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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Unnamed (area near Fall Creek, Mudside Creek, Coal Creek, and upper Topsy Creek)

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Molybdenum, Tungsten
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Alteration
  8. Host and associated rocks
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Links to other databases
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10002222
MRDS ID A013124
Record type Site
Current site name Unnamed (area near Fall Creek, Mudside Creek, Coal Creek, and upper Topsy Creek)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -137.50601, 58.6247 (WGS84)
Relative position A lode containing gold is in Fall Creek about 1.25 miles upstream from its mouth into Lituya Bay. The coordinates are for the approximate location of the best sample collected by Rossman (1959, fig. 9) from a hydrothermal zone about 0.5 mile long that approximately parallels Fall Creek. The location is accurate to about 0.1 mile. This site also includes lodes described by Rossman in Mudslide Creek (about 58.639; 137.492), also in the north fork of Fall Creek, Coal Creek, and in the upper Topsy Creek drainage area.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Hoonah-Angoon(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Mount Fairweather C-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Mount Fairweather NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Mount Fairweather(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Glacier Bay(hydrologic unit)

Northern Southeast Alaska(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southeast Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Glacier Bay National Park(National Park)

National Park NPS(Type of land area)

NPS(Federal land areas administered by NPS)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Molybdenum Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Powellite Ore
Pyrite Ore

Alteration

  • (Local) Solfataric (?) hydrothermal alteration.

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Sandstone
    Rock unit name Topsy Formation;Topsy Formation;Cenotaph Volcanics;Cenotaph Volcanics;Cenotaph Volcanics;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation
    Rock description Topsy Formation;Topsy Formation;Cenotaph Volcanics;Cenotaph Volcanics;Cenotaph Volcanics;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation;Yakutat Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Cretaceous

Nearby scientific data

(1) -137.50601, 58.6247
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Red- and yellow-stained hydrothermally altered zones as much as one-half mile long occur in sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Tertiary and Mesozoic age southeast of Lituya Bay (Brew and others, 1978). The zones, which are rich in clay, possibly are the result of alteration by thermal springs localized by faults. The faults subsequently localized Fall Creek and other drainages. ? Rossman (1959) found a maximum of 0.24 ounce per ton gold in one sample from the zone in Fall Creek. The Bureau of Mines found 0.02 ounce per ton silver in a jasper-rich zone in greenstone in upper Fall Creek. The rock contained fine disseminated pyrite and a trace of powellite (Kimball and others, 1978, p. C94).
  • Age = Tertiary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Yakutat

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Hydrothermal zones were first observed by D.J. Miller of the U.S. Geological Survey in mapping of the Lituya area (Miller, 1953); the mapping was followed up by sampling in 1954 (Rossman, 1959). In addition to the location in Fall Creek that assayed 0.24 ounce per ton gold and 0.06 ounce per ton silver, Rossman found 0.06 ounce per ton gold about 0.5 mile upstream in Fall Creek and at another location in the north fork of Fall Creek. Miller reported addtional hydrothermal zones in upper Topsy Creek about 1 mile to the SE; these occurrences are in rocks of Mesozoic age and were shown by Rossman in his report (fig. 9).? In later follow up, the U.S. Bureau of Mines detected silver in one sample in upper Fall Creek; the sample contained fine disseminated pyrite and a trace of powellite in jasperoid in greenstone (Kimball and others, 1978, p. 94).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Rossman, 1959 (B 1058-B)

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Epithermal (?) low-sulfide gold deposit.
Deposit Other Comments = the Tertiary and Mesozoic country rocks of the hydrothermal zones are in the Lituya terrane of Brew and others (1978). The sites are in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 08-APR-99 Hawley, C.C. Hawley Resource Group

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.