Geology and Ore Deposits of a Part of the Panamint Range, California

Citation

Murphy, Franklin Mac (1930) Geology and Ore Deposits of a Part of the Panamint Range, California. Master's thesis, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/NA5M-GD58. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:01202010-113737230

Abstract

The Panamint Range is a normal basin-range tilted fault-block, uplifted probably in Tertiary time and rejuvenated by very complex recent faulting on the west. This great block is approximately 100 miles long, but the area covered by the reconnaissance geologic map embraces a tract of country in the southern portion of the range about 25 miles from north to south. The range occupies a commanding position, forming the west wall of Death Valley almost throughout its entire length and the east wall of the somewhat smaller, but very similar, Panamint Valley. The rooks consist of a great thickness of undifferentiated metamorphic complex, embracing schists, gneisses, and marble, predominantly of sedimentary origin, unjected by granitic rocks and out by diabase dikes. These are overlain by less highly metamorphosed slaty schists and dolomitic limestones, separated by a nonconformity from a succession of rooks consisting largely of limestones, dolomites and schists. The age of the rooks is unknown, but is believed to range from pre-Cambrian to lower Paleozoic. Structure within the range is not entirely clear and that of certain rook masses is indeterminable. The older rooks on the west slope show a westward dip of the foliation, while the younger rooks forming the crest of the range and the Death Valley side, dip gently eastward. A general lenticular character of the older rooks is characteristic, and, in general, folding is of major importance. Deposits of gold, lead and antimony occur in various places in the range, but the silver-bearing quartz veins in the Panamint district are of chief interest. The latter occur principally in limestone, but also in schist, and are strong fissure veins of Mesozoic age.

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