Timing of mineralization in the palm of your hand: Cross-cutting relations, copper minerals and ore-forming hydrothermal fluid evolution
Summary
Context
Audience
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
How the activity is situated in the course
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
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Description of the activity/assignment
This lab is designed to familiarize students with the geologic history of an ore-deposit, deciphered in the palm of your hand. By determining cross cutting relations of veins and mineralogy, students decipher the evolution of mineralizing fluids that formed the minerals of a copper ore deposit.
This lab accompanies lectures/classes in economic geology and ore mineralogy, either in a mineralogy or petrology course. It can also accompany studies of fluid rock interactions, fracture flow, fluid evolution, or geochemistry; or these topics be woven together using this lab as a base. This lab exercise also integrates previously learned material: cross-cutting relationships (Introductory Geology),with determination of mineralogy (Mineralogy), review of idochromatic elements producing color and their use in mineral identification (Mineralogy),chemistry of the fluids (Geochemistry), and changes in fluids with time during hydrothermal alteration events (Economic Geology). It also demonstrates the linkage between fluid composition, igneous petrology, ore geology and mineralogy.
Determining whether students have met the goals
Teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 57kB Jul14 03)
- Instructors Notes (Acrobat (PDF) 72kB Jul14 03)
Other Materials
- Images of slabs and activity diagrams (Acrobat (PDF) 142kB Jul14 03)