Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

"This study was completed to determine whether geochemical methods of prospecting could be applied to the search for fluorspar deposits in the Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar district.

During the course of the study, aspects of the geochemical cycle of fluorine under the climatic environment encountered were noted in the zone of weathering.

The Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar district supplies a large portion of the fluorite consumed in the United States. The producing deposits are of two geologic types. The vein deposits occur as nearly vertical tabular lenses or pods which occupy fractures. These deposits may reach the bedrock surface, but in any case, the fractures which they occupy reach the bedrock surface. The second type of deposit is the bedding replacement. Such deposits are elongated and tabular in the plane of the bedding of the sedimentary rock formation in which they occur. No marked evidence of their existence can be noted at the surface except where the rock formation containing the deposit reaches the bedrock surface. Minor fractures are related to the bedding replacement deposits.

Prospecting for deposits in the Illinois-Kentucky district requires the use of indirect methods because most of the bedrock is soil covered. The soil cover normally is twenty feet thick, and exceptionally, is more than seventy feet thick.

The indirect methods of prospecting have included mapping fracture patterns and churn drilling or diamond drilling those persistent structural features to determine whether mineralization is associated with them.

Geophysical methods, employing resistivity and electrical potential techniques also have been used to delineate structural features.

A geochemical method would utilize the varying concentration of an element or elements known as "indicators" which occur in the medium sampled in concentrations which can be related to the underlying presence or absence of fluorspar deposits"--Abstract, pages 1-2.

Advisor(s)

Grawe, Oliver R. (Oliver Rudolph), 1901-1965

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Geology

Publisher

Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy

Publication Date

1952

Pagination

vii, 128 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 122-127).

Rights

© 1952 Matthew Peter Nackowski, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Geochemical prospectingFluorspar

Thesis Number

T 1037

Print OCLC #

5919376

Electronic OCLC #

954055266

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