Abstract
A Late Mississippian paleokarst is developed on the Leadville Formation and underlying carbonate units in central Colorado. Caverns, sinkholes, solution- enlarged vertical joints (cutters), channelways, and breccia-rubble soil zones typify the karst-solution features which occur extensively throughout central Colorado. The subterranean channelways generally occur semiconcordant to bedding. Multiple cavern levels occur in the Leadville (Mississippian), Dyer (Devonian), and Manitou (Ordovician) carbonate rocks adjacent to major (100 to 200 m deep) paleo- valleys on the karst landscape, apparently developed progressively with valley incision in the Late Mississippian. The patterns of karst-solution features, pa- leovalleys, and erosional thinning of the Leadville strata reflect Mississippian movement of local tectonic blocks.
The subterranean karst-solution features are filled dominantly with carbonate breccia and carbonate sand with varying amounts of black chert breccia. In close proximity to the Late Mississippian karst unconformity surface, significant amounts of black shale and gray clay from the overlying Pennsylvania strata (Belden and Molas formations, respectively) also occur within the karst-solution features. Increased thickness of the regolithic residuum of the Molas gray clay with black chert fragments overlies karst-solution-thinned areas of the underlying Leadville strata.
Hundreds of lead-zinc-silver-barite deposits occur over a large area of central Colorado within karst- solution features related to the Late Mississippian landscape. These features are the primary controls on the location of the ore deposits within the Lower and Middle Paleozoic carbonate rocks in central Colorado. The pattern of mineralized karst-solution features was strongly controlled by incision of surface drainages and a strong northeast-trending Mississippian joint system. In the Leadville and Aspen districts, the principal areas of mineralization occur immediately adjacent to deeply incised paleovalleys.
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De Votto, R.H. (1988). Late Mississippian Paleokarst and Related Mineral Deposits, Leadville Formation, Central Colorado. In: James, N.P., Choquette, P.W. (eds) Paleokarst. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3748-8_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3748-8_14
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