Assuming that the present environmental state of the Superstitions(in fact most of the Southwest)and the Sonoran desert are relatively unchanged and that water has been a scarce commodity for many millennia,how might this determine where to look?
First,to provide some insight to my reasoning,and where it's taking me.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/scablands.html
Many of the erosionary results in the Scablands are very similar to what we see here in the region.Geologist originally scoffed at the idea that the Scablands or other spectacularly formed areas could have been created by anything more than millions of years of slow erosion.They now have a new outlook that even questions the geological history of the Grand Canyon.I believe that,although the root cause of massive short-term flooding may be different than the ice dam failures cited for the Scablands formation,that short-term flooding and drainage may have played a part in forming what we see today.This flooding could have been a byproduct of the caulderic explosions and the rapid (initially) drainage of a saturated ash dump.
Could the collapsed caulderas have behaved like a coffee perculator for a time before cooling,further eroding the ash in some areas and depositing mineralized mud in others?Since the eruptions it is evident that the more sedate processes of wind and water erosion,as well as the hot/cold cycle of exfoliation have taken over,but I believe that rain runoff is the least of these.I still have a great many questions that I need answers for,so this is still a work in progress.
One of the things that makes the Superstitions very interesting for me is the endless number of "caves".I know that most believe that they were formed solely by wind and water erosion.I have a different opinion.I believe that most,not necessarily all,were originally gas or air pockets in the ash/mud layers,which then became exposed by faulting or the rapid erosion of post-cauldera runoff.How many could remain unexposed?How many could have water flowing in and out and thus have deposits of minerals within.I have stood on the top of one mesa after a heavy rain and watched a large pool of water suddenly disappear like a flushing toilet complete with whirlpool.Spooked the hell out of me because I was detouring around it at the time and it started to shoot a mini geyser into the air for a couple of seconds first.Disappearing creeks are pretty common,at least where the flow is not great.If there was placer in the creek beds,would it not make sense that the heaviest fragments could be found in these rock and gravel covered sumps.Embedded within the volcanic tuff,both soft and cemented,there are vast amounts of more ancient rock,granite,basalt,limestone etc.,in the form of pebbles,cobbles,and boulders.The smooth and rounded ones were formed on ancient lake and river bottoms only to be cast skyward in the eruptions,falling back to embed themselves in the blanket of ash.Some are even cracked in two or more pieces from the heat of the ash,yet the tuff holds them together.Many have eroded out and cover the canyon and ravine bottoms.Likewise many pieces of rock broken by the explosions and sharp edged or in slab form are also embedded.Could any of these contain veins of rich ore? Could the same heat of the ash that cracked boulders as big as cars have melted the gold and put it somewhere below,where no one would think to look? A lot of questions and few answers.
Regards:SH.
, oh and S M , there's an old saying "Gold is where you find it" and I might add that there is much Silver around there to
----wow
