without greatly disturbing their structural attitudes. The latter is illustrated in the Bingham district of Utah and the Philipsburg district of Montana. In such cases there is so little evidence of crowding of the country rocks as to raise the question how such large masses of intrusives could be introduced without greater disturbing structural effect. This leads naturally to consideration of the general problem of the manner of progress of magmas through adjacent rocks,—a subject which is still largely in the realm of speculation, but which is not thereby eliminated from the field of controversy. Facts of this kind seem to favor the position of certain geologists that magmas may assimilate the rocks they invade.
Evidence of Igneous Source
No one ever saw one of these deposits in the process of formation; the conclusion, therefore, that they originated from hot solutions, either aqueous or gaseous, or both, which were essentially "after-effects" of igneous activity and came from the same primary source as the associated igneous rocks, is an inference based on circumstantial evidence of the kind below summarized:
(1) The close association both in place and age with igneous rocks. This applies not only to individual deposits, but to certain groups of deposits which have common characteristics, and which constitute a metallogenic province; also to groups of the same geologic age, which indicate a metallogenic epoch (pp. 308-309). The association with igneous rocks in one place might be a coincidence but its frequent repetition can hardly be so explained. A zonal arrangement of minerals about intrusives is often noted. Geologic evidence often shows the processes of ore deposition to have been complete before the next succeeding geologic event,—as for instance in the Tonopah district of Nevada (p. 236), where the ores have been formed in relation to certain volcanic flows and have been covered by later flows not carrying ore, without any considerable erosion interval between the two events.
(2) The general contrast in mineralogical and chemical composition, texture, and mineral associations, between these ore minerals and the minerals known to be formed by ordinary surficial agencies under ordinary temperatures. The latter carry distinctive evidences of their origin. When, therefore, a mineral group is found which shows contrasting evidences, it is clear that some other agencies have been at work; and the natural assumption is that the solutions were hot rather than cold; that they came from below rather than above.
(3) The contrast between the character and composition of these ores (and their associated gangue) and the character and composition of the wall rocks, together with the absence of leaching of the wall rocks, favor the conclusion that the ore minerals are foreign substances introduced from extraneous sources. The source not being apparent above and the processes there observed not being of a kind to produce these results, it is concluded that the depositing solutions were hot and came from below.
(4) The fact that many of the ore minerals are never known to develop under ordinary temperatures at the surface. For some of them, experimental work has also indicated high temperature as a requisite to their formation.
Quartz, which is a common associate of the ores and often constitutes the principal gangue, serves as a geologic thermometer in that it possesses an inversion point or temperature above which it crystallizes in a certain form, below which in another. In deposits of this class it has often been found to crystallize at the higher temperatures.