Wednesday 21 August 2013

WoGE #396


It took quite some time before WoGE#395 was found. Things seems to be slow due to the summer vacation and this gave me the opportunity to find this one.

My initial thoughts where on SW-Asia, and especially on Iran. The folds on the picture are a pattern that I remembered to have seen in Iran. It turned out that the location was in Pakistan, but very close to the border of Afghanistan and Iran. Once found, the "something special" that Ole had been looking for was an easy find: it was the Copper Mine at the Saindak Complex.

Thanks Ole, for the interesting location.

My previous WoGE challenges turned out to be green locations. My new one is rather green as well. Although I think that the site is quite well known to many people, I do think that this does not make it easier to find. So I do not use Schott's rule, meaning equal chances for experienced and for new WoGE players.

As mostly with my searches, the centre of the picture is the most special of the area.

Rules of the game can be found on Felix Bossert's WoGE blog.

Good luck with the search.


7 comments:

  1. If no answer is found after four days, I will post a hint...

    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  2. As promissed, I now give a hint to WoGE 396:

    Like WoGE 395, this is about mining.

    Good luck again with the search,
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  3. 63° 55.5'N 139° 19.5'W
    Grand Forks, Yukon.
    Centered is possibly Discovery Claim, the first gold claim in Klondike.

    No wonder I thought it loked familiar, I had a placemark very close as a possible future WoGE!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Ole,

      As anyone can check you did find the right location. Can you say something about the geology?

      Well found!

      Delete
    2. Geology, yes. Part of the reason why it took me so long to find it despite having looked at it before, is that as we see the valleys are deep and V-shaped. That means no glaciation.
      Indeed this area has had 700 000 years of weathering, as determined by tephrachronostratigraphy. The valleys contain large amounts of sediments of all sizes from silt to boulders, and it is in this detritus the placer gold deposits are found.

      The gold mineralisation itself is of hydrothermal and/or metasomatic type, I believe hydrothermal in teh area in question here. The "source" of the gold here is believed to be the mountain called King Solomon's Dome, just outside the lower right corner of this picture.

      Delete
  4. Ole,
    Thank you for the explanation. Being a meteorologist myself, I have limited knowledge of some of the geological background of the area.

    The geological fact that I found most interesting is the placer gold deposits. As I hinted, this definitely is a mining area, but there are no mines in the traditional sense. What struck me when I visited the area is the presumable resemblance with the moon. Areas are literally turned upside down in order to find gold. This is due to the placer gold deposits.

    I will put some background on this on the My WoGEs page of this blog.
    Meanwhile I am happy to declare you the winner of this W0GE search. Congratulations.

    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  5. And WoGE #397 is up here: http://overburdenblog.blogspot.no/2013/08/woge-397.html

    Having a dozen or so locations ready to post is a good help in keeping the activity high. :)

    ReplyDelete