Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, May 1917. / Typewritten (carbon copy). "Bibliographical guides": p. 120-127.

This dissertation research assesses the behavior of young faults in central Nevada through analyses of landforms associated with these faults. Four large earthquakes have occurred since 1915 in a striking N-S belt in central Nevada; no comparable earthquakes have occurred elsewhere in the Great Basin. The frequency of large-earthquake occurrence, and temporal and spatial patterns and rates of faulting in central Nevada during the Holocene were assessed through geomorphic and geologic studies of young fault scarps. Ages of paleoseismic events were estimated primarily through analyses of fault scarp morphologies and characterization and quantification of soil development associated with alluvial surfaces. Rates of fault scarp degradation were explored through diffusion-based modeling of latest Pleistocene pluvial shoreline scarps. Morphologic scarp age depends strongly on scarp size; modest variations in local climate, particle size, and aspect are less important. Incorporating a factor that depends on scarp size almost always decreases the scatter in scarp age estimates, and is critical if only small scarps exist along a fault zone. An average of ±30% uncertainty about the mean scarp age estimate remains after these analyses. Soil development indices were calibrated using 14 Holocene to latest Pleistocene soil profiles in central Nevada whose maximum ages are constrained. Soil development indices were used to estimate ages of faulted and unfaulted alluvial surfaces along fault scarps. Soils and morphologic fault scarp age estimates for paleoseismic events are generally consistent. Temporal and spatial patterns and rates of faulting during the Holocene were evaluated using age estimates for paleoseismic events. The long-term rate of faulting is about 10 times lower than the historical rate. There were no other N-S belts of faulting during the Holocene, although scarp ages suggest that there may have been other temporal clusters of faulting. There have been spatial clusters of faulting during portions of the Holocene. The extensional deformation rate across central Nevada during the Holocene is about 0.5-0.75 mm/yr. Integrating this rate with fault-slip data from other portions of the northern Great Basin, the Holocene extensional deformation rate is 3.5-6.5 mm/yr, substantially lower than the historical deformation rate.

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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2006. / "May, 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-59). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits in Nevada, western United States are major gold sources and contain reserves in excess of 1 500 metric tons of gold (Percival et aI., 1988). Discovery of these deposit types continues at a pace, with Placer Dome announcing a mojor discovery, Pipeline, to the south of the Gold Acres Mine, along the Battle Mountain - Eureka Trend in 1994 (The Northern Miner, 1994). Host sediments favoured for disseminated gold mineralisation are thinly bedded silty limestones , carbonate debris flows and to a lesser extent shale, chert and sandstone. The distribution of mineralisation is controlled essentially by the intersection of high-angle faults, which acted as conduits for hydrothermal fluids, with favourable host lithologies, anticlines, low-angle faults and other high-angle faults. Geochemical signature for these deposits is simple being Au, Ag, As, Sb, Hg, Tl, Te, F and Ba, but individual element concentrations vary greatly between and within deposits. Age of mineralisation is cause for considerable debate, and ages ranging between isotopic dates of approximately 117 Ma to early to mid-Tertiary (30-40 Ma) are proposed. Most of these deposits are situated along three major trends namely the Carlin, Battle Mountain - Eureka and Getchell trends. The Battle Mountain - Eureka trend and, to a lesser extent the Carlin trend, are defined by major linear aeromagnetic and gravity anomalies , which are believed to reflect deep-seated structures. Most deposits are hosted in autochthonous Devonian, thinly bedded, silty limestones that occur as windows through what is believed to be allochthonous Ordovician siliciclastic sediments, which were transported from west to east along the Roberts Mountains thrust during the late-Devonian Antler Orogeny. However, recent fossil dating of what were thought to be Ordivician siliciclastic sediments, gives a Devonian age. This questions the age of Ordivician sediments at the other deposits and the interpretation of the structural windows in which deposits are located. Fault-bounded, proximal, carbonate debris-flow breccias are now recognised as a major host to mineralisation. These debris flow breccias, together with interbedded carbonate and siliciclastic sediments, carbonaceous sediments and soft sediment deformation are all characteristics of lithologies in pull-apart basins which develop along a major strike slip faults. It is proposed that sediment-hosted disseminated gold mineralisation is controlled by the distribution of deep-seated long-lived, predominantly right-lateral strike-slip faults. It is along these strike-slip faults that syn-sedimentary pull-apart basins developed, within which sediments favoured by epigenetic gold mineralisation were deposited. These pull-apart basins were then overprinted by post-depositional extensional structures, such as negative flower structures. Igneous intrusions and hydrothermal cells have exploited these extensional structures in both compressional and extensional regional tectonic regimes. This model explains the characteristics of the host sediment at many of the deposits, the spatial relationship between igneous intrusion and mineralisation, spanning the period Cretaceous through to mid-Tertiary, the distribution of deposits as districts along major regional trends and why hydrothermal activity is noted between deposit districts but with no complementary mineralisation. Mineralisation is controlled predominantly by high angle structures and although the recent age for mineralisation at the Betze/Post deposit is ~ 117 Ma (Arehart et aI., 1993a), placing it in the compressional Sevier Orogeny, these high-angle structures would be developed within local extensional tectonic domains as described above. This model can, and should, be applied to other areas of the world where similar geological features exist. In exploring for these deposits in Nevada the distribution of Ordovician siliciclastic sediments should be reviewed, especially where spatially associated with deep regional structures. Ordovician sediments have historically been regarded as unfavourable, hence large areas for potential exploration have been ignored but with new ages for these sediments this opens large areas for potential discoveries. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

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Oxidized hydrous intermediate composition magmas are responsible for porphyry copper (Cu ±Mo ±Au) deposits and epithermal Au ore deposits formed globally in the shallow crust (Sillitoe, 2010; Seedorff et al., 2005). Recently, zircon geochemistry has been used to characterize both productive and barren intrusions associated with porphyry Cu-Au ore deposits. Zircon composition differs slightly between the two intrusive groups, and researchers have proposed that zircon in productive intrusions has crystallized from a relatively more oxidized melt compared to barren intrusions (Ballard et al., 2002; Muñoz et al., 2012). Zircon rare earth elements record anomalies in Ce and Eu contents that allow estimation of the ratio of oxidized versus reduced species, i.e. Ce⁴⁺/Ce³⁺ (Ce[superscript IV]/Ce[superscript III]) and Eu³⁺/Eu²⁺ (Eu/Eu*)[subscript CN]. This study focuses on understanding the compositions of Eocene magmas associated with sediment hosted Carlin gold deposits and the gold-copper ores of the Battle Mountain porphyry Cu-Au-skarn district in northern Nevada. Zircon trace element composition was analyzed using LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP-RG to determine differences between mineralizing and non-mineralizing intrusions in northern Nevada and to compare these compositions with known porphyry Cu-Au type magmas. These zircon and rock compositional data was then used to test the hypothesis of a magmatic origin of the Carlin type gold deposits (Muntean et al., 2011). Zircon U-Pb ages were calculated using multiple SHRIMP-RG spot analyses of each sample for two Carlin biotite porphyry dikes, two Battle Mountain porphyry dikes and the granodiorite of the Copper Canyon stock. The new U-Pb age dates for Carlin porphyry dikes are 38.7 ± 0.5 Ma and 38.8 ± 0.4 Ma. The age of the Copper Canyon stock is 38.0 ± 0.7 Ma, and the age of the Battle Mountain porphyry dikes are 40.2 ± 0.4 Ma and 41.3 ± 0.4 Ma. The Carlin dike ages are the same age, within uncertainty, with previous studies conducted (Mortensesn et al., 2000). The productive porphyry dikes from the Battle Mountain district have Ce(IV)/Ce(III) ratios of 500 to 10000 and a wide range of (Eu/Eu*)[subscript CN] values between 0.3 and 0.7 respectively. Carlin porphyry dikes have Ce(IV)/Ce(III) values between 100 and 1000, and a more limited (Eu/Eu*)[subscript CN] range of 0.5 to 0.7. Barren Eocene intrusions at Harrison Pass and Caetano have much lower Ce(IV)/Ce(III) ratios that range from 20 to 500, and have a very large span of (Eu/Eu*)[subscript CN] from 0.03 to 0.6. Calculated Ce(IV)/Ce(III) and (Eu/Eu*)[subscript CN] of zircon of this study illustrate a distinction between productive and barren intrusions in northern Nevada, and demonstrate a geochemical link between porphyry type magmas and dikes associated with Carlin type gold deposits. These ratios may provide a useful means of evaluating potentially economic geologic terranes and serving as a method to infer relative oxidation state of zircon bearing intrusive rocks. / Graduation date: 2013

Little is known about the role of microbial biofilms in nutrient cycling and ecosystem processes within desert springs. Furthermore, the difference between nutrient limitation of biofilms in desert springs and other ecosystems is unknown. Biofilms produce micro-scale physicochemical variation important to ecosystem function. We measured the variation in microscale physicochemical heterogeneity in biofilms of Devils Hole, Nevada. Microelectrodes were used to measure micro-scale chemical gradients of temperature, pH, O2, and H2S in addition to water column and pore water nutrient measurements in Spirogyra, cyanobacteria, and Beggiatoa biofilms over one year. Biofilm physicochemical gradients were used to calculate diffusion and metabolic rates. The rate of O2 and H2S diffusion ranged over two orders of magnitude. Biofilm production and respiration were influenced by biofilm type, light exposure, and sample month. Maximum O2 production occurred in spring and summer during direct light exposure. Oxygen production and consumption varied with light exposure and season. The H2S production and consumption varied with biofilm type. Higher concentrations of SO4 in Beggiatoa suggested that H2S production in Beggiatoa was quickly oxidized in the ecosystem. Spirogyra and cyanobacteria followed similar physicochemical trends; however, Spirogyra had more pronounced diurnal and seasonal variation. The differences between cyanobacteria and Spirogyra have implications on the ecosystem function of Devils Hole as well as other ecosystems with diverse biofilm communities. The heterogeneous physicochemistry of microbial biofilms and the differences in biofilm nutrient limitation suggests that a change in microbial biofilms or nutrient concentrations could alter ecosystem biogeochemical dynamics. Additionally, we assessed the nutrient limitation of two desert springs in comparison with a temperate stream. A nutrient diffusing substrata experiment was used to measure chlorophyll a, respiration, and biomass with phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulfide treatments. Autotrophic and heterotrophic biofilms responded differently to treatments and the temperate stream had higher chlorophyll a biofilm accrual but lower respiration relative to the desert springs. / Spatial and temporal variation of microbial biofilm biogeochemistry in a desert spring, Devils Hole, Nevada -- Autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrient limitation across biomes. / Department of Biology