Phosphate Occurrence and Potential in the Region of Afghanistan, Including Parts of China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan By Greta J. Orris, Pamela Dunlap, and John C. Wallis With a section on geophysics by Jeff Wynn 2015 Open-File Report 2015-1121, version 1.0 U.S. Department of the Interior, Sally Jewell, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey, Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. INTRODUCTION Within Afghanistan, a handful of known occurrences and reports indicate the presence of phosphate in Permian, Cretaceous, and Paleogene sediments and in carbonatite. With the exception of the Khanneshin Carbonatite, very little is known about these occurrences. In the countries surrounding Afghanistan, economic phosphate is known to occur in Cambrian, Devonian, and Paleogene sediments and in Kiruna-type Fe-apatite deposits. Many of the host units may extend into Afghanistan or equivalent units may be present. Although the possibility of economic phosphate deposits exist for Afghanistan, the need for detailed exploration for phosphate, the remoteness of some locations, and the probability that a deposit would not be exposed at the surface mean that one or more deposits are not likely to be identified in the near future. Even if a phosphate-bearing deposit is identified in Afghanistan, it is not clear if the probable size, thickness, and grade ranges would allow economic development of the hypothesized resource. Within the study area, economic or sub economic phosphate is known to occur in marine sediments of Neoproterozoic-Cambrian, Devonian, and Paleogene sediments. Additional occurrences have been identified in Ordovician, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Miocene sediments. In addition to phosphate deposits and occurrences associated with carbonatites, phosphate is mined from a Kiruna-type Fe-apatite deposit at Esfordi in Iran. Additional occurrences are associated with alkaline igneous rocks, mafic-ultramafic rocks, and volcanic rocks. Data for phosphate deposits, occurrences and showings and for rock units that may contain phosphate mineralization are contained in a GIS, as described below. REVISIONS AND UPDATES No plans exist to revise and update these data. FILE AND DATA FORMATS Text (.txt) files may be viewed without special software. Portable document format (PDF) files may be viewed with ArcReader (available at no cost at www.adobe.com). Spatial databases require GIS software such as ArcReader, ArcView, ArcExplorer, ArcInfo, or ArcGIS; the spatial data files can be directly accessed by these applications. ArcView, ArcInfo, and ArcGIS are licensed applications that must be purchased. The spatial databases are Esri file geodatabase (FGDB) feature classes compiled in ArcGIS (version 10), a commercial GIS. The data are stored in geographic coordinates with the datum WGS 1984. FGDC-compliant metadata are embedded in each of the spatial databases and are also provided in PDF format. FILES TO DOWNLOAD readme.txt - this file ofr20151121_report.pdf - Report ofr20151121_gis.zip - Esri File Geodatabase, ArcMap map document, and metadata in compressed (ZIP) archive. The file geodatabase is a geospatial database that is directly accessible via Esri ArcGIS software such as ArcMap, ArcExplorer or ArcView. [The database files are stored in a proprietary format and contain the geospatial data, various indexes, user-defined attributes, the coordinate system information, and the metadata which describes the data.] All files will extract into a main folder named GIS_SAsia_phosphate. GIS IN THE ZIP ARCHIVE Phosphate.gdb - An ArcGIS 10 Esri File Geodatabase (FGDB) that contains three feature classes, a non-spatial table of references cited in the deposits and occurrences database, and a relationship class. Contents of Phosphate.gdb Citations - Standalone (non-spatial) table of references cited in the feature class of deposits and occurrences. SAsia_Phosphate - Feature dataset that contains spatial data for geologic map units and phosphate deposits and occurrences and a relationship class. SAsia_Phos_sites - Feature class (points) for deposits and occurrences. SAsia_Phos_sites_Citations - Relationship class that associates the objects in the feature class SAsia_Phos_sites with those in the standalone table of references, Citations. SAsia_Phos_units - Feature class (polygons) for map units. SouthernAsia_countries - Feature class (polygons) for countries in the region. SAsia_phosphate.mxd - ArcMap map document built in ArcGIS 10. It utilizes FGDB feature classes and layer files to symbolize and view the spatial and non-spatial data. The map document uses relative pathnames to the data sources; it will not display customized map symbols and polygon fill colors if the file geodatabase is separated from its relative position in the main folder \GIS_SAsia_phosphate with respect to the layer files in the subfolder \Symbolization_Layer_files. Layer Files - Customized symbolization files (or legends) for feature classes are located in the subfolder \Symbolization_Layer_files). Deposit Type.lyr - Symbolization for the field "Dep_Type" in the feature class of points, "SAsia_Phos_sites". Grouped map units.lyr - Symbolization for the field "Grp_desc" in the feature class of polygons, "SAsia_Phos_units". Map Units.lyr - Symbolization for the field "Unit_desc" in the feature class of polygons, "SAsia_Phos_units". Maximum mineralization age.lyr - Symbolization for the field "MznAge_Max" in the feature class of points, "SAsia_Phos_sites". Site Name.lyr - Symbolization for the field "Name" in the feature class of points, "SAsia_Phos_sites". Site Status.lyr - Symbolization for the field "Status" in the feature class of points, "SAsia_Phos_sites". METADATA FILES IN ZIP ARCHIVE (standalone files are located in subfolder \Metadata) SAsia_Phos_sites_metadata.pdf - Description of data in the feature class of phosphate deposits and occurrences, "SAsia_Phos_sites". SAsia_Phos_sites_references_metadata.pdf - Description of data fields in the table of references, "Citations". SAsia_Phos_units_metadata.pdf - Description of data in the feature class of map units, "SAsia_Phos_units". SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Windows - Intel Pentium or Xeon processor, 800 MHz minimum, 1.0GHz or higher recommended - Microsoft Windows XP, or Windows 2000, - 256 MB minimum of RAM, 512 MB or higher recommended - VGA color monitor that can display 256 colors (16.7 million colors recommended) All platforms - Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Browser version 7.0 or greater. Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 or higher. GIS software capable of reading ArcGIS 10 file geodatabases, such as ArcView, ArcExplorer or ArcGIS, is needed to take full advantage of the GIS component of this publication. QUICK START FOR GIS 1. Extract the data files from the ZIP archive into the folder of your choice; a main folder named GIS_SAsia_phosphate contains all the data. 2. Navigate to the main folder \GIS_SAsia_phosphate and double-click on the map document file "SAsia_phosphate.mxd" to view the GIS in ArcMap 10. 3. Right-click on an item in ArcMap's Table of Contents and select "Open Attribute Table" to view the data in a tabular format. 4. Use the Identify tool to view data as an hierarchical list format. (a) To view source data references, click on the plus next to the site name in the hierarchical list and again on the plus next to "Citations" until author and year appear (often there will be a list of citations); then click on a citation to view each references in full. If a yellow lightning bolt appears in the field "Web_link", click on it to view the referenced article on the Internet. (b) Toggle back and forth between attributes for each site and and its source references by clicking on site name and the abbreviated citation (as listed below "Citations") in the hierarchical listing. 5. Read the metadata for definitions of the data stored in the attribute tables. TIPS 1. If you cannot view the complete embedded metadata in ArcCatalog (ver. 10) please visit the Esri website at http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//003t00000031000000 and read the first page of "Creating and Managing FGDC metadata" for directions and insights. 2. If you cannot view an entire text entry because it appears to be truncated in the Identify window, open the attribute table, click on Table Options > Appearance and increase the value for Cell Height, and select Apply. If the result is okay, then click OK; otherwise, reset Cell Height and Apply until the entire text entry is visible. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Technical reviews by Stephen G. Peters, Jack H. Medlin, and Nora Shew greatly improved improved this report. The bibliographical reference for this publication is: Orris, G.J., Dunlap, Pamela, and Wallis, J.C., 2015, Phosphate occurrence and potential in the region of Afghanistan, including parts of China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2015-1121, 74 p., and digital data, http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151121. This report and any updates to it are available online only at http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151121.