In the Colossal Cave area, Pima County, Arizona, massive blocks of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks have been thrust from a southerly direction over an irregular surface of Rincon Valley granite of Laramide age. The Paleozoic rocks involved in the thrusting are the Bolsa quartzite, Abrigo formation, Martin limestone, Escabrosa limestone, Horquilla limestone, and Andrada formation. The Pantano formation (Miocene ?) is also present under the thrust sheet. The thrusting is of an imbricate nature with slip-page mainly teaking place along incompetent rock units. Large folds occur in the Escabrosa limestone and Horquilla lime-stone. A siliceous breccia is associated with thrust planes in the area. The competent units of the Paleozoic sediments were fractured and brecciated along the thrust planes. Solutions dissolved part of the silica and hematite from the Bolsa quartzite and deposited it in the fractured and brecciated zones.

This is a study of the supergene mineralogy of the San Xavier West mine located in the Pima mining district, Pima County, Arizona. The number and composition of secondary species collected are found to be closely related to the relative amounts of the various primary minerals and to the manner in which they were emplaced in the host rock. Supergene mineral species were selected that appeared to be in equilibrium with their environment, and certain assumptions are made concerning the stability fields of these minerals. The equilibrium conditions in most cases can be narrowed and often closely defined by combining the stability fields of several secondary minerals. On this basis, two acid environments and one alkaline environment are found to exist and are separable on the basis of mineralogy. The fields of chalcanthite and melanterite define a highly acid environment while those of goslarite and malachite define an environment of lower acidity. The association of calcite, rosasite, hemimorphite, and malachite indicate an alkaline environment. The acidity of the environments is principally determined by the amount of pyrite present, and pH may be lower than 3 if pyrite is abundant and reactive carbonate material lacking. Also, knowledge of stability relations allowed the history of enrichment and subsequent oxidation to be followed in a case where a transitional species had been removed from reaction by inclusion with gypsum.

Mildly metamorphosed Cretaceous siltstones, arkoses and limey shales and a small composite stock of granitic composition are the principal rocks exposed in the Sedimentary Hills area, which lies six miles west of Tucson, Arizona. About 2400 feet of sediments were measured and assigned to the Amole Arkose Formation. The beds dip to the south and strike northwesterly. The stock is composed of two granitic facies. The northern and earlier part of the stock is a quartz monzonite which is mildly altered. The southern part of the intrusive is a granite porphyry which is altered to a greater degree and exhibits significant disseminations of chalcopyrite and pyrite. A quartz-pegmatite plug, probably a late phase of the intrusions, intrudes the quartz monzonite. Structure in the area is dominated by a large thrust zone which strikes generally parallel to the bedding. Within the Sedimentary Hills area, normal faulting and drag folding are tributary to the thrusting. Minor copper oxide minerals are frequent along large and small faults, and in the granite porphyry stock. Wide brick-red and brown gossans occur along the major thrust plane.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Ground magnetic data are consistent with the interpretation that Lower Jurassic volcanic rocks of the Twin Buttes mine area (Ox Frame Volcanics) are confined to a distinct block by the northwest trending Sawmill Canyon Fault Zone which was initially active during the Lower Jurassic. Possible reactivation of the Sawmill Canyon Fault zone in the Middle Jurassic as a left-lateral wrench fault is recorded by the deposition of syntectonic red-beds (Rodolfo Formation). Lower Cretaceous rocks (Whitcomb Quartzite, Glance Conglomerate, and Angelica Akrose) were deposited in alluvial environments resulting from additional reactivation of the Sawmill Canyon Fault Zone. Upper Cretaceous (Laramide) deformation involved the formation of northwest trending folds and northwest and northeast trending reverse, tear, and later block faults during the uplift of Precambrian basement. Ore deposits of the Pima mining district are localized along a northeast trending fault zone with evidence for initial activity in the Middle Jurassic and later reactivation during the Laramide.

No description available.

No description available.