1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Unnamed (on Martha Creek)

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Bismuth, Copper, Lead
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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. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Mining district
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10307904
Record type Site
Current site name Unnamed (on Martha Creek)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -166.07393, 64.95668 (WGS84)
Relative position Occurrences of sulfidized rock were reported by Sainsbury, Smith, and Kachadoorian (1972) about 1.5 miles south of the confluence of Martha Creek with Tisuk River. The best occurrences were reported to be on the west side of Martha Creek. The occurrences are approximately located but probably within about a quarter of a mile of the coordinates.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome D-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Nome N(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Bismuth Critical Primary
Copper Primary
Lead Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Limonite Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Oxidation and silicification.

Nearby scientific data

(1) -166.07393, 64.95668
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Several oxidized (limonitic?) quartz-breccia zones, as much as 100 feet across, occur in this area, especially on the west side of Martha Creek (Sainsbury, Smith, and Kachadoorian, 1972). Anomalous amounts of bismuth, copper, and lead were reported. The area is underlain by amphibolite facies graphitic metasedimentary rocks that are locally gneissic in character. Sainsbury, Smith, and Kachadoorian (1972) mapped granite stocks and felsic dikes in the Martha Creek drainage and a small tourmalinized granite about three-quarters of a mile west of these occurrences. The tourmalinized granite is at the head of a creek that parallels Martha Creek and also flows north to Tisuk River. The amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks are now considered to have a late Proterozoic or early Paleozoic protolith (Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Hannula and others, 1995), perhaps correlative with parts of the Nome Group. Like the Nome Group, these rocks probably underwent regional blueschist facies metamorphism in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). The blueschist facies rocks were recrystallized to greenschist facies or higher metamorphic grades in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson and Arth, 1983; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998).
  • Age = Cretaceous, probably related to nearby or buried tourmalinized granites.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = No workings were reported; occurrences were found by Sainsbury and his coauthors Smith, and Kachadoorian (1972) during reconnaissance in 1970.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Sainsbury, Smith, and Kachadoorian, 1972

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Quartz breccia in amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 22-OCT-99 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. 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.