Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1914-08-15
ORIGIN OF METALS
Varied Theories as to How the
Ores Are Formed.
NATURE HIDES THE SECRET.
Science Has For Centuries Tried to
Wrest II From Her, but Biologists
and MineraIoeists Are as Yet Unable
to Agree Upon the Process.

dian who while chasing game on a
Bolivian mountain side seized q bush
to prevent himself from falling, and.
the bush being pulled loose from its
scanty hold on the rocks, he saw its
crooked roots grasping masses Of
cleaning white ore and thus became
the discoverer of the famous silver
mines of Potosi.
You have also read. perhaps with
itching fingers, of prospectors picking
up nuggets Of gold worth a thousand
dollars each or opening veins of quartz
all shot through with heavy threads
Of the yellow metal.
You know that ores of gold and
silver or of any other precious or use
full metal are not to be found in every
eody's back yard, but must be sought
for in certain favored parts of the
earth.
But has your intelligent curiosity ever
led you to inquire how those ores came
to be where they are and nowhere
else: Have you ever wondered what
makes a gold nugget?
other metals grow somewhat as fruits
do-in soils and climates that are spe-
cialy suited to them Well, there is
considerable truth in that idea, and
the word grow" is, in one sense. sur
prisingly applicable to such deposits.
But there is a great deal more in the
matter than you would imagine. and
on no subject has science fought more
battles royal than on this of the origin
of metallic ores. think that there are
some biologists who would rather find
out this secret to the very bottom than
discover the richest lode that the ribs
of the earth contain. If they could do
both that would be perfection, and we
must not forget that knowledge is
power.
Until about 400 years ago everybody
who thought about it at all believed
that veins OF precious ore were dis
tributed under the influence of the
planets. At that time astrology held
the place of science.
Finally George Agricoia, a German
mineralogist, who lived about the time
when the gold and silver of Mexico
and Peru were' making Spain the tenn
porary mistress Of the world, hit upon
a theory which came in substance very
near the truth. He taught that water,
penetrating into the earth and becom-
ing heated, took up scattered minerals
in solution and afterward deposited
them as ores in cavities in the rocks
The mineral solutions he called the
earths Juices"
couple of hundred years later the
German geologist Werner set forth a
view that became very famous undel|
the name Of the "Neptunist theory, I
from Neptune, the god of the seal
Werner's idea was that as the earth
cooled down from the prineval nebula
out of which ii was formed it was en-
veloped in universal hot ocean, hold
ing in solution all kinds of minerals,
and that when the rocky crust was
formed the water leaking down into
it deposited its metallic contents by
chemical precipitation in veins and
lodes wherever the circumstances were
favorable.
But a hundred years ago the Nep-
tunist theory, which had swept every
thing before it in the minds of men
of science, met its Waterloo at the
hands of Hutton, the Scottish geolo-
gist, with his "Plutonic" theory from
Pluto, the god of the internal regions).
Huttons idea was that the materials
which ill the metallic veins were melt
ed by heat and forcibly injected into
the clefts and assures of the strata
from below.
The 'Neptunists" and "Plutonists"
had a hard fight, with the latter hold
ing the upper hand, until their theory
had assumed a kind Of compromise
form, with water again playing the
principal role. The American geolo-
gist, Van Hise. is the author of one of
the latest theories, according to which
meteoric water condensed atmospheric
vapor) penetrates deep into the earth's
crust, and, with steadily increasing
temperature, takes up mineral matter
into solution Spreading. as it gets
deeper, the water reaches larger open,
ings in the rocky crust. in which it
ascends, with decreasing temperature
and pressure.
There it deposits the ores, whose ma
terials it has collected in It's wander
ings and carried along in solution
But this is not the last word. and In
recent years there has been partial
reaction toward the Plutonist theory.
Besides. A great deal seems to depend
upon the nature of the ore whose ORR
gin is in question.-Garrett 2. Seryiss
IA New York Journal
He Knew.