Topic summary
Tombstone District
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Tombstone, Arizona.
Geography and geology
Tombstone District ores have been produced geologically in three or more ways. They may have been formed in argentiferous (silver-bearing) lead sulfide containing spotty amounts of copper and zinc. These deposits are usually deeply oxidized and enriched by irregular replacement bodies along mineralized fissure zones and anticlinal rolls cut by Paleozoic and Mesozoicsedimentary formations. Ore bodies are often closely associated with newer cross-cutting intrusive dikes of laramide. Ore deposits were formed by base metal mineralization occurring with oxidation found in fault and fracture zones in laramide volcanics and quartz latite porphyry intrusives. Silver ore also occurred in manganese oxides with some argentiferous deposits in lenticular or pipe-like replacement bodies along fracture and fault zones, usually in Pennsylvanian-Permian age Naco Group limestones.