3 hours. 2 hours lecture and 3 hours lab per week.
Economic Geology
Course Description
Classification and origin of base and precious metal ore deposits; relationships between ore deposits, host rocks, and plate tectonics; principles of ore deposit exploration and evaluation.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Field mapping project and field trips.
Athena Title
Economic Geology
Corequisite
GEOL 4020-4020L
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to organize the processes of ore deposit formation over the range of temporal and spatial scales at which they apply.
Students will be able to interpret individual ore deposit systems at all scales based on observations at any scale.
Students will be able to differentiate common ore deposit rocks in hand sample and thin section and interpret the processes by which those samples formed.
Students will be able to interpret outcrop exposures in terms of the physical and chemical processes under which they formed.
Students will be able to estimate the likely distribution of alteration and mineralization for mineral exploration based on the controls of structure, phase equilibria, and physical chemistry at the thin section, hand sample, outcrop and regional scales.
Topical Outline
I. Introduction to course
II. Fundamentals
A. Relationship between Ore Deposits and Plate Tectonics
B. Principles of Fluid Movement in the Crust
C. Principles of Ore Deposition/Alteration
D. Phase Equilibria
E. Stable and Radiogenic Isotope Systematics
F. Fluid Inclusions
III. Survey of Ore Deposit Models
A. Magmatic Ore Deposits (Bushveld, Sudbury, Thompson, Kambalda, carbonatites)
B. Hydrothermal Deposits
1. Porphyry, skarn, vein, epithermal
2. Deposits related to subaerial volcanism
3. Deposits related to submarine volcanism
4. Sedex deposits
5. MVT deposits
6. Deposits related to sedimentary and surficial deposits
7. Deposits related to metamorphism
8. Deposits related to groundwater movement
