Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/540

 great agent in the formation of ore deposits, geologists are not agreed as to the source of this water, the conditions under which it is most effective, nor the relative importance of its work in ascending and descending movements.

Regarding its source, we have those who believe with John Woodward, Franz Posepny and C.R. Van Hise that the water in the uppermost layers or outer zone of the earth, including the waters on the surface and in the atmosphere, accomplish the formation of ore by means of a perpetual circulation. From the air it falls on the earth as rain; through crevices and fractures it enters the rocks by reason of its head or the weight of more water on top of it, and finds its way deeper and deeper to the very lowest point where the density of the rocks will permit it to penetrate. Down to this depth, which is theoretically not more than five or six miles, the temperature has been constantly increasing, and the water by reason of this higher temperature has been gaining strength as a solvent and picking up alkalies or acids that enable it to hold even the most difficultly soluble substances in solution. Finding no escape downward, and urged on by cooler and heavier waters above, these saturated solutions begin to move laterally and upward, expanding and becoming of lower specific gravity because of the forced deposition of dissolved material as they become supersaturated. Following the directions of least resistance, these metal carriers reach the surface as hot springs or geysers through fractures caused by earth movements. Gradually the walls of these fractures become coated with vein minerals and ores, until the waters stop flowing or the fracture is healed and a vein is formed.

Then there are those like Vogt, Spurr, Weed and Kemp, who maintain that the chief source of underground waters is the unconsolidated magma of molten lava within the earth. These authorities point to the immense volumes of steam emitted from volcanoes; they call attention to the conclusions of European scientists who have decided that many of the hot springs can not be derived from meteoric waters heated and returned to the surface; they remind us that there is so much watery vapor derived from lavas that possibly the oceans themselves were formed from volcanic emissions. They point out the ease with which such waters, thus derived and so heated, could gather metallic substances at great depths and bring them to the places where they are now found. They mention the fact that there is a very general association between the more important mining regions and eruptive rocks; and they raise several serious objections to the premises of the disciples of the meteoric water school.

On this particular point we shall not dwell further; it is quite probable that both theories contain elements of truth; and that ore deposits have been formed by both magmatic and meteoric reascending