
both in marine and nonmarine sediments, are associated with basic and inter-
mediate volcanic rocks and appear to be related to thermal springs. The

manganese of the bedded deposits may have been leached from underlying
volcanic rocks by circulating thermal waters containing free C0 2 and pre~
cipitated at some higher level, commonly in contact with more alkaline ocean
or saline lake waters. The water may have been dominantly or entirely
of meteoric origin, with volcanic heat from depth or from the lava flows
to provide the energy for the convection system. If free C0 2 was required,
it probably came from the associated volcanic rocks or from a deeper source.
Silver and gold deposits of the epithermal type appear to be closely related
to the high-temperature volcanic hot springs. The mineralogy of the veins
and altered rocks of the spring systems is strikingly similar to that of many
ore deposits. Adularia in particular appears to characterize the majority
of high-temperature spring systems and epithermal gold-silver deposits in
volcanic rocks but is notably scarce or absent in other spring and ore deposits.
Of particular interest is the fact that adularia has not been identified in an
ore deposit that has been mined primarily for quicksilver (Edgar Bailey, U. S.
Geological Survey, oral communication).
Hot-spring sinters generally contain significant concentrations of silver
and gold but never in sufficient quantity and grade to mine. Notable con-
centrations have not been found at depth in explored hot-spring systems.
Such concentrations may exist, either near the surface in unexplored areas
or at depth below the limits of existing meager exploration. Another possible
explanation for their absence is based on the concept that the Quaternary
period is not typical of the past. Most ore deposits may have been formed
during certain "favorable" periods in geologic history. If certain periods
.are particularly favorable, then others are presumably unfavorable for reasons
that are not yet clear. Ore deposits of Quaternary age may be scarce and low
in grade because the Quaternary was "unfavorable", except for a few of
Pleistocene age. Some geologists may prefer to assume that parts of the
Tertiary were particularly favorable for epithermal ore deposits, and that the
present may be more nearly "normal."
Existing hot springs and associated altered rocks provide evidence that
epithermal precious-metal deposits are probably formes:! by near-neutral
waters in which pH is largely controlled by C0 2 and locally by oxidation
of H 2 S. The dominant components are alkali chlorides, bicarbonates, and
sulfates, in addition to silica and boron. The water, in the opinion of the
author, consists of a little of volcanic origin greatly dominated by meteoric
water near the surface and probably to depths of a thousand feet or more .
. The precious metals may of course be deposited from volcanic water near
or below the zone of intermixture, but if this is a fact, why do ore deposits
and near-surface hot-spring systems show so many mineralogic similarities?
The "bottoming" of many epithermal ore deposits at shallow depth may occur
at the existing base of the zone of intermixture of meteoric water and volcanic
water when the ores were deposited. This possibility has been proposed by
Schmitt (111, 112) and others.
The fluorite deposits that have been reviewed suggest a relation to
travertine-depositing thermal springs. ·The characteristics of this group
148 DONALD E. WHITE
suggest contact with sedimentary rocks, and the water appears to be domi-
nantly meteoric in origin. Some and perhaps all of such springs are believed
to contain volcanic components, and the fluorine is very likely to be volcanic.
Of the minor groups, the arsenic, jarosite-phosphate, and high-temperature
fumarolic deposits are probably volcanic, but little can be concluded from
present evidence for the remaining groups.
Many of the spring deposits considered in this review contain ore minerals
that have obviously been deposited in the very recent past, but confirmed
examples of deposition at the present time are indeed very rare. Although
deposition may actually have ceased at many of these localities, elsewhere it
may still be going on. If the rate of deposition is very slow, or if it occurs
for the most part below the surface, positive proof is difficult to obtain.
Stibnite, for example, is without question being deposited now at Steamboat
Springs. A brief visit, even by a trained geologist, would ordinarily not
yield conclusive evidence. As an example, C. P. Ross visited Sulphur Bank
in 1937 at a critical time when stibnite was clearly being deposited, but no
similar occurrence has been noted by the numerous geologists who have
been interested in this deposit.
In general, geologists have probably had an oversimplified picture of the
origin and nature of ore-bearing solutions and many have favored the deriva-
tion of most hydrothermal ore deposits from a single type of ore solution. The
present review of hot springs and related ore deposits· supports the hypothesis
that some ore deposits were formed by solutions closely related to volcanism but
that others were probably Iormed by circulating meteoric and connate waters.
Much additional study is needed, particularly concerning criteria to distinguish
the various types of waters. Relatively little is known about connate waters
and virtually nothing about water that must be driven out during progressive
metamorphism of sediments. Oil field brines provide some indication of the
wide range in composition and concentration that can be attained. Attractive
possibilities, in the author's opinion, are to be found in the study of isotopes
and the relationships of minor elements in all types of waters. The ratio of
iodine to bromine and chlorine, for example, appears to be a promising ap-
proach to the problem of distinguishing most if not all connate waters from
volcanic waters. Reliable temperature data and compositions of fluid in-
clusions in vein minerals are also of critical importance.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SuRVEY,
MENLO pARK, CALIF.
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©1955 Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.

THERMAL SPRINGS AND EPITHERMAL ORE DEPOSITS 1

Comstock district, Nevada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

The characteristics of five explored hot spring systems are reviewed,

Upper Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming

• Beidellite reported by Fenner (40). See text.

spring deposits, underlain by clastic sediments or glacial deposits ( 40, 89).

sanidine has been replaced by kaolinite. The lenses therefore appear to be

direct relation to clay, as suggested by Fenner. Films of red iron oxide of

Steamboat Springs, Nevada

connection with quicksilver deposits. A little quicksilver was produced from

Wairakei, New Zealand

The general geology of the region is treated briefly by Grange (55, p.

Sulphur Bank, California

rounded by concentric shells of altered andesite. The original andesite was

SUMMARY OF THERMAL SPRING SYSTEMS

considered in the present review are of the high temperature sinter-depositing

CRITERIA RELATING ORE DEPOSITS TO HOT SPRINGS

ORE DEPOSITS WITH SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THERMAL SPRINGS

Quicksilver and Antimony Deposits

(7) indicate a production of 25 flasks of quicksilver up to the end of 1943.

and intruded by small stocks of biotite granite porphyry. Fine-grained lime-

is about 20 miles northeast of Sulphur Bank. This mine also encountered

The Chisos mine in the Terlingua district of Texas encountered warm

Manganese and Tungsten Deposits

Abraham Hot Springs, Utah.-Manganese-bearing hot-spring deposits in

Specimen WOa v.o. Mn BaO• Insoluble

M. I. T. 11B-5583-9425 2.19 None 19.4 5.86 53.5

a BaO soluble in dilute HCI.

which is considerably higher than average hot-spring water. No appreciable

manganese oxide associated with travertine of the Hillside Springs in the

Association of Non-marine Sedimentary Deposits with Lakes.-Many of

One of the characteristics of the Comstock Lode suggesting proximity to

thor), and a number of minor districts in California and Nevada ( 64a).

arsenopyrite, marcasite, pyrrhotite, stibnite, cinnabar, and fine-grained gold,

Jarosite and Phosphate Deposits

High-temperature Fumarolic Deposits

CONCLUSIONS AND SPECULATIONS

Most ore deposits showing relatively close relationships to thermal

mediate volcanic rocks and appear to be related to thermal springs. The

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