Show SOME THOUGHTS ON THE GENESIS OF ORE DEPOSITS in nil all geological analyses we must work backwards from conditions that are to find and out the conditions that created the things as am they are chemical reactions of present knowledge can be figured backwards to possibilities that might exist lit in the earth or might have existed geology Is nothing but geo eart earth lik logic geologic philosophy phyl is in a line of reasoning gathered from every source that might have bearing letson baillet Ball Dal let liet in the origin of ore deposits articles at various times time s published in the salt lake mining review and the genesis of petroleum published serially in the oil age q v by the writer the matter of association and disassociation a ss ocia tion of liquid plastic and 6 gaseous elements has been fr frequently i reached from different angles and for different compounds affinities of elements at different temperatures and under the influence of catalytic agents have been discussed it is surprising 6 from how many things and from what sources data that bears upon the subject can be obtained in the manufacture of city gas where steam hgo is played upon hot checker brick in combination with fuel oil we find that some of the oxygen 0 of the steam combines with carbon from the fuel oil to form carbon monoxide CO which is a combustible gas and the hydrogen thus liberated by the affinity of the 0 for the C is also a combustible bus tible gas another disassociation association dis that takes place is the liberation of some H from the fuel oil which is hydrocarbon compound we also find in the presence of oxygen that some of the carbon lorms forms carbon dioxides thus liberating additional hydrogen as a combustible gas that this process of association and disassociation is continually going on in the heated interior of the earth is probable in the ordinary electric light globe containing the carbon filament we find that if a little moisture is contained in the globe that the temperature of the filament is sufficient to break the hgo into its elements b by y disassociation association dis the free oxygen then unites with the carbon of the filament to burn it the product being COs or perhaps CO when this carbonic gas strikes the 9 glass lass or gets far enough 6 away from the filament for the active hydrogen to exert its affinity upon the oxygen it steals the oxygen away from the carbon which is deposited as a black coating upon the bulb this cycle is repeated again and again with the same moisture the oxygen taking hold of the carbon and then with the hydrogen until the filament is burned out and the globe becomes black theorizing on origin of mineral deposits this cycle may seem to have but little bearing upon the origin of mineral deposits but it will be remembered that we have aye in nature many hydrocarbon hydro carbon deposits we have man many y oxide ores we have effervescent s springs brings w we e have gas wells producing CH chi and coo and we also have other gases auch c h as hydrogen sulphide has in some cases we have gases ases that will deposit certain elements when the they y come in contact with something else even though the additional ele ment lent may not be changed at all again the sudden cooling af 0 1 l the gases may deposit a part of the elements that are contained in the gas if surface water should percolate downward through cracks and fissures of the earth until it reached such a de depth p th that the rocks were heated either from volca volcanic action or friction ic tion of faulting we would expect to find hot springs 6 in in the find waters that had neighborhood or at least we would bedonie acome heated by passing through or over hot rocks in some deep mines e g on the comstock lode and in in tono lono pah nevada we find mines in which they have encountered vaters that are quite warm in fact they are referred to as hot waters by the miners apparently this water is surface water that has passed over rocks that were so recently faulted that the heat of the friction has not passed off or over volcanic rocks in other places there is evidence of juvenile water or new water that has been made by the combination of hydrogen and oxygen into HO the spectroscope tro scope shows hydrogen 6 gas escaping from volcanoes which burns and the product of combustion is water theorizing farther that an earthquake might fissure the earth crust at the bottom of the sea and drop a huge volume of sea water into the heated center of the earth it might reach such a temperature as to break the hao into its elements as has been cla claimed i med by s some ome geologists in which event the h hydrogen drogen y t might escape to unite with carbon and become a hydrocarbon hydro carbon or some other compound while the oxygen would escape to make a mineral oxide even further further the cycle might pass until the oxygen would again combine with hydrogen and the hydrogen again combine with oxygen returning again to water this union union causes great heat and it might be accompanied by sulphur betted hydrogen gases or carbonic gases just how far these cycles might go leaves unlimited room for theorizing and just how much influence they have upon ore deposits is still unknown nevertheless we have many examples of mineral waters and hot springs deposits indicate that whether the deposit be or the influence upon gases and metals may be considerable I 1 harnessing for power ot of thermal elements frequently we see mention in the pu public alic press press about native steam and plans to run steam m engines I 1 with steam from water heated in the earth all students of mineralogy miner mier have been taught that water is a mineral that hydrogen is a ini mineral and that water is an oxide ore of hydro hydrogen g e i n it I 1 crystallizes crysta lizes and becomes be comis solid below 32 and becomes a gas or volatilizes abo above ve 2120 water occurs in nature not only in liquid and solid form but as a vapor steam escaping from fu and volcanic vents the idea of using this steam for commercial purposes is not new but it never has been successfully applied i in nany n any great quantity at steamboat springs about fifteen miles south of reno nevada a small steam engine has been in operation for a year or more generating electricity for the purpose of lighting a resort hotel at the springs this is the only commercial use that the writer is familiar with personally the geysers of 0 f california an and d montana as well as hot springs in italy ha have ve been frequently talked of as having ha possibilities and if they have possibilities dar darrought boughs roughs hot springs in nye county nevada and possibly others in the neighborhood of silver peak might be developed to have some commercio com commercial mercia I 1 value but at this point we are met with another difficulty the association or disassociation dis association of elements and dissolved gases i in n the water such as hao COs CH necessitates considerable research in the he t use of H HS S etc metals that come in contact with it copper corrodes and erodes rapidly in an excess of oxygen and sulphur iron iron has difficulty in withstanding the conditions certain m metals et withstand the corrosive effect and alloys are claimed to more it or is less not successfully intended in this article to deal dea I 1 with the subject of alloys that will withstand nd the gases found in native this time to call atten intended at merely but it is steam tonto the fact that if the metallurgists have difficulty in tion to metals that will stand under the condi conditions conditto tio 11 s of obtaining S native steam stean it is highly probable that this steam when percolating through the earth might readily dissolve and carry off metal deposits from one place and deposit them in another and they might make combinations of oxides hydrates sulphides sulp hides chlorides etc if these gases are thus completing cycles in their own volume in iii calling a attention to this matter I 1 leave it for what it is worth in the minds of geologists who are trying to solve the depo deposition of bf mineral ores |