Figure 40 above. EagleEye enhanced Landsat plan of Europe showing all mines and major linears.
I have never seen a structural geology plan of Europe developed from Landsat. Here is the first?? Note the Aseda ring. Are the mines associated with it? See more detail in my Europe webinar on this link. https://www.ausimm.com/videos/community-event/south-west-wa-branchgeoscience-society—europes-geology-and-mineralisation/
The area of Europe is possibly 30% deep ocean and sea. The background geology for this plan is an EagleEye enhanced Landsat plan from Google Earth, so it includes submarine topography. Landsat (Google Earth) is a fantastic database for finding geological structure if looked at on a large scale.
The topography, different colours in the geography and vegetation give good structural detail on land and the very detailed topography of the ocean floor given on Google Earth from side-scanning radar gives an excellent undersea structural coverage over the whole European area.
At first glance the mines appear to be sitting in around the dark structurally complex areas as they are observed occurring all over the world. This makes sense as they are generally found associated with faults.
However, do all the mines follow the same structures or is there a pattern for each metal that we can use for determining their origin and for exploration targeting on a grand scale?
Indeed do all mines follow the dark structures?
Gold mines geological setting and exploration targeting.
Almost all the gold mines are closely associated with the dark strong tectonic areas as they are everywhere on Earth.
They are also associated with the intersections of linears and rings. Exploration targets (orange circles) are along major dark linears, and where intersecting rings and linears focus gold mineralising fluids.
Copper mines geological setting and exploration targeting.
Copper is also associated with the dark strong tectonic areas but is more associated with the edges rather than right in the centre like the gold mines. There are many copper mines following the African collision front (blue line). Copper mines appear to be associated with the margins of the ring structures and the intersection of ring structures with linears.
This is the first time this data has been presented showing the difference of where different minerals set tectonically. This may be because I have not seen a tectonic plan covering Europe in this detail.
Silver lead zinc mines geological setting and exploration targeting.
Contrary to gold and copper, silver lead zinc mines lie almost exclusively on the lighter coloured areas but are still adjacent to the dark strong tectonic areas.
This was a big surprise and needs a lot more research!
There must be a huge difference between the deposition of silver lead zinc mineralisation and gold and copper deposits.
So, look in the light areas away from the strongest tectonic areas for silver lead zinc exploration targeting!
Lithium mines geological setting and exploration targeting.
Lithium mines follow the dark, strong tectonic areas and occupy the fracture systems associated with the rings.
They also correlate very well with the Aseda ring in southern Sweden and the Finland ring. Exploration targeting is the intersection of small and ring structures and through-going strong linears. There are many lithium mines on the African collision front and so this is a targeting criterion.
Tin, Sb, W, Pb and Bi mines, geological setting and exploration targeting.
Tin deposits are structurally more constrained than other deposits.
Tin rich fluids lie in the dark areas and are most likely using the fracture systems associated with the rings especially the median and outer rings of the Aseda ring structure. They are not associated with the collision.
The tin deposits correlate very strongly with the Aseda median ring northern boundary and Aseda ring outer southern boundary. The Spanish tin deposits correlate with a ring north edge and a NNW linear. Targets are ring-linear intersections in the dark tectonics.
REE mines, geological setting and exploration targeting.
Rare earths lie in the light areas similarly to silver lead zinc and are deposited next to fracture systems associated with the linears. Some mines are associated with the African collision front.
There is a strong association with the Aseda ring centre and the North Finland ring structure. The Mount Weld REE deposit in Western Australia is also right at the centre of a large ring structure.
Nickel mines, geological setting and exploration targeting.
The only nickel mines I could find were in in northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Are these the only nickel mines in Europe?
They are very closely associated with the northern Finland ring. Does this suggest a huge 1000 km diameter, deep impact like the impact the Sudbury Ni deposits are associated with in Canada?
The REE deposits also correlated strongly with the northern ring and oldest rocks. Why?
Iron and manganese mines, geological setting and exploration targeting.
Iron deposits correlate with EW, NNE and WNW Linears and within the Aseda inner ring NW boundary.
They lie on light non tectonic domains adjacent to dark shear zones similar to lead zinc and REE mines.
They are scattered more evenly but there is a concentration in the frontal area of the collision suggesting those deposits might be associated with the collision. The Africa Europe collision front extends to the outer core so the iron rich fluids may have come from the core.
Uranium mines, geological setting and exploration targeting.
The only two Uranium deposits I could locate are associated with the collision front and lie on the edge of the Black Sea Platform.
They correlate with NNE, EW, ENE and WNW linears.
Summary
The structural geology, tectonic map from EagleEye enhanced Landsat may be a first?
The tectonic setting of some of the metals is different, with most lying in the black strongly tectonic zones, but lead/zinc/silver, REE and Iron mines occur in the light non tectonic zones. Why?
There is more work to do on this metallogenic tectonic difference but it is the first time I have seen this recorded on such a large scale. It is a start and may prove important for defining global mineralising systems and for exploration targeting!
Comments?