D C 0 S "*=== > C/3

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Cover. Leached ilmenite grain approximately 60 microns in diameter surrounded by 

quartz overgrowth in Lower Pennsylvanian sandstone in Indiana. Quartz overgrowths 

occlude much of the pore space in these rocks. Sample collected by Paula Hansley, U.S. 

Geological Survey.
Problems with Applying 

Topographically Driven Flow to 

Genesis of the Upper Mississippi Valley 

Zinc-Lead District and to 

Fluid Flow in the Illinois Basin

By Charles S. Spirakis

EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS ILLINOIS BASIN 

Jennie L. Ridgley, Project Coordinator

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 2094-C

A multidisciplinary approach to research studies of 

sedimentary rocks and their constituents and the 

evolution of sedimentary basins, both ancient and modern

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1995
US. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BRUCE BABBITT, Secretary

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

Gordon P. Eaton, Director

For sale by U.S. Geological Survey, Information Services

Box 25286, Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and 

does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Spirakis, Charles S.

Problems with applying topographically driven flow to genesis of the Upper Mississippi Valley zinc-lead district and to fluid flow in the Illinois Basin / by Charles S. Spirakis.

p. cm. (Evolution of sedimentary basins Illinois Basin; C) 

(U.S. Geological Survey bulletin; 2094)

Includes bibliographical references.

Supt. of Docs, no.: 119.3:2094-C

1. Metasomatism (Mineralogy) Illinois Basin. 2. Terrestrial head flow Illinois 

Basin. 3. Zinc ores Illinois Basin. 4. Lead ores Illinois Basin. I. Title. 

II. Series. III. Series: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin ; 2094. 

QE75.B9 no. 2094-C 

QE364.2.M4) 

557.3 s dc20)

[549] 95-9919

CIP
CONTENTS

Abstract........................................................................................................................... Cl

Introduction.................................................................................................................... 1

Critique of the Previously Proposed Relation of Topographically Driven Row to the

Genesis of the Upper Mississippi Valley District...................................................... 1

Heat......................................................................................................................... 1

Availability of Salt, Sulfur, and Metals Along a Confined How Path................... 2

Timing of Salinity and Maximum Temperature..................................................... 3

Oil Migration.......................................................................................................... 3

Evidence for a Breach in the Topographically Driven Flow.................................. 3

Impetus for Flow from the Pascola Arch................................................................ 5

Westward and Northwestward Flow from the Appalachians................................. 5

Westward Flow from the Findley Arch.................................................................. 6

Evidence for a Deep-Seated Heat Source....................................................................... 6

Thermal Convection from a Deep Heat Source.............................................................. 8

Topographically Driven Flow Versus Local Deep-Sourced Heat.................................. 9

Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 10

References Cited............................................................................................................. 10

FIGURES

1, 2. Maps showing:

1. Distribution of oil and thermal maturity of New Albany source rock, Illinois and surrounding area................ C4

2. Locations of drillholes UPH-1 and UPH-3 and zone of positive magnetic anomalies,

north-central United States................................................................................................................................. 7

3. Schematic cross section showing faulting of uranium- and thorium-enriched basement rock beneath 

Upper Mississippi Valley district to release pent-up radiogenic heat, drive thermal convection of 

basinal brines, leach radiogenic lead from basement rock, and deposit radiogenic lead hi ores............................... 8

ill

Problems with Applying Topographically Driven Flow to 

Genesis of the Upper Mississippi Valley Zinc-Lead District and

to Fluid Flow in the Illinois Basin

By Charles S. Spirakis

ABSTRACT

Topographically driven ground-water flow and other 

processes that involve dewatering of basins fail to account for 

the temperatures indicated by fluid inclusion and sulfur isotope studies in the Upper Mississippi Valley zinc-lead district 

on the northern edge of the Illinois Basin. If the required temperatures cannot be attained by heat supplied from the basin, 

the only other source of heat is from below. Gravity and magnetic data, traces of fluorite in basement rocks, and the presence of strike-slip faults in the district suggest that an ancient 

fault system is present under the district. Reactivation of 

these faults by Permian continental collision may have 

opened routes for the deep circulation of water, produced 

thermal convection systems involving basinal brines, and 

established conditions for redistribution of elements into 

Mississippi Valley-type ore deposits. Continental collision is 

likely to have reactivated faults simultaneously throughout 

the midcontinent and may account for the similar age of ores 

in several districts. Thermal anomalies associated with these 

convecting systems have implications for many aspects of 

diagenesis in the continental interior.

INTRODUCTION

One of the problems in the genesis of Mississippi 

Valley-type lead-zinc deposits is a source of heat. For the 

Illinois-Kentucky district, an intrusion at Hicks dome has 

long been accepted as a heat source; zoning of ore-related 

elements and isotopes (Hall and Heyl, 1968) and of fluid 

inclusion temperatures (Taylor and others, 1992) support 

this contention. The location of the Hansonburg district 

along the Rio Grande graben in New Mexico suggests that 

fluids heated at depth and conducted along faults of the graben may have provided heat for this district. In many districts, however, there is no obvious local heat source, and the 

long-distance transport of basinal brines heated in the deep 

parts of sedimentary basins has been suggested as a possible 

heat source. A compaction-driven, episodic dewatering of 

shale-rich basins has been proposed as a mechanism to

deliver heat to ore districts (Cathles and Smith, 1983); however, a mathematical evaluation of the model (Bethke, 1986) 

shows that the model is very unlikely to apply to slowly subsiding, shale-poor basins such as the Illinois Basin. Bethke 

(1986) and Garven and others (1993) discussed the limitations of other processes suggested to transport heat from 

basins and, as alternatives, proposed models in which topographically driven flow transported heat to the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district.

CRITIQUE OF THE PREVIOUSLY

PROPOSED RELATION OF

TOPOGRAPHICALLY DRIVEN FLOW

TO THE GENESIS OF THE UPPER

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY DISTRICT

According to Bethke (1986), uplift of the Pascola arch 

to the south of the Illinois Basin created a topographically 

driven flow system, operating from the Permian into the Cretaceous, that flushed meteoric water from the Pascola arch 

through the deep and hot parts of the basin and on to the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district on the northern side of the basin. 

Although timing of the post-Pennsyl vanian and pre-Late Cretaceous uplift (Marcher and Stearns, 1962), and of the Permian mineralizing event (270 Ma) (Brannon and others, 1992) 

are compatible, there are several problems with the proposal.

HEAT

It is not clear if topographically driven flow from the 

Pascola arch could provide sufficient heat (either intensity 

[temperature] or quantity [as measured in calories]) to 

accommodate mineralization. The first indication of how hot 

the mineralization event was in the Upper Mississippi Valley 

district was provided by a study of the fractionation of sulfur 

isotopes between co-precipitated galena and sphalerite 

(Pinckney and Rafter, 1972), which suggests that early 

stages of sulfide mineralization in the Booty and Elmo mines

ci
C2 EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS ILLINOIS BASIN

formed at 155°C-260°C (average of 12 sample pairs, 

193°C). McLimans (1977) included sulfur isotope geothermometry in his study of the district and found that sulfides 

precipitated at temperatures as high as 227°C. Although 

samples in both of these studies were carefully selected, 

traces of impurities and disagreement among researchers on 

fractionation factors between sulfur minerals could affect the 

results, and the temperatures must be considered with caution. Geothermometry based on fluid inclusion studies 

(McLimans, 1977, and unpublished studies by T. Casadevall 

and N. Susak cited therein) is in good agreement with the 

sulfur isotope geothermometry and indicates that temperatures during mineralization in the Hayden mine of the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district were as high as 220°C. (Paleoreconstructions cited in McLimans indicate that the depth of 

burial at the time of mineralization was 200-762 m; thus, the 

maximum pressure correction to these temperatures is 

12°C.) Data in the study indicating temperatures as high as 

160°C are abundant, and higher temperature data constitute 

only a few percent of the measurements, but, as McLimans 

pointed out, much of the early- and middle-stage sphalerite 

was too dark in color for fluid inclusion studies, and additional high-temperature results may have been hidden by the 

dark color. The abundance of iron-rich (mannatitic) sphalerite (Heyl, 1983) and the alteration of clays in the ore zones 

(Heyl and others, 1964) also suggest temperatures near 

200°C. The maximum temperature obtainable by topographically driven flow from the Pascola arch is, however, only 

120°C (Bethke, 1986), and an analysis by Deming and Nunn 

(1991) suggests that the maximum temperature is even less. 

Thus, the model lacks the required intensity of heat, and the 

quantity of heat may also be lacking.

An immense amount of heat is needed to heat the 

influxing meteoric water and the rocks along the hypothesized 700-km-long flow path and to accommodate the loss 

of heat to the surface during transport, and evidence of such 

a hot, migrating solution is lacking. Vitrinite reflectance of 

the Upper Devonian and Lower Mississippian New Albany 

Shale (Cluff and Byrnes, 1990) and thermal maturity of 

Middle Pennsylvania Herrin Coal Member of the Carbondale Formation (Damberger, 1971) do not indicate prolonged exposure to 220°C solutions in the basin; however, it 

is possible that a short-lived pulse of hot fluid passed without affecting the vitrinite reflectance or maturity of coals, 

and there is evidence that the mineralizing event in the 

Upper Mississippi Valley district was short. From studies of 

the thermal maturity of organic matter in the district, Hatch 

and others (1986) concluded that the mineralizing event was 

of short duration; Sangster (1989) reached the same conclusion on the basis of conodont coloration. Lavery and Barnes 

(1971) used the dispersion of zinc into wallrocks to estimate 

that mineralization lasted about 250,000 years; Gize and 

Barnes (1987) considered the thermal maturity of organic 

matter in the ores to be consistent with an event of 250,000 

years. The duration of topographically driven flow is

dependent, however, on the uplift and erosion of mountain 

ranges and hence is not compatible with short-term events. 

The problems of the required amount of heat and of the lack 

of evidence for its transit may be minimized by confining 

flow to a narrow, highly permeable path. In applying the 

topographically driven flow model to the migration of oil in 

the Illinois Basin (Bethke and others, 1991) and in response 

to a question on how to conserve heat as the mineralizing 

fluid migrated to the Upper Mississippi Valley district (Paduca Conterminous U.S. Mineral Assessment Program/Illinois Basin consortium meeting, St. Louis, 1992), Bethke 

suggested that dolomitized and karstified rocks just below 

the sub-Kaskaskia unconformity provided the most likely 

highly permeable flow path and that most flow was confined to such highly permeable paths. Although this flow 

path may minimize the problem of the amount of heat, it is 

very unlikely to provide a source of elements involved in 

formation of the ore deposits.

AVAILABILITY OF SALT, SULFUR, AND 

METALS ALONG A CONFINED FLOW PATH

Mineralizing solutions during genesis of the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district were highly saline (about 20 percent NaCl) and their volumes huge. For the Viburnum trend 

of southeast Missouri, Sverjensky (1981) estimated that 

2,000-32,000 km3 of mineralizing fluid was involved in ore 

genesis. This estimate is based on the solubility of metals in 

sulfide solutions. An independent minimum estimate of the 

volume of fluid involved in the genesis of these deposits can 

be obtained by considering the volume of pore fluid that was 

flushed from the Upper Mississippi Valley district. The area 

of the Upper Mississippi Valley district is about 4,000 mi2 

(Heyl and others, 1959), or about 10,000 km2. If at the time 

of mineralization the total sedimentary column was 1 km 

thick and had a porosity of 10 percent, then simply flushing 

the initial pore water from the district would require 1,000 

km3 of water. Therefore, the estimate of 2,000 km3 is not 

unreasonable. If a similar volume of water was involved in 

the genesis of the Upper Mississippi Valley district (which 

contained an amount of ore similar to that in the Viburnum 

trend), then at least 200 km3 of salt (20 percent of 2,000 km3 

of water, divided by 2 because the density of salt is twice that 

of water) had to be leached along the path of the topographically driven flow. Obtaining that much salt from the Illinois 

Basin is a problem: the basin is not known to contain salt 

deposits. Obtaining that much salt from the rocks along the 

sub-Kaskaskia unconformity is particularly difficult because 

even if some salt was present in these rocks, it would have 

been leached as the unconformity formed and therefore 

would not be available to the mineralizing solution. The 

unconformity is also an unlikely source of sulfur. As with 

salt, any evaporitic sulfur would have been leached during 

the Devonian as the unconformity formed; any pyritic sulfur
GENESIS OF UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ZINC-LEAD DISTRICT C3

would have been oxidized and leached together with the 

evaporitic sulfur. Metals are also likely to have been leached 

as the unconformity formed. Thus, in order to obtain the elements needed for the mineralizing solution, the solution 

must communicate with the rocks outside of the channelized 

path along the unconformity; however, the more communication with other rocks, the less effective channelization is at 

conserving heat. Furthermore, the proposed channelized 

flow path is within a sequence of rocks laying between the 

two most effective aquitars in the basin, the New Albany 

Shale above and the Maquoketa Shale below. No evaporites 

are known within this sequence, and, according to the 

description in Bethke and others (1991), rocks within this 

sequence have been mostly karstified and weathered. Hence, 

they have been leached of elements needed for the ores.

TIMING OF SALINITY AND 

MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE

Deming and Nunn (1991) pointed out that, as the topography rose on the edge of a basin, fluids would begin to flow 

slowly and then more rapidly over time as relief increased. 

They also pointed out that initial flow rates were insufficient 

to efficiently transport heat to the basin's margins but did 

transport salt Their calculations indicate that, by the time 

flow rates were optimal to transport heat, the salt supply of a 

typical basin was likely to have been exhausted. The Illinois 

Basin, which lacks bedded salt, is particularly likely to have 

been flushed of salt before high flow velocities were 

reached. Deming and Nunn mentioned the possibility that 

focused flow could have alleviated the problem, but they 

also noted that much of the evidence cited for topographically driven flow indicates that if such a flow did occur it was 

widespread rather than focused.

OIL MIGRATION

Part of the evidence presented by Bethke and others 

(1991) for topographically driven flow and oil migration 

along the sub-Kaskaskia unconformity is the occurrence of 

oil well beyond the most favorable and mature areas of New 

Albany Shale source rock. If the distribution of oil is compared to the distribution of marginally mature oil source rock 

in the New Albany Shale, the two are, however, almost coincident (fig. 1). The marginally mature source rock is a possible source of the oil. The extent of the marginally mature 

New Albany Shale source rock shown in figure 1 is based on 

vitrinite reflectance values of 0.5; however, a comparison of 

reflectance values of the New Albany Shale and the Herrin 

Coal Member of the Carbondale Formation suggests that the 

reflectance value of the New Albany Shale has been 

underestimated. The New Albany Shale and the Herrin Coal 

Member have similar vitrinite reflectance values even

though the New Albany Shale has been more deeply buried 

than the Herrin Coal Member. This suggests that values of 

the New Albany Shale have been suppressed and that values 

corrected for the suppression would be about 0.6 or 0.7 (Vito 

Nuccio, U.S. Geological Survey, oral commun., 1993). 

These corrected values indicate that essentially all of the 

New Albany Shale is a mature potential oil source rock. If 

basinwide fluid migration had occurred, a close association 

between oil pools and potential oil source rock would not be 

anticipated. Thus, the relation between oil and source rock 

may be better evidence against long-distant migration of oil 

in the basin by topographically driven flow or any other 

mechanism than evidence for it.

EVIDENCE FOR A BREACH IN THE 

TOPOGRAPHICALLY DRIVEN FLOW

A striking character of the distribution of oil in the Illinois Basin is the paucity of oil between the Cottage 

Grove-Rough Creek-Shawneetown fault zone and the Pascola arch in contrast to the abundance of oil north of the 

fault zone (fig. 1). This difference could be due to water 

from a topographically driven flow system from the Pascola 

arch flushing oil south of the fault or causing a pre-migration occlusion of porosity south of the fault (Mitch Henry, 

U.S. Geological Survey, oral commun., 1993). Alternatively, because this is one of the most faulted parts of the 

world (Alien Heyl, U.S. Geological Survey, retired, oral 

commun., 1990), buoyancy may have caused oil to escape 

along any of the numerous faults. All of these interpretations 

indicate that there was a major difference in hydrology on 

opposite sides of the Cottage Grove-Rough Creek-Shawneetown fault zone and that flow from the Pascola arch, if it 

did occur, did not continue across the fault zone. Instead, 

water (and perhaps oil) more likely escaped to the surface. 

Although it is possible that faults conducted water across the 

faults in the southern part of the basin, it is also possible that 

any of the faults that were conducting fluids provided an 

opportunity for water to escape to the surface. Permian seas 

are believed to have covered the southern part of the Illinois 

Basin, whereas the Upper Mississippi Valley region was 

above sea level. Consequently, faults or other permeable 

paths to the Permian sea floor would have provided lower 

pressure escape routes than were available in the Upper 

Mississippi Valley region. Mississippi Valley-type mineralized rock vertically along faults around Hicks dome (the 

Illinois-Kentucky district) provides evidence for upward 

movement of solutions along the faults and suggests that 

this area was a major leak in the proposed topographically 

driven flow system. Ratios of bromine to chlorine in the 

basinal brines indicate that the basin was never flushed of its 

original seawater (Walter and others, 1990) and thus support 

the interpretation that water from the Pascola arch escaped 

to the surface rather than being flushed across the length of
C4 EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS ILLINOIS BASIN

50 100 KILOMETERS

_J

87°

85°

_, j

EXPLANATION

Thermally mature

source rocks 

Thermally marginally

mature source rocks

Oil

Cottage Grove-Rough 

Creek-Shawneetown 

fault zone

Figure 1. Distribution of oil (Buschbach and Kolata, 1990) compared to thermal maturity of New Albany source rock (Cluff and Byrnes, 

1990), Illinois and surrounding area. Locations of Upper Mississippi Valley zinc-lead district, Pascola arch, and Cottage Grove-Rough 

Creek-Shawneetown fault zone are also shown.
GENESIS OF UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ZINC-LEAD DISTRICT C5

the Illinois Basin. It should be noted that bromine-chlorine 

data are lacking for Cambrian strata and therefore do not 

rule out the possibility of flow through the Mount Simon 

Sandstone. Such a route requires, however, the heating of a 

larger volume of rock than does flow along an unconformity 

and thus accentuates the problem of the quantity of heat. 

Also, limited bromine-chlorine data for Ordovician strata 

(Walter and others, 1990) suggest that the Ordovician rocks 

were not flushed, and there is no impermeable barrier 

between the Cambrian and Ordovician units. Consequently, 

rocks of both ages probably had similar hydrologic histories.

IMPETUS FOR FLOW FROM THE 

PASCOLA ARCH

In estimating the driving force for migration of oil, 

Bethke and others (1991) assumed that the Pascola arch was 

uplifted 300,700, or 1,000 m above the northern part of the 

Illinois Basin. Based on the wedge-shaped thickness of the 

sediments younger than the Tuscaloosa Formation (which is 

the erosional debris from the Pascola uplift), combined with 

a factor for compaction of the sediments and an estimate of 

the slope of the sea floor as the Tuscaloosa Formation was 

deposited, Marcher and Stearns (1962) estimated that the 

maximum elevation of the arch was 300 m above sea level hi 

the Late Cretaceous. From paleostream gradients (based on 

pebble sizes in the Tuscaloosa Formation), the arch could 

have been 300-600 m above sea level. These estimates are 

based on the sedimentology of the Late Cretaceous Tuscaloosa Formation, which is about 200 million years younger 

than the mineralization. The elevation of the arch hi the Permian is not known, and, in the Permian, pre-Permian sediments may have extended farther onto the emergent 

Wisconsin arch than they do today. Therefore, 300 m of 

hydrologic head across the basin may be an overestimate. 

Even with 300 m of head, the calculations of Bethke and others (1991) show that buoyancy of oil is a stronger driving 

force than is topographically driven flow. Thus, topographically driven flow may not be necessary to account for the 

migration of oil from source rock to overlaying reservoir 

rocks. It is also not clear that the small area of the Pascola 

arch would capture a sufficient volume of water to flush the 

Illinois Basin (Dennis Kolata, Illinois State Geological 

Survey, oral commun., 1993).

WESTWARD AND NORTHWESTWARD FLOW 

FROM THE APPALACHIANS

Topographically driven flow from the northern Appalachians across the Cincinnati-Findlay arch and westward to 

the Upper Mississippi Valley district has also been proposed 

(Garven and Sverjensky, 1989), but no evidence has been 

presented to show that such a flow could change a meteoric

water into a brine that was sufficiently hot, or saline, or metalliferous to form the Upper Mississippi Valley district. 

More recently, Garven and others (1993) no longer advocated flow from the northern Appalachians to the district, 

and they estimated that the maximum temperature of a topographically driven fluid flowing westward from the northern 

Appalachians was 184°C on the Cincinnati arch. That temperature is cooler than temperatures hi the Upper Mississippi 

Valley district and still hundreds of kilometers from the district Furthermore, it is based on the assumptions of a surface 

temperature of 20°C and an effective porosity of the Mount 

Simon Sandstone of 25 percent. (Effective porosity is the 

total porosity minus the water retained in small pores and on 

grain surfaces.) The surface temperature is important 

because it, together with the depth times the geothermal gradient, determines the temperature at any point in the basin 

and because surface temperature in a recharge area determines how much heat must be added to influxing water to 

bring the water to the temperature of mineralization. For a 

recharge area at heights of 3 km during the Permian, which 

was a period of glaciation, 20°C is unreasonable. The effective porosity of the basal aquifer is important because it 

determines how much hot water can be flushed through the 

ore district before influxing meteoric water begins to cool 

the basin. The average porosity for sandstone is about 15 

percent (Kharaka and Berry, 1976). Although some sandstones have porosities as high as 25 percent, these typically 

are well-sorted sandstones that have not been deeply buried; 

both deep burial and poor sorting reduce porosity (Kharaka 

and Berry, 1976). The Mount Simon Sandstone is characterized, however, by poor sorting (Sargent, 1990), and, according to Garven and others (1993), the parts of the formation 

that contained hot water in the Permian were buried 4-7 km 

deep. Measurements of porosity of the Mount Simon Sandstone hi Illinois (Buschbach and Bond, 1974) indicate an 

average of 11.8 percent and a range from 10 to 15 percent, 

and an average of 386 porosity measurements of the Mount 

Simon Sandstone hi northern Indiana (Decker and others, 

1978) is 10.8 percent Therefore, the assumption of 25 percent effective porosity (Garven and others, 1993) is unjustified and more than doubles the amount of water likely to be 

available hi the Mount Simon Sandstone and exaggerates the 

maximum temperature produced by flushing the basin.

Part of the evidence presented for large-scale topographically driven flow from the uplift of the Appalachians 

is the remagnetization of rocks over much of the midcontinent. Although remagnetization can be caused by thermal 

events, it can also be caused by chemical processes. In the 

case of the late Paleozoic remagnetization of the midcontinent, McCabe and Elmore (1989) presented the possibility 

that the migration of a hot, potassium-bearing solution triggered the conversion of smectite to illite and concomitant 

release of iron. This iron formed magnetite, which imparted 

a remagnetization on the host rock. McCabe and Elmore also 

noted, however, that remagnetization can be caused by
C6 EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS ILLINOIS BASIN

reaction of iron minerals with hydrocarbons or by the oxidation of pyrite or siderite by near-surface solutions. Regional 

uplift of the midcontinent in the late Paleozoic suggests that 

such oxidation is reasonable. Uplift might also have initiated 

the migration of hydrocarbons in the late Paleozoic and 

caused remagnetization. Furthermore, hi a study of Ordovician potassium-rich bentonites, Elliott and others (1990) 

found that K/Ar ages of illite-smectite astride the Cincinnati 

arch are older (325-290 Ma) than K/Ar ages of illite-smectite of both the Illinois and Appalachian Basins (270-250 

Ma). These results do not support the regional migration of 

a hot, potassium-bearing solution that could have caused the 

remagnetization across the Cincinnati arch and throughout 

the midcontinent at the time of mineralization (270 Ma). At 

present, it is not possible to identify the cause of remagnetization in the midcontinent; thus, the remagnetization does 

not necessarily indicate the passage of a hot, topographically 

driven solution from the Appalachians at the time of 

mineralization in the Upper Mississippi Valley district.

As an alternative to topographically driven flow from 

the Pascola arch or from the northern Appalachians to the 

Upper Mississippi Valley district, Garven and others (1993) 

proposed a northwestwardly directed topographically 

driven flow from the southern Appalachians starting hi 

Georgia, through central Tennessee, turning northward hi 

the Illinois Basin, and on to the Upper Mississippi Valley 

district. They suggested that flow hi this 1,000-km-long 

flow path was through the Cambrian and Ordovican aquifers at a rate of 2 m per year. According to their calculations, the maximum temperature, 158°C, at a point on the 

northern side of the basin was attained 300,000 years after 

uplift; thereafter, influx of cool meteoric water placed an 

additional demand on the heat supply of the basin and 

cooled the effluent. This maximum temperature is somewhat less than the highest temperatures hi the Upper Mississippi Valley district and is unrealistically high. As with flow 

from the northern Appalachians, Garven and others (1993) 

assumed an unreasonably high surface temperature of 20°C 

and an effective porosity of 25 percent. Both of these 

assumptions exaggerate the maximum temperature of the 

topographically driven flow. Furthermore, as shown hi their 

figure 29, the point on the north side of the basin that 

attained 158°C is more than 100 km from the Upper Mississippi Valley district. How much the solution would cool 

before it reached the district is not clear.

As with flow from the Pascola arch, although focusing 

of the flow might conserve heat, it creates other problems. In 

particular, Garven and others (1993) attributed potassic 

alteration, trace mineralization, and remagnetization to the 

same topographically driven flow as that which formed the 

ore deposits; however, the widespread nature of these other 

alterations indicates that they were not the products of 

focused flow. The east-west dimension of the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district (the dimension perpendicular to 

the proposed flow path) is more than 100 km (twice as much

if outlying deposits are included) and is comparable to the 

width of the deep parts of the Illinois Basin. Consequently, 

little if any lateral focusing of hot fluids from the deep part 

of the basin to the district is possible. Vertical focusing of 

fluids is also unlikely because the basal aquifer thickens to 

the north.

The salinity of the mineralizing solution is an additional 

problem. Garven and others (1993) estimated that a 150-mthickness of salt would have to be dissolved to provide salinity of the fluids; however, no bedded salt is known to be 

present in the Illinois Basin, and there is no reason to believe 

that salt ever was present hi the basin. Furthermore, dissolution of that much salt would have left indications that would 

not go unnoticed. In the model of Garven and others (1993), 

the mountains are uplifted instantaneously; thus the model 

does not address the problem noted by Deming and Nunn 

(1991) that salt would be flushed from the basin before flow 

was fast enough to efficiently transport heat. As with flow 

from the Pascola arch, bromine-chlorine ratios of pore 

waters hi the basin indicate that the basin was not flushed, an 

indication contrary to topographically driven flow.

WESTWARD FLOW FROM THE 

FINDLEYARCH

Early Devonian uplift of the Findley arch as impetus for 

topographically driven flow through the Michigan Basin and 

on to the Upper Mississippi Valley district has been proposed 

as a means of bringing potassium into the district to form 

potassium feldspar hi Cambrian and Ordovician sediments 

(Duffin and others, 1989). In the Early Devonian, however, 

the Findley arch was only a broad swell with low relief, as 

was the Wisconsin arch. Consequently, there was little or no 

impetus for flow along the proposed path. This proposed 

flow does not address the Early Devonian and Permian episodes of potassic alteration in the Upper Mississippi Valley 

district nor does it explain the early Mississippian (361-348 

Ma) age of the illitization of the St. Peter Sandstone (Ordovician) hi the Michigan Basin (Barnes and others, 1989). That 

is, flow off the Findley arch does not explain why a potassium-bearing solution generated in the Early Devonian hi the 

Michigan Basin caused potassic alteration hi the St. Peter 

Sandstone hi the Upper Mississippi Valley district but not hi 

the St. Peter Sandstone hi the Michigan Basin.

EVIDENCE FOR A DEEP-SEATED 

HEAT SOURCE

Lack of evidence for sufficiently hot fluids in the 

basin, evidence that basinal brines have not been flushed, 

and the lack of a satisfactory mechanism to transport 

sufficient heat from the basin leave little choice but to
GENESIS OF UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ZINC-LEAD DISTRICT C7

derive heat for mineralization from depths below the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district.

The Upper Mississippi Valley district is within a northeast-trending zone of positive magnetic anomalies extending 

from southeast Iowa through Wisconsin to Lake Michigan 

north of Milwaukee (fig. 2) (Hoppe and others, 1983). The 

northwest boundary of this zone coincides with a marked 

change hi the character of the gravity anomaly patterns, and 

a weak seismic signature correlates with the zone of anomalous magnetic intensity (Coates and others, 1983). Linear 

dislocations hi the magnetic patterns in southern Wisconsin 

are interpreted as demarcating major basement faults (Heyl 

and King, 1966). The seismicity, magnetic anomalies, and 

change in the character of the gravity patterns are all suggestive of a fault zone affecting the basement rocks. In addition, 

the abundance of fluorite, typically 0.5 percent (Eckstein and 

others, 1983), hi basement rocks hi drillholes UPH-1, -2, 

and -3 may also be indicative of deep faults. Only one grain 

of fluorite has been found in the Upper Mississippi Valley 

district (Heyl and others, 1959); however, fluorite has been 

found along with galena hi Pint's quarry near Waterloo, 

Iowa (Garvin and others, 1987), and hi quarries near Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Alien Heyl, oral commun., 1993). Both 

quarries are above the zone of positive magnetic anomalies.

Mineralized rock indicates a Permian thermal event hi 

the area, and there is evidence for Early Devonian, Late 

Devonian, and Permian episodes of potassic alteration in the 

district (Hay and others, 1988). Faults commonly are reactivated by both compressional and extensional tectonic events 

and become the focus of thermal and alteration episodes. 

Thus, these thermal and alteration events of various ages 

around the Upper Mississippi Valley district may also be 

indicative of a fault system beneath the district.

Sverjensky and Garven (1992) believed that the Early 

Permian age of the mineralization in the Upper Mississippi 

Valley district and of the Appalachian orogeny genetically 

links the two via a topographically driven flow from the 

Appalachians despite the 700 km between the district and the 

Appalachians. Alternatively, because tectonic stress is 

known to propagate across continental interiors (Ziegler, 

1978,1988; Leighton and Kolata, 1990), the Permian collision of continents that raised the Appalachians might have 

reactivated ancient faults hi the district and elsewhere across 

the continental interior and triggered thermal events along 

these faults. In support of this latter contention, although the 

interiors of continents are generally thought to be tectonically stable and thermally quiescent, kimberlites of Ordovician or younger age hi northern Michigan (Cannon and 

Mudrey, 1981) and of Cretaceous age in southeastern Kansas (Heyl, 1972) indicate that episodes of thermal activity do 

take place well within stable interiors. Basin subsidence is 

also a form of tectonic and thermal activity, and, hi the 

nearby Michigan Basin, subsidence continued into the 

Jurassic (Leighton and Kolata, 1990). The strike-slip 

character of some major faults hi the Upper Mississippi

92°

0 100 200 300 KILOMETERS

I____I I____I

Figure 2. Locations of drillholes UPH-1 and UPH-3 and zone of 

positive magnetic anomalies (shaded) (modified from Hoppe and 

others, 1983), north-central United States. Locations of Findley and 

Wisconsin arches are also shown.

Valley district, with as much as 330 m of horizontal displacement (Heyl and others, 1959), is also an indication that 

stress from continental collision can be propagated well into 

stable cratons. Because stress related to continental movement involves the entire thickness of crustal blocks, these 

faults may be surface expressions of very deep rooted faults.

Fluid inclusion studies (Taylor and others, 1992) and 

zoning of lead isotopes and various elements around Hicks 

dome (Hall and Heyl, 1968) clearly indicate that mineralization in the Illinois-Kentucky district is related to a local 

thermal anomaly from a local intrusion (Hicks dome) 

spawned from a rift (the Rough Creek graben) reactivated 

by Permian continental collision. This conclusion undermines the argument of Sverjensky and Garven (1992) that 

the Permian age of both the Appalachians and the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district links the two via topographically 

driven flow. That is, considering that the Illinois-Kentucky 

district has the same age as the Upper Mississippi Valley 

district and is closer to the Appalachian-Ouachita orogeny 

but not related to a topographically driven flow from the 

Appalachian-Ouachita orogeny, then the age of the Upper 

Mississippi Valley district does not necessarily link the district to topographically driven flow from the Appalachian-Ouachita orogeny. If the alternative interpretation, 

that the temporal link among Mississippi Valley-type 

deposits is the initiation of thermal events along faults reactivated by Permian continental collision, is correct, then the 

age of the faulting in the Upper Mississippi Valley district 

must be Permian. According to Heyl and others (1959), 

faults in the district are younger than mid-Silurian and,
C8 EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS ILLINOIS BASIN

from regional relationships, probably post-Pennsylvanian. 

Mineralized rock along the faults indicates that the faults 

formed prior to or during mineralization, which is Permian 

in age (Brannon and others, 1992). Thus, within the resolution of the data, the age of the faulting is consistent with 

reactivation of faults by continental collision.

THERMAL CONVECTION FROM A 

DEEP HEAT SOURCE

Shieh (1983) concluded that the alteration of oxygen 

isotopes in feldspar but not in quartz in basement rock of 

drillhole UPH-3 (fig. 2) indicates the passage of a solution 

hotter than 110°C and cooler than 260°C. He suggested that 

the solution was a basinal solution derived from above, but 

he did not specify a source of heat. Alternatively, it is possible that a deep-seated heat source near the district may have 

driven a convection system involving basinal water (fig. 3). 

Such a system was proposed by Heyl and others (1959, 

1974) for the Upper Mississippi Valley district, by Heyl 

(1972) for several Mississippi Valley districts along the 38th 

parallel lineament, and by Ayuso and others (1987) for Mississippi Valley-type mineralization in the Rossie district of 

New York. Heat for the convecting system could have been 

provided by a buried intrusion or, in the absence of an intrusion, by the reactivation of deep faults that conducted hot 

fluids from depth. Many of the world's hot springs obtain 

their heat by conducting surface waters along faults to high 

temperatures at depth and then back to the surface. In a 

sense, deep faults, when opened by continental-scale tectonic movements so that they are conducting water, are 

breaks hi the insulating capacity of the Earth's crust. The 

greater the concentration of deep, water-conducting faults hi 

any area, the greater the thermal anomaly that they may produce. Such proposed anomalies may explain the spatial relationship between Mississippi Valley-type deposits and 

large-scale strike-slip fault zones in the midcontinent (Heyl, 

1972).

The exceptionally high radioactivity of basement rocks 

beneath the Upper Mississippi Valley district (average 46 

ppm U and 114 ppm Th) (Doe and others, 1983) may have 

contributed to heat released during faulting. According to 

Fehn and others (1978), unfractured igneous rocks typically 

have such low permeabilities that heat generated by radioactive decay in these rocks is slowly lost by conduction without 

any convective heat loss. Upon fracturing, however, permeability is increased by orders of magnitude, heat is lost 

quickly by convection, and the overlying rocks may be 

heated to more than 100°C above ambient. The presence of 

highly radioactive basement rocks beneath the district and 

faulting concomitant with mineralization make it likely that

Figure 3. Schematic cross section showing faulting of uraniumand thorium-enriched basement rock beneath Upper Mississippi 

Valley district to release pent-up radiogenic heat, drive thermal 

convection of basinal brines (arrows), leach radiogenic lead from 

basement rocks, and deposit radiogenic lead in ores (solid circles).

the model proposed by Fehn and others (1978) contributed 

heat to the Upper Mississippi Valley district.

The composition of ground water 600 m into the Precambrian basement beneath the Upper Mississippi Valley 

district (Couture and others, 1983) and the presence of oil 

426 m into the Precambrian (Couture and Seitz, 1986) indicate that basinal brines penetrated the basement to considerable depths. In the southeast Missouri district, Burstein and 

others (1992) suggested that basinal brines penetrated basement rocks to depths of at least 400 m to leach copper from 

the basement rocks and deposit it hi the overlying Mississippi Valley-type deposits. These studies all indicate that 

basinal brines traveled through the basement rocks beneath 

the districts and thus support the possibility that thermal convection of basinal brines through the basement rocks was 

involved in the genesis of Mississippi Valley-type deposits.
GENESIS OF UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ZINC-LEAD DISTRICT C9

TOPOGRAPHICALLY DRIVEN FLOW

VERSUS LOCAL DEEP-SOURCED

HEAT

Sawkins (1968) used ratios of sulfate to chlorine and 

sodium to potassium of fluid inclusions as evidence for a 

blend of basinal and magmatic solutions in the genesis of 

Mississippi Valley-type deposits. Both basinal brines and 

fluids associated with intrusions, such as porphyry copper 

systems, may have salt contents as high or higher than Mississippi Valley-type solutions (Roedder, 1979). Thus, either 

type of fluid is a potential source of salinity; in contrast, 

meteoric water flowing along an unconformity or through a 

basal sandstone (the topographically driven flow model) is 

unlikely to become highly saline. In a thermal convection 

system water and salt are recirculated, whereas in topographically driven flow water and salt pass through the mineral 

district once and are discharged. Consequently, the total 

amount of salt involved in a convecting system is far less 

than that hi the topographic flow system. Instead of requiring 

that hundreds of cubic kilometers of salt be dissolved to form 

a mineralizing solution, the initial connate water can be recycled repeatedly in a convecting system. A convecting system 

does not require the flushing of salt from the basin and therefore hi the Illinois Basin is consistent with the observed 

Br/Cl ratios.

Heat is a problem for topographically driven flow in the 

Upper Mississippi Valley district because computer simulations (Bethke, 1986; Deming and Nunn, 1991; Garven and 

others, 1993) indicate that the solution would be cooler than 

the observed temperature of mineralization and because the 

duration of mineralization (about 250,000 years) is much 

less than the duration of topographically driven flow pushed 

by the elevation of mountain ranges. Temperatures as high as 

275°C in close proximity to Hicks dome (Cunningham and 

Heyl, 1980) confirm that intrusions related to Mississippi 

Valley-type mineralization may indeed provide the intensity 

of heat; even without an intrusion, faults extending to several 

kilometers depth will reach areas of sufficient heat to 

account for the temperatures of mineralization. The occurrence of porphyry copper deposits hi rocks barely 1 million 

years old and the life spans of thermal springs of far less than 

1 million years show that mineralization related to intrusions 

may be a short-term event (Skinner, 1979).

Regardless of the impetus for flow in the Illinois Basin, 

the mineralizing solution migrated through a large volume of 

potential host rock for ore deposits, but ore precipitated only 

at very specific sites hi this large volume. This observation 

indicates that some peculiar characteristic of the sites of mineralization caused them to become mineralized. That characteristic was very probably the presence of organic matter, a 

universal component of Mississippi Valley-type deposits 

(see summary in Spirakis, 1986). By acting as a reductant,

source of carbon dioxide, source of organic acids, and substrate for bacterial metabolism, organic matter triggers the 

precipitation of a variety of types of minerals (sulfides, disulfides, sulfates, carbonates, and fluorite), all at the same 

specific sites (Spirakis and Heyl, 1993). Precipitation at specific sites provides another constraint on fluid flow hi that 

the solution must retain its ore-forming capacity until it 

reaches these sites. According to the topographically driven 

flow model applied to the Upper Mississippi Valley district, 

rainwater entered the sediments half a kilometer or more 

above sea level, plunged to several kilometers below sea 

level, and then ascended slowly while traveling several hundred or 1,000 km laterally. It is unlikely that throughout 

these travels the mineralizing solutions did not encounter a 

suitable environment in which to precipitate ore (presumably 

concentrations of organic matter) until the district was 

reached. It is much more likely that suitable sites to form ore 

were not restricted to the district but that a convecting thermal flow system was confined to the district. In other words, 

the bounds of the districts are defined by the limits of the 

thermal flow, and the sites of mineralization within the districts are the locations of concentrations of organic matter.

McKnight (1967) pointed out that radiogenic lead- and 

potassium-rich solutions are produced from alkalic magmas 

typical of continental interiors, and he suggested that such 

magmas might be related to the genesis of Mississippi Valley-type deposits. As an alternative source of potassium, 

according to Giggenbach (1984) potassic minerals tend to 

dissolve at elevated temperatures and precipitate on cooling. 

Hence, even without an intrusion, the change hi temperature 

hi a thermal convection system related to faults could cause 

the potassic alteration associated with Mississippi Valley-type deposits. Radiogenic lead also does not require an 

intrusion. Doe and others (1983) concluded that the basement rocks in the vicinity of the Upper Mississippi Valley 

district were leached of radiogenic lead (probably at the time 

of mineralization) and were a likely source of at least some 

of the lead for the ores. A thermal convecting system in the 

vicinity of the district involves basinal brines just as does the 

topographically driven flow. Hence, the brines in a thermal 

convecting system should be just as capable of leaching lead 

from the basement rocks as the brines in topographically 

driven flow; however, a thermal convecting system in the 

vicinity of the district would not have had the opportunity to 

derive lead from outside the district. In contrast, a solution 

migrating under topographically driven flow for hundreds of 

kilometers during hundreds of thousands of years would 

have had ample opportunity to become saturated with lead 

long before reaching the district Thus, it seems unlikely that 

a topographically driven solution would have leached lead in 

the vicinity of the district.

In topographically driven flow, fluids are seeking the 

easiest access to the surface. The presence of saline solutions 

and oil in the Precambrian basement in drillhole UPH-3
CIO EVOLUTION OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS ILLINOIS BASIN

beneath the edge of the Upper Mississippi Valley district 

indicates that basinal brines flowed downward into the basement. Such a path is difficult to reconcile with topographically driven flow because it is unlikely that the easiest escape 

route for a solution less than 1 km below the surface at the 

Precambrian-Cambrian contact would involve a detour of 

more than 1 km farther downward into the Precambrian. The 

present lack of communication between freshwater in the 

Mount Simon Sandstone and saline water hi the basement 

(Couture and Seitz, 1986) suggests that the Precambrian 

does not provide a highly permeable flow path. Although 

flow through the basement is unlikely in topographically 

driven flow, it is precisely what is expected in a thermal 

convecting system.

CONCLUSION

Although a local deep-seated source of heat has not 

been proven for mineralization in the Upper Mississippi Valley district, the tectonic setting is permissive of such a source 

and various lines of evidence are supportive. In contrast, 

there are multiple reasons to doubt that mechanisms to 

deliver heat from the basin, either topographically driven 

flow or other processes, apply to this district. A local 

deep-seated heat source is more than adequate for the 

observed mineralization; it is compatible with the local 

leaching of radiogenic lead; it provides a source of potassium whether an intrusion is present or not; and, by recirculating saline basinal brines, a convection system driven by a 

local heat source (such as the heat released from fracturing 

of a highly radioactive granite) does not require an unreasonable amount of salt. The presence of basinal brines to a depth 

of 1.3 km (deepest sample analyzed) in drillhole UPH-3 and 

a minimum estimate of the depth during mineralization hi 

the Upper Mississippi Valley district show that basinal 

brines penetrated at least 1.5 km beneath the surface, as 

would be expected in a thermal convecting system but not hi 

a topographically driven flow system or in other systems that 

invoke dewatering of a basin.

Instead of using topographically driven flow to account 

for the synchronous formation of Mississippi Valley-type 

deposits and other alteration events within the continental 

interior, I propose that continental collision may have simultaneously reopened faults throughout the midcontinent; thermal anomalies due to circulation of basinal brines along 

these faults then provided the conditions needed to transport 

elements to concentrations of organic matter in sediments 

where Mississippi Valley-type deposits formed. Thus, locating deep faults is a logical step in exploring for Mississippi 

Valley-type districts. These deep faults could have triggered 

the emplacement of intrusions such as Hicks dome, and the 

thermal anomalies associated with the faults may at least 

locally be related to potassic alteration, silicification, oil generation, oil migration, vitrinite reflectance, remagnetization,

conversion of smectite to illite, generation of organic acids, 

secondary porosity, annealing of fission tracks, and trace 

mineralization. Thus, the reactivation of ancient faults by 

plate tectonics may have an important influence on the 

diagenesis of sediments at many locations throughout the 

midcontinent.

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Published in the Central Region, Denver, Colorado 

Manuscript approved for publication February 2,1995 

Edited by Judith Stoeser 

Graphics by Henry F. Williams 

Photocomposition by Patricia L. Wilber

*U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1995-673-046/86110