Description of the Joplin District.1
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DESCRIPTION OF THE JOPLIN DISTRICT.1 By W. S. Tangier Smith and C. E. Siebenthal. 2 INTRODUCTION. to the northwest, then to the south not far from the the harder formations, with scattered outliers rising to southeast and twice as long from northeast to margin of the Ozark uplift, and finally eastward above the general level. Over much of the region, southwest. They extend from Cedar Gap, Mo., The Joplin district lies between 94° 15' and 94° along the northern slopes of the Boston Mountains. especially on the northern and western slopes, well up on the crest of the the dome, to Fort 45' west longitude and 37° and 37° 15' north lati The ore deposits of the several districts of the these broad uplands are cut by moderately shallow, Gibson, Okla., at the edge of the Prairie Plains. tude, thus including two 15-minute quadrangles. Mississippi Valley are distinguished from one open valleys, whose depth does not exceed a few Within this great area are all the important zinc The average length from east to west is about 27.6 another by certain differences both in the form hundred feet. Toward the south and east the dis camps of the southwestern Missouri district The miles and the width from north to south is 17.2 and structure of the ore bodies and in the mode of section is greater, the forms are more rugged, and rocks consist mainly of limestones, with subordinate miles. The total area is about 476 square miles. occurrence and character of the ore. The Missouri- the plateau character is somewhat less evident, amounts of shale. The limestones are nonmagne- The Joplin district was surveyed during the Kansas district is characterized by the absence of especially near the east end of the Boston Moun sian, in contrast with the older and underlying field season of 1901 and parts of the field seasons well-defined fissures and by the common occurrence tains. The drainage of the uplift is radial, there rocks outcropping to the east. The Boone, the of 1902 and 1903. Some time has unavoidably of the ores in large bodies of slight horizontal being many important streams which flow outward principal formation of the area, contains large elapsed between the field investigation and the extent known as " runs," or in comparatively thin to the marginal rivers. Of these Spring River is amounts of chert, in part in small nodules in the preparation of the folio, and in the meantime many tabular bodies of great horizontal extent, known as the largest within the Joplin district. limestone and in part segregated in distinct beds. minor changes have, of course, taken place in the "blanket veins" or "sheet ground." The ores While it is probable that the drainage of the The Pennsylvanian ("Coal Measures") series of district. These, however, are of such a nature that consist of lead and zinc sulphides, occurring in the Ozark region is in part consequent, the streams of rocks consists mainly of shales and sandstones, the omission of any mention of them will not, it is runs mainly as a cement to Mississippian chert following the normal surface and marginal slopes with coal beds and thin limestones. The outcrop believed, materially affect the value of the text. breccias and in the sheet ground mainly as hori of the dome, it seems to be in part also subsequent, of these rocks marks the outward limit of produc Unless otherwise noted, the determinations of zontal layers between only slightly disturbed beds many of the stream courses having been deter tive territory and they have therefore been but little fossils and the correlation of formations are given of Mississippian chert. mined rather by the underlying rock structure and studied in this connection. on the authority of Dr. George H. Girty. The Joplin subdistrict as considered herein com texture. Except along the short southern slope of Both Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks Literature. The number of published papers prises a part of the Missouri-Kansas district lying the uplift, all the important streams of the region outcrop within the Joplin district and are described dealing with the Ozark region, especially with the near its western margin, partly in Kansas and have developed meanders. under the heading "Stratigraphy" (p. 2). The older ore deposits of the Joplin district, is considerable. partly in Missouri. In local usage the name is Geology of the Ozark uplift. The Ozark uplift rocks are found only in deep drill holes. Bibliographies, including the earlier works relating somewhat loosely applied, generally to about the is structurally, as well as topographically, a broad, to the region, are given in the following papers, area here indicated, but at times to a much more low dome of elliptical outline. The structural crest TOPOGRAPHY. that of Keyes bringing the record down to 1896: extensive region, in some cases even including the lies north of the Boston Mountains, which form the GENERAL STATEMENT. SAMPSON, F. A., Bibliography of the geology of Missouri: whole of the southwestern Missouri and northern topographic culmination. This crest follows a Bull. Missouri Greol. Survey No. 2, 1890. Arkansas districts and portions of the central Mis curved line from the St. Francis Mountains to The Joplin district lies on the northwestern slope WINSLOW, A., Lead and zinc deposits: Missouri Greol. Survey, of the Ozark uplift, not far from its margin, and vol. 7, 1894, pp. 743-753. souri district. Cedar Gap. It is not marked by any conspicuous KB YES, C. R., Bibliography of Missouri geology: Missouri Topography of the Ozark uplift. The Joplin topographic feature, but falls within the great cen is included in the more plateaulike, less dissected Greol. Survey, vol. 10, 1896, pp. 221-523. district is an integral part of the Ozark region, tral upland. From the crest the rocks slope gently portion of the region. Throughout the district the The most important publications bearing on the which has been described in an earlier report outward, with dips slightly greater than the top physical features are closely related to the geology. Joplin district are the following: (Twenty-second Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, ographic slopes. Near the edge of the uplift the The rocks are wholly sedimentary and those out cropping at the surface belong (with few and rela SCHMIDT, A., and LEONHARD, A., Lead and zinc regions of pt. 2,1901, pp. 69-75), so that only an outline of its dip commonly increases, and along the southern southwestern Missouri: Missouri Geol. Survey, vol. 1, physical features will be presented here, the reader border in particular there is a pronounced mono- tively unimportant exceptions) to two formations 1874, pp. 381-502. being referred to that report for details. clinal structure. the Boone and the Cherokee. The Boone, com WINSLOW, A., Lead and zinc deposits: Missouri Geol. Survey, vols. 6, 7, 1894. Topographically, the Ozark uplift is a low asym The rocks of the region are in the main of sedi posed of limestone and interbedded chert, is the JKNNEY, W. P., Lead and zinc deposits of the Mississippi Val metric dome with rudely elliptical outline lying in mentary origin. In the St. Francis Mountains more resistant of the two and covers the larger part ley: Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 22, 1894, pp. 171- 225, 642-646. southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. It is certain pre-Cambrian peaks of granite and por of the district. The Cherokee, stratigraphically BAIX, H. F., VAX HISE, C. R, and ADAMS. Gr. I., Preliminary approximately bounded on the north and northeast phyry project from beneath the later beds, while higher than the Boone, consists of shale and sand report on the lead and zinc deposits of the Ozark region: by Missouri and Mississippi rivers, on the west by in Camden County there is a dike of graphic stone and is confined largely to the western and Twenty second Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 1901, pp. 23-228. Spring and Neosho rivers, on the south by Arkan granite thought to be of post-Carboniferous age northwestern portions, though small patches are SMITH, W. S. TANGIER, Lead and zinc deposits of the Joplin sas River, and on the southeast by Black River (Missouri Geol. Survey, vol. 7, 1894, pp. 432-434; abundant all over the district and there are a few district, Missouri-Kansas: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. larger isolated areas. These scattered outcrops are 213, 1903, pp. 197-204. and some of its tributaries. To the north and Water-Sup, and Irr. Paper No. 110, U. S. Geol. BUCKLEY, E. R., and BUEHLER, H. A., Geology of the Granby west it merges into the Prairie Plains; to the east Survey, 1905, pp. 113-125). The Cambrian and outliers of the main area on the west, having been area: Missouri Bureau Geology and Mines, 2d ser., vol. 4, and southeast it passes into the low-lying Gulf Cambro-Ordovician dolomites, limestones, and sand left as remnants in the erosion of this formation, 1906. HAWJORTH, ERASMUS, CRANE, W. R., ROGERS, A. F., AND Plains; on the south it is separated from the stones which underlie the central portion of the. which formerly covered the entire district. Both OTHERS, Special report on lead and zinc: Univ. Geol. Ouachita Mountains by the Arkansas River valley. Ozarks are distributed in concentric bands around these formations have been important factors in the Survey Kansas, vol. 7, 1904. The uplift as a whole is a table-land bounded by the St. Francis Mountains; these mountains, how- development of the topography of the district. General relationships. The lead and zinc deposits UPLAND PLAINS.