It is important to know whether major mining districts in the Northern Nevada
Gold Province are underlain by rocks of the Archean Wyoming craton, known
to contain large orogenic gold deposits, or by accreted rocks of the
Paleoproterozoic Mojave province. It is also important to know the location
and orientation of the Archean/Proterozoic suture zone between these
provinces and of major basement structures within them because these
features may affect subsequent patterns of sedimentation, deformation,
magmatism, and hydrothermal activity.
In eastern Utah and western Wyoming, the Archean/Proterozoic suture zone is exposed
and has an east-west strike In the Great Basin, the strike of the Archean/Proterozoic
suture zone is poorly constrained because it is largely concealed below
a Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic miogeocline and basin fill. East-west and
southwest strikes have been inferred on the basis of strontium (Sr),
neodymium (Nd), and lead (Pb) isotopic compositions of granitoid intrusions.
To better constrain the location and strike of the Archean/Proterozoic
suture zone below cover, a regional south-north magnetotelluric (MT)
sounding profile was acquired in north-central Nevada to track the suture
zone from western Utah and eastern Nevada. Resistivity modeling of the
MT data can be used to investigate buried structures or sutures that
may have influenced subsequent regional fluid flow. The purpose of this
report is to release the MT sounding data collected in north-central
Nevada in September 2004; no interpretation of the data is included.
Version 1.0
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Posted September 2005 |
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