Editing Lode

{{Short description|Part of a rock body that holds ore}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Goldveins1.jpg|thumb|Gold-bearing [[quartz]] veins, [[Blue Ribbon Mine]], [[Alaska]]]]

In [[geology]], a '''lode''' is a [[deposition (geology)|deposit]] of [[wikt:metalliferous|metalliferous]] [[ore]] that fills or is embedded in a [[fracture (geology)|fracture]] (or crack) in a [[rock (geology)|rock]] [[geological formation|formation]] or a [[vein (geology)|vein]] of ore that is deposited or embedded between [[stratum|layers of rock]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson|first=Joseph Wesley |year=1913 |chapter=Lode Locations |title=Abstracts of Current Decisions on Mines and Mining, March to December, 1914 |series=Bulletin 79, Law Serial 2 |publisher=[[United States Bureau of Mines|Bureau of Mines]], [[United States Department of the Interior|U.S. Department of the Interior]] |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4RZLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13 13] |oclc=29112728}}</ref> The current meaning (ore vein) dates from the 17th century, being an [[semantic shift|expansion of an earlier sense]] of a "channel, watercourse" in [[Late Middle English]], which in turn is from the 11th-century meaning of ''lode'' as a "course, way".<ref name=OED>{{OED|lode}}</ref>

The generally accepted [[mineralization (geology)|hydrothermal model]] of lode deposition posits that metals dissolved in hydrothermal solutions (hot spring fluids) deposit the gold or other metallic minerals inside the fissures in the pre-existing rocks.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Fournier, R.O.|year=1999|title=Hydrothermal processes related to movement of fluid from plastic into brittle rock in the magmatic environment|journal=Economic Geology and the Society of Economic Geologists|volume=18|pages=486&ndash;497}}</ref> Lode deposits are distinguished primarily from [[placer deposit]]s, where the ore has been eroded out from its original [[depositional environment]] and redeposited by [[sedimentation]].<ref>{{Cite web|author=McGregor, Tisha|year=2000|title=Mining the Motherlode: Lode vs. Placer Mining|publisher=Wells Historical Society|location=Wells, California|url=http://wells.entirety.ca/lode.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020529192125/http://wells.entirety.ca/lode.htm|archive-date=29 May 2002|url-status=live|display-authors=etal}}</ref> A third process for ore deposition is as an [[evaporite]].

A '''stringer lode''' is one in which the rock is so permeated by small veinlets that rather than mining the veins, the entire mass of ore and the enveined [[country rock (geology)|country rock]] is mined. It is so named because of the irregular branching of the veins into many [[anastomosing|anastomosis]] stringers, so that the ore is not separable from the country rock.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Wood, George McLane|year=1916|title=Suggestions to authors of papers submitted for publication by the United States Geological Survey with directions to typewriter operators|publisher=United States Geological Survey|location=Washington, DC|page=[https://archive.org/details/suggestionstoau00survgoog/page/n36 35]|oclc=7678360}}</ref>

One of the largest silver lodes was the [[Comstock Lode]] in Nevada,<ref>{{Cite book|author=Smith, Grant Horace|year=1943|title=The History Of The Comstock Lode|publisher=Nevada State Bureau of Mines and the Mackay School of Mines|location=Reno, Nevada|oclc=3145590|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qHMPAAAAIAAJ}}</ref> although it is overshadowed by the more recently discovered [[Cannington Mine|Cannington Lode]] in Queensland, Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Staff|year=2007|title=Cannington Silver and Lead Mine, Queensland, Australia|publisher=Mining-technology.com of Net Resources International|url=http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/cannington/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231025955/http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/cannington/|archive-date=31 December 2007|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author1=Walters, Stephen|author2=Bailey, Andrew|year=1998|title=Geology and mineralization of the Cannington Ag-Pb-Zn deposit; an example of Broken Hill-type mineralization in the eastern succession, Mount Isa Inlier, Australia|journal=Economic Geology|volume=93|number=8|pages=1307&ndash;1329|doi=10.2113/gsecongeo.93.8.1307|bibcode=1998EcGeo..93.1307W }}</ref>  The largest gold lode in the United States was the [[Homestake Mine (South Dakota)|Homestake Lode]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Yarrow |first=Andrew L. |title=Beneath South Dakota's Black Hills |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/09/travel/beneath-south-dakota-s-black-hills.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=9 August 1987 |access-date=2008-01-11 |quote=Homestake, which is the largest, deepest and most productive gold mine in North America, has yielded more than $1 billion in gold over the years.}}</ref> The [[Broken Hill ore deposit|Broken Hill Lode]] in South Australia is the largest lead-zinc lode ever discovered.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Staff|date=February 2007|title=Curnamona Geology|publisher=Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy, Government of South Australia|url=http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/geological_survey_of_sa/geology/geological_provinces/curnamona/curnamona_geology}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Lodestone]] known just as ''lode'' in the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref>The ''[[New Oxford American Dictionary]]'' (''NOAD''), 3rd edition.</ref><ref name=OED/>
*[[Mother lode]], the principal vein
*[[Ore genesis]]
*[[Thickness (geology)|Thickness]]
*[[General Mining Act of 1872]]
*[[Land patent]]
*[[Binger Hermann]]
*[[Surveying]]
*[[Geographic information system]]

==Notes==
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{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ore deposits]]
[[Category:Mineralogy]]
[[Category:Economic geology]]