glacial gold

[tim102]

I live in northeastern Indiana and have a 3 acre hay field . so I thought I would trying looking for glacial gold . ive been panning the dirt in a 35 gallon tub .ive dug a 2 1/2 foot wide by 2 1/2 down test hole . has any body ever had any luck doing this .looking for info

 

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[Bejay]

Best bet is to do a little research (Inet works) and see where the glacial gold belts lie. Should be easy for you to do and should make things productive.

Bejay

 

[Underburden]

I've got a spot about 30 miles down the road that has gold throughout 100's of acres of glacial till.
Glacial Gold

Bob

 

[Underburden]

Here's another from 2012.
More Glacial Gold

Bob

 

[Underburden]

Gosh, I didn't realize how long I have been working this glacial material.
This one shows the drift and the terrible material that is cemeted together. Beating it with a 5' bar will zap the vigor out of you quickly.
Another from 2011

Bob

 

[tim102]

nice pictures how far down do you think I would have to go to get in that time period . the dirt changed colors around 18 to 20inches and I started to get some gravel / sand mixed in with the soil

 

[Underburden]

Keep poking until to get large rock, small rocks, gravel, clay, etc. The glacial material is unsorted for the most part.

 

[A_Sly1_U]

You'll save yourself a lot off digging if you do a search for moraines in Indiana. Then find a place where bedrock is shallow and where water has concentrated the gold some. It'll get pretty discouraging just panning glacial till...which is hundreds of feet thick in many places in Northern Indiana.

 

[preshrunkmilk]

If the dirt changes to a red color youll find gold

 

[tim102]

the dirt went from a brown color to a light brown . why red dirt .

 

[aarthrj3811]

Light tan color is a good sign...the red stuff is the ash from the last volcano eruptions...Up in Michigan I found a little gold in the blue clay...Art

 

[preshrunkmilk]

the dirt went from a brown color to a light brown . why red dirt .

The redish colored dirt and clay is from the heavy minerals stand red from iron oxide from pyrite. In the midwest this layer is an indecator of old deposit and will have gold and copper in it.

 

[preshrunkmilk]

Also I have found there are ussally two layers of clay a grey darker clay will have gold above it and the red color will also have gold in it and above. Recently I have heard of somone finding gold imbedded in the shale bedrock also.

 

[aarthrj3811]

Tuff (from the Italian tufo) is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material, although tufa also refers to a quite different rock. Rock that contains greater than 50% tuff is considered tuffaceous.

The light brown dirt if you have to use a pick on it would be the oldest dirt found on earth

 

[Lanny in AB]

Man, it's been basically forever since I chased glacial gold. This thread brings back lots of memories. Thanks.

You've been given some good tips too!

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

I hunt glacial gold here in new england. It is an elusive gold. Flat flat flat and very few values in gravel banks and over burden. The game is bedrock and periglacial geology. Just remember , 12,000 years ago the land had over a MILE of ice on top of it. That kind of pressure is incredible. The glaciers left little in their paths. After the "Wisconsin and Illinoian" sheets receded the land was stripped to bedrock with not one but several large inland seas encompassing a massive area.
The draining of these seas happened at a very rapid rate in geologic time. This draining is what can be attributed to most all of the gold we find. As well as the formation of sorted and unsorted alluvial deposits such as high benches, terraces, and drumlins. Most of these formations in non
Lode producing areas are barren of gold. Not much washing down the hills like out west. We must hunt hard for it and hunt we shall.

 

[Goodyguy]

I live in northeastern Indiana and have a 3 acre hay field . so I thought I would trying looking for glacial gold . ive been panning the dirt in a 35 gallon tub .ive dug a 2 1/2 foot wide by 2 1/2 down test hole . has any body ever had any luck doing this .looking for info

Welcome to Treasure Net fellow Hoosier

I've been pretty much all over the central part of the state prospecting glacial gold, and even though I haven't prospected the north eastern part of the state I can tell you that panning for gold in a field is being overly optimistic. Up in the northern part of the state the glacial till can be hundreds of feet thick and any appreciable gold will typically lie at the bottom of it. Of course there were many glaciers that extended into Indiana over millions of years with melt and runoff in between each one.

You will have much more success working areas that thousands of years of erosion through the till by waterways and subsequent concentration of heavy materials that are found near bedrock in the rivers and streams than you will by panning in a field where any concentration of gold is highly unlikely.

http://igs.indiana.edu/Surficial/

GG~

 

[kevin1]

As you're in the NE part of our state odds are there's a moraine near you, start searching the creeks. Nearly all of Indiana is covered by glacial till, we have zero volcanic deposits. The majority of the moraines are south of you, mostly in the central portion of the state, but there are a few in your region. Any gold will be found in gravels of creeks and rivers, and it will be very fine, the heavier stuff is buried by way too much overburden on the bedrock, so digging on your land probably won't yield anything. Don't overlook sniping bedrock crevices, they are your best bet, invest in a hand dredge for that. All navigable waterways are open to recreational prospecting other than in IDNR controlled properties, state parks require a free permit, usually available at the gatehouse, and generally only allow panning.

 

[Bejay]

Glacial landforms and features: Words to Know
Ablation zone: The area of a glacier where mass is lost through melting or evaporation at a greater rate than snow and ice accumulate.
Accumulation zone: The area of a glacier where mass is increased through snowfall at a greater rate than snow and ice is lost through ablation.
Alpine glacier: A relatively small glacier that forms in high elevations near the tops of mountains. Arête: A sharp-edged ridge of rock formed between adjacent cirque glaciers.
Basal sliding: The sliding of a glacier over the ground on a layer of water.
Cirque: A bowl-shaped depression carved out of a mountain by an alpine glacier.
Continental glacier: A glacier that forms over large areas of continents close to the poles.
Crevasse: A deep, nearly vertical crack that develops in the upper portion of glacier ice.
Erosion: The gradual wearing away of Earth surfaces through the action of wind and water.
[B]Erratic:[/B] A large boulder that a glacier deposits on a surface made of different rock.
Esker: A long, snakelike ridge of sediment deposited by a stream that ran under or within a glacier.
Firn: The granular ice formed by the recrystallization of snow; also known as névé.
Fjord: A deep glacial trough submerged with seawater.
[B]Glacial drift[/B]: A general term for all material transported and deposited directly by or from glacial ice.
Glacial polish: The smooth and shiny surfaces that are produced on rocks underneath a glacier by material carried in the base of that glacier.
Glacial surge: The rapid forward movement of a glacier. Glacial trough: A U-shaped valley carved out of a V-shaped stream valley by the movement of a valley glacier.
Glaciation: The transformation of the landscape through the action of glaciers.
Glacier: A large body of ice that formed on land by the compaction and recrystallization of snow, survives year to year, and shows some sign of movement downhill due to gravity.
Ground moraine: A continuous layer of till deposited beneath a steadily retreating glacier.
Hanging valley: A shallow glacial trough that leads into the side of a larger, main glacial trough.
Horn: A high mountain peak that forms when the walls of three or more glacial cirques intersect.
Internal flow: The movement of ice inside a glacier through the deformation and realignment of ice crystals; also known as creep.
Kame: A steep-sided, conical mound or hill formed of glacial drift that is created when sediment is washed into a depression on the top surface of a glacier and then deposited on the ground below when the glacier melts away.
Kettle[/B]: A shallow, bowl-shaped depression formed when a large block of glacial ice breaks away from the main glacier and is buried beneath glacial till, then melts. If the depression fills with water, it is known as a kettle lake.
Lateral moraine: A moraine deposited along the side of a valley glacier.
Medial moraine: A moraine formed when two adjacent glaciers flow into each other and their lateral moraines are caught in the middle of the joined glacier.
Meltwater: The water from melted snow or ice. Moraine: A general term for a ridge or mound of till deposited by a glacier.
Piedmont glacier: A valley glacier that flows out of a mountainous area onto a gentle slope or plain and spreads out over the surrounding terrain.
Rock flour: Fine-grained rock material produced when a glacier abrades or scrapes rock beneath it.
Snow line: The elevation above which snow can form and remain all year. Striations: The long, parallel scratches and grooves produced in rocks underneath a glacier as it moves over them.
Tarn:[/B] A small lake that fills the central depression in a cirque.
Terminal moraine: A moraine found near the terminus of a glacier; also known as an end moraine.
Terminus: The leading edge of a glacier; also known as the glacier snout.
Till: A random mixture of finely crushed rock, sand, pebbles, and boulders deposited by a glacier.
Valley glacier: An alpine glacier flowing downward through a preexisting stream valley.

Both types of glaciers create landforms through erosion. These erosional features may be as large as the Great Lakes of North America or as small as scratches left in pebbles. As a glacier moves, it scours away material underneath it, plucking up rocks, some of which may be house-sized boulders. This material then becomes embedded in the ice at the base of a glacier. As the glacier continues to move, the embedded material abrades or scrapes the rock underneath. The slow scraping and grinding produces a fine-grained material known as rock flour. It also produces long parallel scratches and grooves known as striations in the underlying rocks. Because they are aligned parallel to the direction of ice flow, glacial striations help geologists determine the flow path of former glaciers. Another small-scale erosional feature is glacial polish. This is a smooth and shiny surface produced on rocks underneath a glacier when material encased in the ice abrades the rocks like fine sandpaper.

Moving ice sculpts a variety of landforms out of the landscape. Larger-scale erosional features include bowl-shaped, steep-walled depressions carved out of the side of mountains. These depressions are called cirques (pronounced SIRKS), and the relatively small alpine glaciers that fill them are called cirque glaciers. If the glacier melts and a small lake fills the central depression in a cirque, that lake is known as a tarn. Two or more glacial cirques may form on a mountainside, eroding away the rock between them to create a steep-sided, sharp-edged ridge known as an arête (pronounced ah-RHET). When the walls of three or more glacial cirques meet, they may form a high mountain peak known as a horn.

When a cirque glacier expands outward and flows downward through a stream valley that already exists, it becomes a valley glacier. Through erosion, valley glaciers turn V-shaped stream valleys into U-shaped glacial troughs. Smaller valley glaciers, known as tributary glaciers, may form alongside a main valley glacier and eventually flow into it. The shallower glacial troughs created by these glaciers are known as hanging valleys. A valley glacier that flows out of a mountainous area onto a gentle slope or plain and spreads out over the surrounding terrain is a piedmont glacier. A valley glacier may flow all the way to a coastline, carving out a narrow glacial trough. If the glacier melts and the valley fills with seawater, it is known as a fjord (pronounced fee-ORD). Although prominent along the west coast of Norway, fjords are also found along the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, Chile, Greenland, New Zealand, and Scotland.

Glaciers leave their mark on the landscape not only through erosion, but also through deposition. Deposition involves carrying loose materials from one area and leaving, or depositing, these materials in another area. Depositional features are created by the release of rocky material from a glacier. They vary widely in scale and form. All sediment (rock debris ranging from clay to boulders) deposited as a result of glacial erosion is called glacial drift. Like a stream, a glacier picks up and carries sediment particles of various sizes. Unlike a stream, a glacier can carry part of that sediment load on its bottom, its sides, or its top (sediment on top has fallen onto the glacier from the valley walls). Another difference between the two is that when a stream deposits its load of sediment, it does so in order of size and weight: large, heavy particles are deposited first, followed by particles that are increasingly smaller and lighter. When a glacier deposits sediment, there is no such order. The particles are unsorted, with large and small particles mixed together. This random mixture of finely crushed rock, sand, pebbles, and boulders deposited by a glacier is referred to as till. Since a glacier can carry rocks for great distances before depositing them, those rocks generally differ from the surrounding native rocks in that area. In fact, because they are derived from a very large area eroded by a glacier, glacial deposits contain the widest variety of rock types. A glacially deposited large boulder that differs in composition from the rocks around it is called an erratic.

A deposit of till that forms a ridge or mound is called a moraine (meh-RAIN). Moraines deposited along the sides of alpine glaciers are called lateral moraines. When two valley glaciers converge to create a single larger glacier, their opposing lateral moraines merge to form a ridge that


Read more: Glacial Landforms and Features - The shape of the land, Forces and changes, Spotlight on famous forms, For More Information


Bejay