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1.
Between 1978 and 2009, approximately 430,000 oz of placer gold were obtained from the Indian River and Black Hills Creek, which equates to roughly 20% of the production for the entire Yukon Territory during that period. The area is unglaciated, exposure is poor, and there are few known lode gold occurrences present. The technique of microchemical characterization of placer gold grains has been applied to illuminate the style(s) of source mineralization and their relationship to placer gold from the Klondike gold district immediately to the north. A total of 2,613 placer gold grains from 22 localities were characterised in terms of the Au, Ag, Cu, and Hg content of their alloy and associated suite of opaque mineral inclusions. A combination of alloy and inclusion mineralogy was used to define gold signatures which augmented the previous classification of orogenic gold in the Klondike. Gold type 3b (8–25% Ag) is the main component of the placers in lower Dominion Creek but is augmented and eventually replaced by type 3a gold (10–40% Ag) in placers in the main Indian River valley, probably through erosion of gold-bearing veins in the valley floor. Type 4 gold exhibits highly variable Ag which may contain Hg to a maximum of 11 wt.%. This gold type also hosts a distinctive inclusion assemblage of complex polymetallic sulphides, tellurides, sulfotellurides, and sulfosalts and has previously been ascribed to local low sulfidation epithermal mineralization. Placer gold in drainages radiating from Eureka Dome exhibits various proportions of types 3 and 4 gold depending on location, but type 3 gold forms the major component in Black Hills Creek and northerly flowing tributaries of the Indian River with the exception of Eureka and Montana creeks. Type 5 gold is found only in placers in the middle and lower Indian River. It is distinguished by slightly elevated (0.05–0.17%) Cu in the gold alloy, together with low (5–9%) Ag contents. Inclusions of Bi minerals, Cr-bearing magnetite and molybdenite within type 5 gold suggest derivation from an intrusion-related source. Candidates for such a source include undiscovered lode occurrences associated with Cretaceous age intrusions to the south of the Indian River, or deformed Cu-Au (−Mo) porphyry occurrences which are known to be present in the same area. This analysis of placer gold has indicated that the contribution of low sulfidation epithermal gold from Eureka Creek to the larger placers of the Indian River is minor. Consequently, the placer gold inventory of the Indian River is primarily orogenic in origin. Similarly, the characterization of placer gold in Blackhills Creek strongly suggests an orogenic source. This study has demonstrated for the first time that orogenic lode gold mineralization extends a considerable distance to the south of the southern Klondike goldfield. This information contributes to the regional models of gold mineralization in an area which is currently the focus of intensive exploration.  相似文献   

2.
Gold mineralisation in the White River area, 80 km south of the highly productive Klondike alluvial goldfield, is hosted in amphibolite facies gneisses in the same Permian metamorphic pile as the basement for the Klondike goldfield. Hydrothermal fluid which introduced the gold was controlled by fracture systems associated with middle Cretaceous to early Tertiary extensional faults. Gold deposition occurred where highly fractured and chemically reactive rocks allowed intense water–rock interaction and hydrothermal alteration, with only minor development of quartz veins. Felsic gneisses were sericitised with recrystallisation of hematite and minor arsenic mobility, and extensively pyritised zones contain gold and minor arsenic (ca 10 ppm). Graphitic quartzites (up to 5 wt.% carbon) caused chemical reduction of mineralising fluids, with associated recrystallisation of metamorphic minerals (graphite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite) in host rocks and veins, and introduction of arsenic (up to 1 wt.%) to form arsenopyrite in veins and disseminated through host rock. Veins have little or no hydrothermal quartz, and up to 19 wt.% carbon as graphite. Late-stage oxidation of arsenopyrite in some graphitic veins has formed pharmacosiderite. Gold is closely associated with disseminated and vein sulphides in these two rock types, with grades of up to 3 ppm on the metre scale. Other rock types in the White River basement rocks, including biotite gneiss, hornblende gneiss, pyroxenite, and serpentinite, have not developed through-going fracture systems because of their individual mineralogical and rheological characteristics, and hence have been little hydrothermally altered themselves, have little hydrothermal gold, and have restricted flow of fluids through the rock mass. Some small post-metamorphic quartz veins (metre scale) have been intensely fractured and contain abundant gold on fractures (up to 40 ppm), but these are volumetrically minor. The style of gold mineralisation in the White River area is younger than, and distinctly different from, that of the Klondike area. Some of the mineralised zones in the White River area resemble, mineralogically and geochemically, nearby coeval igneous-hosted gold deposits, but this resemblance is superficial only. The White River mineralisation is an entirely new style of Yukon gold deposit, in which host rocks control the mineralogy and geochemistry of disseminated gold, without quartz veins.  相似文献   

3.
Palaeosols developed on the highest Yukon River glaciofluvial terraces were investigated in order to reconstruct the Plio-Pleistocene evolution of the river valley beyond Late Pleistocene glacial limits. A record of at least two pre-Reid (> 311 kyr) glaciations is chronicled by the presence of two populations of glaciofluvial terraces within the study area. The populations of pre-Reid terraces were identified based on their degree of soil development and elevation. Pre-Reid terraces 200–250 m above river level have preserved morphological and mineralogical features of the Wounded Moose palaeosol, a palaeosol previously associated with pre-Reid surfaces in central Yukon. Clay mineralogy and colour indicate that the Wounded Moose palaeosol developed in part during warm and sub-humid as well as temperate and humid interglacials. A second set of pre-Reid terraces between 110 and 30 m above river level are characterized by the presence of the less-developed Diversion Creek palaeosol, a palaeosol previously associated with only Reid-aged (< 311 kyr) surfaces in central Yukon. In contrast to the Wounded Moose palaeosol, the Diversion Creek palaeosol developed during comparatively cool and humid interglacial conditions. The presence of Diversion Creek palaeosols on pre-Reid outwash terraces suggests that a transition from dominantly warmer to cooler interglacial conditions occurred prior to 311 kyr in Yukon Territory. In addition, the presence of a Diversion Creek palaeosol cannot be used to differentiate stable Reid and stable pre-Reid surfaces across central Yukon.  相似文献   

4.
Many alluvial placer deposits around the world occur in river systems that have been affected by tectonic events, causing drainage reorientation and severance of links between placers and their sources. This study documents tectonic rejuvenation of topography in the Otago giant placer goldfield, New Zealand, which has resulted in numerous river capture and drainage reorientation events. These events have induced changes to gold transport directions and numerous stages of separation of detrital gold from primary sources. Goldfield-wide reconstructions of drainage patterns through time are as yet only possible for Miocene–Recent, and numerous earlier drainage changes back to Cretaceous primary orogenic mineralisation are probable. Variations in basement lithologies permit auriferous gravel provenance determinations, facilitating paleodrainage pattern reconstruction and documentation of river capture events. River capture events and timing of these events for gold-bearing paleodrainages have also been documented using genetic divergences of populations of freshwater galaxiid fish that were isolated by drainage reorientation. Gold-bearing quartz pebble conglomerates had a southeastward drainage in the Miocene. This was disrupted in the Pliocene by mountain range uplift and gold placer recycling, with deposition of lithic conglomerates containing only minor gold placers. The most dramatic changes in gold transport directions occurred through the Quaternary, as antiformal ranges grew across the pre-existing drainages. Miocene and Pliocene placers were recycled with numerous local (1–10 km scale) changes in river directions and numerous capture events. Large axial rivers were segmented into a more complex drainage pattern, and on-going river capture resulted in growth of the main Clutha River catchment at the expense of neighbouring catchments. The most productive placers developed in the Clutha River in late Quaternary when increased discharge from captured mountain catchments enhanced gold transport and concentration. Similar river drainage reorientation has occurred in other placer fields around the world, but the lack of preserved evidence inhibits documentation of most such changes.  相似文献   

5.
We consider the formation of the Dal’nii (Dal’nyaya) eluvial gold placer (Bol’shoi Anyui ore–placer district, western Chukchi Peninsula), related to the Dal’nii (Dal’nee) gold-bearing porphyry Mo–Cu occurrence. The Dal’nii placer is located within the transition between the Kur’ya Ridge and Anyui basin, which has been relatively stable at the recent (Pliocene–Quaternary) tectonic stage. Minor recent uplift has determined the slight denudation of interfluves, the leading role of eluvial processes in the formation of a loose cover on them, and the preservation of the relict matter of pre-Pliocene chemical-weathering crusts (including the oxidized zones of orebodies) in present-day eluvium. The Dal’nii placer consists of relict weathering-crust placers altered by recent eluvial processes in different degrees. Therefore, it is relatively rich in metal, whereas the primary lode contains mainly fine-sized gold, which is almost not released from ore under periglacial lithogenesis in present-day interfluves. We suggest calling this genetic type of placers “residual-eluvial.” The primary lodes being highly eroded (during the formation of residual concentrations, which serve as an intermediate reservoir for these placers), residual-eluvial placers or their parts might not be directly related to specific orebodies at the present-day level of erosional truncation.  相似文献   

6.
Holocene shallow (0.5–4.5 m, rarely more) and Pliocene–Pleistocene deep (> 25 m) placers occur within the China tectonic depression. The shallow placers are associated with the formation of the present-day drainage valleys of the China River under permafrost conditions, and the deep ones are localized within the preglacial paleovalleys of the river basin. An integrated geological and geochemical study was carried out at ten shallow commercial placers, eight of which are classified as poorly studied and “unconventional.” Placers are considered “unconventional” based on their technological characteristics (commercial gold is small (? 0.25 to + 0.1 mm), thin (? 0.1 mm), and micron-sized or “bound” (invisible)), geomorphologic conditions of formation, confinement to the oxidized zone of active permafrost, significant portion of fine hydrogenic gold, and several other minor features.The formation of shallow “unconventional” placers is controlled by the conditions of active permafrost. Under aerobic conditions, suprapermafrost waters form an oxidized zone, in which iron hydroxides impart a yellowish reddish color to water-bearing rocks. Long-lived geochemical barriers (biogenic, reduction, electrochemical, sorption, and others), including gravitational differentiation, play an important role in the concentration of small and thin gold.Alluvial deposits in Meso-Cenozoic tectonic depressions, such as the China basin, are the most promising in terms of “unconventional” placers. The main factors favoring the formation of these localities and the criteria for their assessment are large feeding sources of gold (mainly carbonaceous and sulfide) mineralization, endogenic and exogenic dispersion aureoles with thin and invisible gold; increased thickness of the suprapermafrost active layer and its temporal and spatial stability, contributing to the formation and functioning of oxidized horizons with the accumulation of ferric hydroxide and hydrogenic gold; specific morphologic varieties of hydrogenic gold, which are the fundamental criterion for primary gold mineralization with migratable metal; fine-clastic clay-rich composition of recent alluvial or alluvial-talus sediments, produced by water reworking of ancient gold-bearing weathering crusts; and development of broad floodplains filled with Holocene sediments and their junction with talus-solifluction erosional slopes.  相似文献   

7.
The main features of the migration and accumulation of fine and ultrafine gold during the evolution of placer-forming processes in northeastern Russia are discussed. The results of loose sediment sampling (over 2000 samples) with a screw separator and strake facilities have been taken into consideration. The approximate grades and potential resources of gold were estimated for various genetic types of placers. The most favorable conditions for the mobilization and accumulation of fine and ultrafine gold in the placers of northeastern Russia prevailed during the Paleogene to Miocene stage of the evolution of orogenic morphostructures, when the residual (illuvial and alluvial) placers were formed. During the Pliocene to Quaternary stage, the tectonic activation caused the reworking of placers by slope and fluvial processes and resulted in the formation of new hillside and alluvial placers. At this stage, the dispersal of fine gold fractions prevailed over accumulation. Under conditions of the periglacial lithogenesis of the Pliocene to Quaternary tectonic activation, the formation of new placers with fine and ultrafine gold derived from primary sources was suppressed due to the low rate of metal release in the process of physical weathering. In terms of the economic importance of placers with fine and ultrafine gold, residual, eluvial, or hillside placers, as well as alluvial stratal placers located in low-order (and partly medium-order) stream valleys, are the most attractive in northeastern Russia. The primary sources of such placers comprise gold-bearing porphry copper, gold-sulfide-quartz, and other hydrothermal deposits with similar placer-forming capability, as well as gold-quartz stockworks. The grade of fine and ultrafine gold in such placers may be as high as a few g/m3. The placers located in the constratal alluvium of graben-type valleys and the bar and floodplain placers in the areas with stockwork-like orebodies containing fine (<0.25 mm) gold are regarded as prospective objects.  相似文献   

8.
Numerous auriferous fluvial quartz pebble conglomerates (QPCs) are present within the Late Cretaceous–Recent sedimentary sequence in southern New Zealand. The QPCs formed in low-relief settings before, during, and after regional marine transgression, in alluvial fan and a variety of fluvial and near-shore depositional settings: In particular, during slow thermal subsidence associated with Late Cretaceous–early Cenozoic rifting, and during the early stages of orogenic uplift following mid Cenozoic marine regression. QPC maturity characteristics are complex and vary with sediment transport and recycling history, stratigraphic proximity to the transgressive Waipounamu Erosion Surface, and the amount of first-cycle detritus incorporated during recycling. For pre-marine QPCs, the amount of first cycle detritus varies with tectonic intensity and proximity of the depositional setting to remnant Cretaceous topography. For post-marine QPCs, it varies with tectonic intensity and proximity to Late Cenozoic uplift of basement ranges.QPCs do not form during a single bedrock erosion–sediment deposition cycle: Non-oxidised and/or oxidized groundwater alteration (kaolinisation) of labile minerals in immature sediment and the upper part of underlying basement, and repeated sedimentary recycling, are fundamental processes of QPC formation regardless of the tectonic or sedimentary settings. Altered immature rock disaggregates easily upon erosion, and alteration clays are winnowed to leave quartz-rich residues containing resistant heavy minerals such as zircon and gold. Detrital sulfide survives recycling if deposition and burial in saturated sediments are rapid. QPCs result only if sediment recycling is not accompanied by excessive erosion of fresh basement rock. Uplift of many parts of the Otago Schist belt since late Miocene has raised rocks above the water table, increased erosion rates, and inhibited groundwater alteration and QPC formation. QPC formation is still occurring in Southland, where the water table is high, sediments are saturated and undergoing alteration, and uplift and erosion rates, topography, and fluvial gradients are all low. The QPCs accumulate as residual gravel on the valley floors of low-competence streams that are slowly incising pervasively altered dominantly late Miocene–Pliocene immature conglomerates.QPCs formation essentially represents physical and chemical lagging of precursor strata. Accumulation of detrital gold and other heavy minerals is an inevitable consequence, and most QPCs contain some gold. Three types of significant gold placer have developed in the QPCs. Type 1 placers are essentially eluvial and/or colluvial in origin and form without significant fluvial transport, by residual accumulation in low-competence valleys during low-rate uplift, fluvial incision and QPC formation. Type 2 placers have formed during significant fluvial transport and subsequent fluvial incision, mainly in higher energy proximal and medial reaches of larger pre-marine (Eocene) and post-marine fluvial systems. Type 3 placers formed by wave-base and marine current winnowing in the shallow shelf setting during low-rate regional marine transgression, especially in the Eocene.  相似文献   

9.
Geological studies made in the area of Mara Rosa in Goias State, Brazil, where small occurrences of gold are known in river placers, have revealed an interesting and extensive “lateritised gravel bed” overlying an inexpressive nodular lateritic crust horizon. The gravel has pebbles of vein quartz, quartzites and gneisses, which are interlocked and compacted by intense lateritisation with brown hydrous Fe-oxide (goethite). The underlying nodular crusts grade from deep brown to mottled, and occasionally have cavities. They possibly represent an interface between the bed rock and the gravel bed. The intensity of lateritisation is attributed to the existence of volcanogenic mafic sequences in the rock. The presence of pebbles of the same nature in the small placers with Au, suggest that Au has been dissolved and precipitated during the lateritisation process. Its abundance is mainly restricted to the lateritic gravel bed, which in turn has contributed Au to the stream placers. Thus, it is considered as a new guide horizon for lateritic Au.  相似文献   

10.
Dawson tephra, recently recognized in the Klondike area of Yukon Territory, records one of the largest Quaternary volcanic eruptions in Beringia. Its composition is similar to that of Old Crow tephra, indicating a source in the Aleutian arc-Alaska Peninsula region of southwestern Alaska. Its primary thickness in central Yukon is nearly twice that of Old Crow tephra, which has an estimated eruption volume of >50 km3. The distribution of Dawson tephra is still poorly known, but based on its source area and occurrence in central Yukon, it should be widespread across southern Alaska, Yukon and the Gulf of Alaska. New radiocarbon ages indicate the eruption occurred at about 24,000 14C yr BP (ca 27,000 cal yr BP). The Dawson tephra is a valuable marker bed for correlating late Pleistocene records across large areas of eastern Beringia and adjacent marine records.  相似文献   

11.
Dave Craw 《Ore Geology Reviews》2010,37(3-4):224-235
The giant gold placer system on the Otago Schist of southern New Zealand was derived from Mesozoic orogenic gold deposits in the underlying schist basement. The core of the schist basement was exhumed in the middle Cretaceous, coeval with the accumulation of the oldest preserved nonmarine sedimentary rocks in the area (ca 112 Ma). Those sedimentary rocks contain quartz clasts, with distinctive ductile deformation textures, that were derived from structural zones in, or adjacent to, major orogenic gold deposits. Quartz textures in these structural zones are readily distinguishable from the rest of the schist belt, and hence provide a fingerprint for erosion of gold. The earliest sedimentary rocks on the margins of the gold-bearing schist belt are immature, and were derived from unoxidised outcrops in areas of high relief. Gold was not liberated from unoxidised basement rocks during erosion, and was removed from the system without placer concentration. Placer concentration did not begin until about 20 million years later, when oxidative alteration of gold deposits had facilitated gold grain size enhancement from micron scale (primary) to millimetre scale (secondary). Subsequent erosion and recycling of gold in the early Cenozoic, and again in the late Cenozoic, caused additional concentration of gold in progressively younger deposits. The Klondike giant placer goldfield of Canada had a similar geological history to the Otago placer field, and Klondike placer accumulation occurred in the late Cenozoic, at least 70 million years after Mesozoic exhumation of orogenic gold. The giant placer deposit on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California occurs in Eocene and younger sedimentary rocks, at least 40 million years younger than the timing of major exhumation of the source rocks. Circum-Pacific giant gold placers formed under entirely different tectonic regimes from the emplacement of their source orogenic deposits, and these giant placer deposits do not form in foreland basins associated with convergent orogens. Formation of giant placers requires less active erosion and more subdued topography than the collisional orogenic activity that accompanied emplacement of source gold deposits in basement rocks, as well as oxidative alteration of the primary deposits to liberate gold from sulfide minerals and enhance secondary gold grain size.  相似文献   

12.
Placer gold grains in the Nilambur Valley of Wynad Gold Field in southern India are characterized by very high purity levels (985–1000). Their Ag-depleted core compositions, enhanced grain size and microscale growth patterns correlate with gold grains associated with laterite profiles in the weathering fronts. From the morphological and chemical evolution of gold grains associated with primary, supergene and secondary deposits in this region, we identified a two-stage process for the evolution of the highly pure placers, which shows that gold in the primary veins was mobilized, chemically purified, and reconcentrated in the laterite profiles, effecting enhanced purity and grain growth before transfer to the fluvial system. Further refinement was achieved during fluvial transport, generating natural concentrations of pure gold in the placers.  相似文献   

13.
The distribution of eolian gold in various Proterozoic–Cenozoic sediments on the East European Platform is considered. Eolian placers of the Timan Ridge are characterized by specific features: significant areal distribution and consistent strike of the thin (0–30 cm) productive bed. Prospecting criteria of eolian gold placer in the study territory can be the presence of gold flakes and other minerals with signs of eolian reworking, specific structure of productive bed, deflation structure of relief, and characteristic lithological composition of sediments. It is concluded that since gold flakes with eolian reworking make up high metal concentrations, such as placer deposits in the Timan Ridge, eolian placers of different age may be found on the East European Platform.  相似文献   

14.
The Pleistocene Higashikanbe Gravel, which crops out along the Pacific coast of the Atsumi Peninsula, central Japan, consists of well‐sorted, pebble‐ to cobble‐size gravel beds with minor sand beds. The gravel includes large‐scale foreset beds (5–10 m high) and overlying subhorizontal beds (0·5–3 m thick), showing foreset and topset structure, from which the gravel has previously been interpreted as deposits of a Gilbert‐type delta. However, (1) the gravel beds lack evidence of fluvial activity, such as channels in the subhorizontal beds; (2) the foresets incline palaeolandwards; (3) the gravels fill a fluvially incised valley; and (4) the gravels overlie low‐energy deposits of a restricted environment, such as a bay or an estuary. The foresets generally dip towards the inferred palaeoshoreline, indicating landward accretion of gravel. Reconstruction of the palaeogeography of the peninsula indicates that the Higashikanbe Gravel was deposited as a spit similar to that developed at the western tip of the present Atsumi Peninsula, rather than as a delta. According to the new interpretation, the large‐scale foreset beds are deposits on the slopes of spit platforms and accreted in part to the sides of small islets that are fragments of the submerging spit during relative sea‐level rise. The subhorizontal beds include nearshore deposits on the spit platform topsets and deposits of gravel shoals or bars, which are reworked sediments of the spit beach gravels during a transgression. The lack of spit beach facies in the subhorizontal beds results from truncation by shoreface erosion. Dome structure, which is a cross‐sectional profile of a recurved gravel spit at its extreme point, and sandy tidal channel deposits deposited between the small islets were also identified in the Higashikanbe Gravel. The Higashikanbe Gravel fills a fluvially incised valley and occupies a significant part of a transgressive systems tract, suggesting that gravelly spits are likely to be well developed during transgressions. The large‐scale foreset beds and subhorizontal beds of gravelly spits in transgressive systems tracts contrast with the foreset and topset beds of deltas, characteristic of highstand, lowstand and shelf‐margin systems tracts.  相似文献   

15.
The comprehensive mineralogical analysis of the Taman nearshore Ti-Zr placers and their provenances in the adjoining late Pliocene sedimentation basin is presented. Taking into account paleogeographic reconstructions and contemporary mineral potential of sediments in the Sea of Azov, a contribution of specific feeding sources of terrigenous minerals to the formation of the late Pliocene placers have been estimated. These sources are crystalline and sedimentary rocks of the Caucasus, the southern Russian Plate, and the southeastern Ukrainian Shield (listed in the order of their contribution). The Miocene placers of the Stavropol Arch and Adygea Prominence, as well as the Cretaceous and younger placers of the Ukrainian Shield and the Voronezh Anteclise are suggested to be transitional reservoirs. Economic deposits are forecasted in the zone of paleostraits.  相似文献   

16.
A detailed geological, geomorphological and landuse/landcover study has been carried in a small watershed of Himalaya by visual interpretation of FCC prepared from band 123 of ASTER satellite imagery. On the basis of interpretation and field check, major litounits identified in the study area include Lesser Himalaya conglomerate consisting of quartzite, granite, phyllite boulder and pebble, Middle Siwalik sandstone and Upper Siwalik boulder beds and valley fill with Doon gravel of Holocene age. Geomorphologically the study area is characterized by typical Himalayan topography with rugged terrain. Various landforms identified and recognized include, Doon Fan Gravel Terrace, Doon Fan Gravel Dissected hill, Sub Recent Fan Terrace, Moderately Dissected Structural Hill, Piedmont Dissected Slope, River Terrace, Channel Bar and River channel. Supervised classification of ASTER False Colour Composite (FCC) (123) shows that the major landuse category in the study area is agriculture while major landcover class is forest covered land. The study shows the effect of geology and geomorphology on the type of landuse and landcover in an active tectonic zone of the study area.  相似文献   

17.
Based on the study of the Tsentral'noe deposit, specific features of the formation of mineral assemblages of complex titanium–zirconium placers are considered. The placers formed during the multiple redeposition of clastogenic minerals from source rocks and younger sedimentary rocks (intermediate collectors of titanium–zirconium minerals). The location of erosion and sedimentation zones significantly varied in the Phanerozoic in the adjacent region, resulting in the development of intricate relationships between different-aged terrigenous rocks (possible intermediate collectors) that provided the formation of new mineral assemblages of clastogenic ore minerals. In addition, erosional processes during the continental evolution of the study region could promote the exposure of more ancient rock complexes, the local washout of crystalline basement rocks, and the delivery of ore minerals from the latter rocks to the coastal zone of sedimentary basins. The aim of this communication is to attract the attention of researchers to the issue of the formation of mineral assemblages of complex placers of heavy minerals with similar hydraulic grain dimension and migration capacity for concentration in a rather narrow grain size range. Such mineral assemblages only slightly inherit the primary compositional features of provenances and primarily reflect changes in the sedimentation environment.  相似文献   

18.
Gravel antidunes in the tropical Burdekin River, Queensland, Australia   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  
The geological record is punctuated by the deposits of extreme event phenomena, the identification and interpretation of which are hindered by a lack of data on contemporary examples. It is impossible to directly observe sedimentary bedforms and grain fabrics forming under natural particle-transporting, high-velocity currents, and therefore, their characteristics are poorly documented. The deposits of such flows are exposed however, in the dry bed of the Burdekin River, Queensland, Australia following tropical cyclone-induced floods. Long wave-length (up to 19 m) gravel antidunes develop during short (days) high-discharge flows in the upper Burdekin River (maximum recorded discharge near the study reach over 25 600 m3 s?1 in February 1927). Flood water levels fall quickly (metres in a day) and flow is diverted away from raised areas of the river bed into subchannels, exposing many of the high-stage bedforms with little reworking by falling-stage currents. Gravel bedforms were observed on the dry river bed after the moderate flows of February 1994 (max. 7700 m3 s?1) and January 1996 (max. 3200 m3 s?1). The bedforms had wave-lengths in the range 8–19 m, amplitudes of up to 1 m with steeper stoss than lee faces and crest lines generally transverse to local peak-discharge flow direction. The gravel fabric and size sorting change systematically up the stoss and down the lee faces. The antidune deposits form erosive based lenses of sandy gravel with low-angle downstream dipping lamination and generally steep upstream dipping a-b planes. The internal form and fabric of the antidune gravel lenses are distinctly different from those of dune lee gravel lenses. The erosive based lenses of low-angle cross-bedded gravel with steep upstream dipping a-b planes are relatively easy to recognize and may be diagnostic of downstream migrating antidunes. The antidune gravel lenses are associated with thick (to 1 m) high-angle cross bed sets. Ancient antidune gravel lenses may be diagnostic of episodic high-discharge conditions and particularly when they are associated with high-angle cross-bedded gravelly sand they may be useful for palaeoenvironmental interpretation.  相似文献   

19.
ABSTRACT Lower Pliocene temperate carbonates exhibit landward‐downlapping beds at the southern margin of the Carboneras Basin in south‐eastern Spain. This rarely documented stratal geometry resulted from the accumulation of bedded bioclastic carbonate sand and gravel by longshore currents along a spit platform located a few hundred metres from the palaeoshoreline. The top of the spit platform was covered by shoals that extended over a gently dipping ramp inclined to the north. On the landward slope of the spit, sediments washed over from the shoal area were deposited in parallel‐laminated beds with a southward dip of 8–11°. These beds aggraded and retrograded after an increase in accommodation space, probably related to an Early Pliocene eustatic sea‐level rise. As a result, the beds downlap onto the underlying unconformity surface in a shoreward direction. Eventually, the depression between the shoreline and the spit platform was filled, and a gentle ramp became established. These Pliocene exposures in the Carboneras Basin and a similar Upper Miocene example in southern Spain suggest that landward‐downlapping stratal geometries can be expected in nearshore temperate carbonates along basin margins, and demonstrate a similarity in sedimentary dynamics to siliciclastic sands and gravels.  相似文献   

20.
The Orange River, the principal conduit transporting diamonds from hinterland sources to the Namibian coast in post-Cretaceous times, is characterised by an extreme wave dominated delta that has given rise to a progression of coarse rudaceous littoral deposits preserved onshore for > 150 km north of the mouth. Under the long-lived, prevailing vigorous wave, wind and northward longshore drift regimes, the Orange River outfall has been reworked into, amongst others, a series of economically viable, diamondiferous Plio-Pleistocene onshore gravel beach deposits. These placers comprise spits and barrier beaches in the proximal reach within the palaeo-Orange River mouth that, after ca. 5 km northwards, merge into extensive but narrow linear beaches that, in turn after ca. 70 km, give way to pocket beaches. Gravel and diamond size decreases northwards away from the ancestral Orange River mouth. The linear and pocket beach types have considerably higher diamond content but lower average diamond stone size than the two proximal units that are characterised by low diamond grade but comparatively large average diamond size. Given the risk of delineating low grade alluvial diamond deposits accurately, we present here sedimentological reconstructions of the subtidal, intertidal and supra-tidal facies that constitute the spit and barrier beach sequences, based largely on face mapping of exploration trenches and open-cast, mine cuts, as well as the results of large tonnage, sampling campaigns. Diamond distribution is also linked convincingly to basic littoral processes that were operational within the palaeo-Orange River mouth during the complex transgression that gave rise to the + 30 m package in Plio-Pleistocene times. In both the spit and barrier beach settings, the intertidal deposits prove to be the most promising targets whereas the subtidal sediments are the least economic. The constant raking associated with coarse, cobble–boulder-sized gravel foreshore deposits in an energetic micro-tidal wave regime increased the average diamond stone size in the intertidal deposits to 1 to 2 carats per stone (cts/stn), but the lack of fixed trapsites (no competent footwall within the palaeo-Orange River mouth at that level) prohibited the accumulation of substantially enriched diamondiferous gravels. Consequently, grades of only 1.5 to 6 carats per 100 tons (cpht) are realised. The highest grades (2 to 6 cpht) are found in the landward-facing, intertidal beach deposits on the spits where gentle reworking in that sheltered environment had somewhat enriched and preserved the diamond content. Significantly, the low average stone size of ca. 0.5 cts/stn in this lower energy setting probably reflects that of the general diamond population available at that time. In contrast, the sand-rich subtidal deposits in the spit sequence return the lowest grades (0.1 to 0.5 cpht), similar to those in the slightly younger, subtidal transgressive boulder lags of the barrier beaches. However, the stone size in the spit subtidal sediments is also low (0.1 to 0.5 cts/stn) due to the highly mobile, fine-grained character of those deposits, whereas that in the subtidal transgressive lag is large (2 to 3 cts/stn) as a result of the local, semi-permanent turbulence associated with the boulder-sized clasts in these gravel sheets. Diamond distribution is therefore also influenced by littoral facies and associated beach types, in addition to the spatial and temporal parameters that have already been documented for the onshore marine placers of the southern Namibian coast.  相似文献   

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