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Land Slides, Debris Flows And Mass Wasting


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Steve, I am curious if you have ever detected land slides, debris flows, translational slides,  areas of mass wasting? And if you have did you find any nuggets.

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If anyone else has ever detected what you knew to be a debris flow or land slide, I'd like to hear what your results were. This is what my next article in ICMJ prospecting & mining journal is on mass wasting. If you have questions feel free to ask.

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There is a good chance that some of the gold I detected at Crow Creek Mine in Alaska was at least partially derived from material that was originally part of a debris slide. However, there is not much more to say about that since the place is a such a huge mess geologically, being as it is in a location that was subject to multiple glacial advance and retreats.

From https://mrdata.usgs.gov/ardf/show-ardf.php?ardf_num=SR049

"Placer gold occurs in four types of gravels on Crow Creek: high bench gravels, recent stream deposits, glacial gravels, and avalanche debris. The bench and recent stream deposits are the highest in grade and have historically produced most of the gold. The glacial and avalanche debris deposits are of low grade but may locally contain a significant concentration of gold."

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The gold in Libby creek has long been thought to have come from the Snowshoe or Sylvanite mines. I still haven't located it on Google earth but I found the Snowshoe mine. I don't see how that can be possible as the Snowshoe drainage is 7 U shaped valleys to the side of the U shaped valleys Libby Creek is in. However the mountain just above the panning area and our club claims looks as if there might have been a very very old landslide vowing towards it. There is forest growing over it. I don't know for sure but it could be part of the sources of gold on Libby creek. The gold is sporadic and at many layers of depth. Like from a salt shaker. There was a glacier that moved up the drainage and then receded as well. There is a fault near the mountain in the vacenity of where the possible earth flowed. The nuggets from what I read do not go past the falls which is right there in same close proximity. There is a load mine at the top of the mountain on the back side called the Gloria mine. I will post a couple google earth pics.

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hi there I am new to this forum I have hunted gold where I live in Scotland for a few years with a metal detector .the type of ground in your pictures is not that much different to where I hunt the leadhills area . if the area where you hunt for nuggets was covered in ice in the last ice age gold can be transported vast distances where I hunt the old timers in the 16 th centuary got thousands of oz in the valley floors by washing the ground through sluice boxes . but they did not have the tec to hunt on the hill tops and the hard packed clay the ice left . the mountains before the ice age would be huge and the gold veins inside them would be pushed and rolled below the ice as they broke up .huge bits of quarts with gold inside would just be left on slopes and valley floors .then the quarts would erode away leaving the gold . in some places you would get a glacial lake or ice dam which left wave lines on the hillside due to wind action on the water . and with this action gold on the slopes worked its way down or got stuck in clay or bed rock . where a lot of people think there is good gold can sometimes have none . one patch I worked with my gpz 7000 and gpx 5000 I got five nuggets all about one to three grams I thought that was all that was there till I started to scrape two inch layers off then went over it with the gold monster and the place lit up one day I detected 30 bits only small . this gold was left in hard clay 200 feet up on the hill so when it is in the creek its on the hills as well 

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I think you are correct. There are many things at work with how gold gets to where it is. Some places it might be very simple and straight forward but other areas it is a multi faceted puzzle regarding where the gold turns up or not. Thanks for sharing. There was a glacier that traveled up the valley then receded.

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These photos show just what enormous energy a debris flow has. They often will be in stream systems and can be on the slopes leading to them. They can travel up to 186 mph.

Screenshot_2017-12-30-09-38-01.png

Screenshot_2017-12-30-09-37-38.png

Screenshot_2017-12-30-09-37-53.png

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