STRUCTURE, STRATIGRAPHY, AND SOURCE OF SEDIMENT-HOSTED LITHIUM DEPOSITS AT RHYOLITE RIDGE, SILVER PEAK RANGE, WESTERN NEVADA

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Ogilvie, Izabella Anastassja

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2023

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Thesis

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cave spring formation , geologic mapping , lithium , rhyolite ridge , silver peak range , structure

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The lithium-bearing Cave Spring Formation is contained within a single basin in the study area and was deposited in an alluvial-lacustrine environment on a substrate of the 6.0 Ma Rhyolite Ridge Formation tuff. 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping reveals a system of basin-bounding conjugate normal faults that controlled deposition of the Cave Spring Fm in a hydrologically closed basin that has undergone WNW-directed extension since late Miocene time. Geochemical data from pre-basin volcanic rocks reveal exceptionally high lithium concentrations up to 211 ppm. Field relations, subsurface data, and U-Pb geochronology reveal the Rhyolite Ridge tuff to be ~300-500 m thick along an 80 km-long NW-SE transect from the northern White Mountains to the western Montezuma Range. These findings support the Rhyolite Ridge tuff as the primary source of lithium in the area, and that the Cave Spring Fm was deposited in a syntectonic basin rather than the intra-caldera setting of other large sediment-hosted lithium deposits. This research was supported by a grant from the United States Geological Survey Earth MRI Program and by a Graduate Student Research Grant from the Geological Society of America.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States

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