Part 18

ORIGIN OF VEINS.—Various theories of the formation of veins have been proposed, but the most of these are of historic interest merely, for geologists are now well agreed that nearly all true veins have been formed by the deposition of minerals from solution in fissures or cavities in the earth’s crust. In many cases, especially where the veins are of limited extent, it seems probable that a part or all of the mineral matter was derived from the immediately enclosing rocks, being dissolved out by percolating water; and these are known as segregation or lateral secretion veins. But it is quite certain that as a general rule the mineral solutions have come chiefly from below, the deep-seated thermal waters welling up through any channel opened to them, and gradually depositing the dissolved minerals on the walls of the fissure as the temperature and pressure are diminished. This case, however, differs from the first only in deriving the vein-forming minerals from more remote and deeper portions of the enclosing rocks; and thus we see that vein-formation, whether on a large or a small scale, is always essentially a process of segregation.

We know that every volcano and every lava flow must be connected below the surface with a dike; and it is almost equally certain that the waters of mineral springs forming tufaceous mineral deposits on the surface, as in the geyser districts, also deposit a portion of the dissolved minerals on the walls of the subterranean channels, which are thus being gradually filled up and converted into mineral veins, which will be exposed on the surface when erosion has removed the tufaceous overflow. This connection of vein-formation with the superficial deposits of existing springs has been clearly proved in several important instances in Nevada and California.

Veins occur chiefly in old, metamorphic, and highly disturbed formations, where there is abundant evidence of the former existence of profound fissures, and in regions similar to those in which thermal springs occur to-day.

In the supplement to the lithological section the student will find the formation of a typical vein briefly described and contrasted with that of a typical dike; also a brief account of the lithological peculiarities of vein rocks, and general statements concerning their relative abundance and vast economic importance.

EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VEINS.—The typical vein may be described as a fissure of indefinite length and depth, filled with mineral substances deposited from solution. Externally, it is very similar to the typical dike, for the fissures are made in the same way for both. Veins are normally highly inclined to the horizon; they exhibit in nearly every respect the same general relations to the structure of the country rock as dikes; and the ages of veins are determined in the same way as the ages of dikes.

The extensive mining operations to which veins have been subjected in all parts of the world, have made our knowledge of their forms below the surface very full and accurate. It has been learned in this way that very often the corresponding portions of the walls of a vein do not coincide in position, but one side is higher or lower than the other, showing that the walls slipped over each other when the fissure was formed or subsequently; and this faulting or displacement of the walls appears to be much more common with veins than with dikes, perhaps because the fissures remained open much longer. This slipping of the walls is the principal cause of the almost constant changes in the width of veins. For, since the walls are never true planes, and are often highly irregular any unequal movements must bring them nearer together at some points than at others. As a rule, the enormous friction accompanying the faulting, either crushes the wall-rock, or polishes and striates it, producing the highly characteristic surfaces known as slicken-sides. Where the wall is finely pulverized in this way, or is partially decomposed before or after the filling of the fissure, a thin layer of soft, argillaceous material is formed, separating the vein proper from the wall-rock. The miners call this the selvage; and it is a very characteristic feature of the true fissure veins.

Fragments of the wall-rock are frequently enclosed in veins, and the latter sometimes branch or divide in such a way as to surround a large mass of the wall, which is known as a “horse.” A similar result is accomplished when a fissure is re-opened after being filled, if the new fissure does not coincide exactly with the old. It has been proved that veins have thus been re-opened and filled several times in succession; and in this way fragments of the older vein material become enclosed in the newer.

Although usually determined in direction by the joint-structure of the country rock, veins are often parallel with the bedding, especially in highly inclined, schistose formations. Such interbedded veins are commonly distinctly lenticular in form, occupying rifts in the strata which thin out in all directions and are often very limited in extent.

Whether conforming with the joint-structure or bedding, veins are commonly arranged in systems by their parallelism, those of different systems or directions usually differing in age and composition, and the older veins being generally faulted or displaced when intersected by the newer.

INTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VEINS.—Internally, veins and dikes are strongly contrasted; and it is upon the internal features, chiefly, as previously explained, that we must depend for their distinction. In metalliferous veins the minerals containing the metal sought for (the galenite, sphalerite, etc.) are the ore; while the non-metalliferous minerals (the quartz, feldspar, calcite, etc.) are called the gangue or vein-stone proper. Although the combinations of minerals in veins are almost endless, yet certain associations of ores with each other and with different gangue minerals are tolerably constant, and constitute an important subject for the student of metallurgy and mining.

When a vein is composed of a single mineral, as quartz, it may rival a dike in its homogeneity. Most important veins, however, are composed of several or a large number of minerals, which may be sometimes more or less uniformly mixed with each other, but are usually distributed in the fissure in a very irregular manner. The great granite veins which are worked for mica, feldspar and quartz, are good illustrations, on a large scale, of the structure of veins in which several minerals have been deposited cotemporaneously. The individual minerals are found to a large extent, in great, irregular masses, with no order observable in their arrangement.

When a mineral is deposited from solution, it crystallizes by preference on a surface of similar composition, thus quartz on quartz, feldspar on feldspar, and so on; and it seems probable that this selective action of the wall-rock may be a principal cause of the irregular distribution of minerals in veins. It has often been observed in metalliferous veins that the richness varies with the nature of the adjacent country rock. This dependence of the contents of a fissure upon the wall-rock may be due in part to the selective deposition of the minerals, and in part to their derivation from the contiguous portions of the country or wall-rock, as in the so-called segregated veins. Temperature and pressure exert an important influence upon chemical precipitation, and it is, therefore, probable that the composition of many veins varies with the depth.

Frequently, perhaps usually, the minerals of composite veins are deposited in succession, instead of cotemporaneously, giving rise to the remarkable banded structure so characteristic of this class of veins. The first mineral deposited in the fissure forms a layer covering each wall, and is in turn covered by layers of the second mineral, and that by the third, and so on, until the fissure is filled, or the solution exhausted. The distinguishing features of this structure are shown in Fig. 15, in which w w represents the wall-rock, a a, b b, c c are successive layers of quartz, fluorite and barite, and the central band, d, is galenite. Since the vein grows from the outside inward, the outer layers are the oldest, and the central layers are the newest; again, the layers are symmetrically arranged, being repeated in the reverse order on opposite sides of the middle of the vein; and, lastly, in layers composed of prismatic crystals, as quartz (see the figure); the crystals are perpendicular to the wall and often project into, and even through, the succeeding layers. Such a crystalline layer is called a “comb” and the interlocking of the layers in this way is described as the comb-structure of the vein. The banding of veins is thus strongly contrasted with stratification, and with the structure in dikes due to the more rapid cooling along the walls. The duplicate layers are often discontinuous and of unequal thickness, on account of the strong tendency to segregation in the materials. This is clearly shown in Fig. 16, drawn on a reduced scale from a polished section of a lead vein in Cumberland, England, contained in the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History. In this the gangue minerals are fluorite (f) and barite (b). The central band (f g) is a darker fluorite containing irregular masses of galenite. The banded structure of veins is exactly reproduced in miniature in the banding of agates, geodes, and the amygdules formed in old lavas. Unfilled cavities frequently remain along the middle of the vein. When small, these are known as “pockets.” They are commonly lined with crystals; and when the latter are minute, the pockets are called druses. In metalliferous veins, the ore is much more abundant in some parts than in others, and these ore-bodies, especially when somewhat definite in outline, are known in their different forms and in different localities, as courses, slants, shoots, chimneys, and bonanzas of ore. The intersections and junctions of veins are often among the richest parts, as if the meeting of dissimilar solutions had determined the precipitation of the ore.

Metalliferous veins, especially, are usually deeply decomposed along the outcrop by the action of atmospheric agencies. The ore is oxidized, and to a large extent removed by solution, leaving the quartz and other gangue minerals in a porous state, stained by oxides of iron, copper, and other metals, forming the gossan or blossom-rock of the vein.

PECULIAR TYPES OF VEINS.—In calcareous or limestone formations, especially, the joint-cracks and bedding-cracks are often widened through the solution of the rock by infiltrating water, and thus become the channels of a more or less extensive subterranean drainage, by which they are more rapidly enlarged to a system of galleries and chambers, and, in some cases, large limestone caverns. The water dripping into the cavern from the overlying limestone is highly charged with carbonate of lime, which is largely deposited on the ceiling and floor of the cavern, forming stalactitic and stalagmitic deposits. These are masses of mineral matter deposited from solution in cavities in the earth’s crust, and are essentially vein-formations. Portions of caverns deserted by the flowing streams by which they were excavated, are often filled up in this way, being converted into irregular veins of calcite. But calcite is not the only mineral found in these cavern deposits, for barite and fluorite, and various lead and zinc ores, especially the sulphides of these metals—galenite and sphalerite—have also been leached out of the surrounding limestone and concentrated in the caverns. The celebrated lead mines of the Mississippi Valley, and some of the richest silver-lead mines of Utah and Nevada are of this character. The forms of these cavern-deposits vary almost indefinitely, and are often highly irregular. The principal types are known as gash-veins, flats and sheets (Fig. 17), chambers and pockets.

Where joints and other cracks have opened slightly in different directions and become filled with infiltrated ores, we have what the German miners call a stock-work,—an irregular network of small and interlacing veins.

An impregnation is an irregular segregation of metalliferous minerals in the mass of some eruptive or crystalline rock. Its outlines are not sharply defined, but it shades off gradually into the enclosing rock.

Fahlbands are similar ill-defined deposits or segregations in stratified rocks. An impregnation or vein occurring along the contact between two dissimilar rocks is called a contact deposit. These are usually found between formations of different geological ages, and especially between eruptive and sedimentary rocks.

Subsequent Structures produced by Subterranean Agencies.

The subterranean forces concerned in the formation of rocks are chiefly various manifestations of that enormous tangential pressure developed in the earth’s crust, partly by the cooling and shrinkage of its interior, but largely, it is probable, by the diminution of the velocity of the earth’s rotation by tidal friction, and the consequent diminution of the oblateness of its form. It is well known that the centrifugal force arising from the earth’s rotation is sufficient to change the otherwise spherical form of the earth to an oblate spheroid, with a difference of twenty-six miles between the equatorial and polar diameters. It is also well known that while the earth turns from west to east on its axis, the tidal wave moves around the globe from east to west, thus acting like a powerful friction-brake to stop the earth’s rotation. Our day is consequently lengthening, and the earth’s form as gradually approaching the perfect sphere. This means a very decided shortening and consequent crumpling of the equatorial circumference, and is equivalent to a marked shrinkage of the earth’s interior, so far as the equatorial regions are concerned.

The most important and direct result of the horizontal thrust, whether due to cooling or tidal friction, is the corrugation or wrinkling of the crust; and the earth-wrinkles are of three orders of magnitude,—continents, mountain-ranges, and rock-folds or arches.

Continents and ocean-basins, although the most important and permanent structural features of the earth’s crust, do not demand further consideration here, since their forms and relations are adequately described in the better text-books of physical geography. The forms and distribution of mountain-ranges might be dismissed in the same way; but, unlike continents, the structure of mountains, upon which their reliefs mainly depend, is quite fully exposed to our observation, and is one of the most important fields of the student of structural geology. Mountains, however, as previously explained, combine nearly all the kinds of structure produced by the subterranean agencies, and their consideration, therefore, belongs at the end rather than the beginning of this section.

INCLINED OR FOLDED STRATA.—Normally, strata are horizontal, and dikes and veins are vertical or nearly so. Hence the stratified rocks are more exposed to the crumpling action of the tangential pressure in the earth’s crust than the eruptive and vein rocks; and it is for this reason and partly because the stratified rocks are vastly more abundant than the other kinds, that the effects of the corrugation of the crust are studied chiefly in the former. But it should be understood that folded dikes and veins are not uncommon.

That the stratified rocks have, in many instances, suffered great disturbance subsequent to their deposition, is very evident; for, while the strata must have been originally approximately straight and horizontal, they are now often curved, or sharply bent and contorted, and highly inclined or even vertical. All inclined beds or strata are portions of great folds or arches. Thus we may feel sure when we see a stratum sloping downward into the ground, that its inclination or dip does not continue at the same angle, but that at some moderate depth it gradually changes and the bed rises to the surface again. Similarly, if we look in the opposite direction and think of the bed as sloping upward—we know that the surface of the ground is being constantly lowered by erosion, and consequently that the inclined stratum formerly extended higher than it does now, but not indefinitely higher; for, in imagination, we see it curving and descending to the level of the present surface again. Hence it forms, at the same time, part of one side of a great concave arch, and of a great convex arch, just as every inclined surface on the ground indicates both a hill and a valley. And guided by this principle we can often reconstruct with much probability folds that have been more or less completely swept away by erosion, or that are buried beyond our sight in the earth’s crust.

The arches of the strata are rarely distinctly indicated in the topography, but must be studied where the ground has been partly dissected, as in cliffs, gorges, quarries, etc. They are also, as a rule, far more irregular and complex than they are usually conceived or represented. The wrinkles of our clothing are often better illustrations of rock-folds than the models and diagrams used for that purpose. This becomes self-evident when we reflect that the earth’s crust is exceedingly heterogeneous in composition and structure, and must, therefore, yield unequally to the unequal strains imposed upon it.

The folds or undulations of the strata may be profitably compared with water-waves. In fact, the comparison is so close that they have been not inaptly called rock-waves. Folds, like waves, unless very large, rarely continue for any great distance, but die out and are replaced by others, giving rise to the en echelon or step-like arrangement. The plan of both a wave and a fold is a more or less elongated ellipse, each stratum in a fold being semi-ellipsoidal or boat-shaped. In other words, a normal fold is an elongated mound of concentric strata, being highest at the centre, sloping very gradually toward the ends, and much more abruptly toward the sides.

The imaginary line passing longitudinally through a fold, about which the strata appear to be bent, is the axis; and the plane lying midway between the two sides of a fold and including the axis is the axial plane. The two principal kinds of folds are the anticline (Fig. 18, A), where the strata dip away from the axis; and the syncline (Fig. 18, B), where they dip toward the axis. They are commonly, but not always, correlative, like hill and valley.

Rock-folds are of all sizes, from almost microscopic wrinkles to great arches miles in length and breadth, and thousands of feet in height. The smaller folds, or such as may be seen in hand specimens and even in considerable blocks of stone, are commonly called contortions, and it is interesting to observe that they are, in nearly everything except size, precisely like the large folds, so that they answer admirably as geological models. Large folds, however, are almost necessarily curves, but contortions are frequently angular (Fig. 19). With folds, as with waves, the small undulations are borne upon the large ones; but the contortions are not uniformly distributed. An inspection of Fig. 18 shows that when the rocks are folded they must be in a state of tension on the anticlines (A), and in a state of compression in the synclines (B), and the latter is evidently the normal position of the puckerings or contortions of the strata, as shown in Fig. 20. Contortions are also most commonly found in thin-bedded, flexible rocks, such as shales and schists. And when we find them in hard, rigid rocks, like gneiss and limestone, it must mean either that the structure was developed with extreme slowness, or that the rock was more flexible then and possibly plastic.