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Mineral Resource Database for Deposits Related to the Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent Rift System, United States and Canada

Open-File Report 2020-1069
By: , , , and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20201069

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Abstract

The Midcontinent Rift System (MRS) of North America is one of the world’s largest continental rifts and has an age of 1.1 Ga (giga-annum). The MRS hosts a diverse suite of magmatic and hydrothermal mineral deposits in the Lake Superior region where rift rocks are exposed at or near the surface. As part of the construction of a database summarizing information on mineral deposits in the MRS, data from regional mineral deposits were downloaded from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS), the USGS Mineral Deposit Database (USMIN), and the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines Mineral Deposit Inventory (MDI). Deposits related to MRS rocks or mineralizing events were identified and compiled into a database to develop a space/time classification for MRS-related mineral deposits. Information from MRDS, USMIN, and MDI records and from the extensive literature describing MRS mineral deposits was used to classify each entry by deposit type, host rock age and type, and estimated mineralization age. Most deposits were readily classified because of unique mineralogy, location, or well-constrained host rock. These deposits were then put into a tectonic evolutionary framework for the MRS, which showed that many deposits formed within discrete spatial and temporal stages of rift evolution.

Suggested Citation

Woodruff, L.G., Schulz, K.J., Dicken, C.L., and Nicholson, S.W., 2020, Mineral resource database for deposits related to the Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent Rift System, United States and Canada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2020–1069, 20 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20201069.

ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)

Study Area

Table of Contents

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • MRS Mineral Deposit Database
  • Structure of the MRS Mineral Resource Database
  • MRS Tectonic Stages and Related Mineral Deposit Types
  • Summary
  • References Cited
  • Appendix 1
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Mineral resource database for deposits related to the Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent Rift System, United States and Canada
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 2020-1069
DOI 10.3133/ofr20201069
Year Published 2020
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Mineral Resources Program
Description Report: vi, 20 p.; 2 Tables
Country United States, Canada
Other Geospatial Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent Rift System
Online Only (Y/N) Y
Additional Online Files (Y/N) Y
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details