Geology

Geology
The 366 daily episodes in 2014 were chronological snapshots of earth history, beginning with the Precambrian in January and on to the Cenozoic in December. You can find them all in the index in the right sidebar. In 2015, the daily episodes for each month were assembled into monthly packages (link in index at right), and a few new episodes were posted from 2015-18. You may be interested in a continuation of this blog on Substack at this location. Thanks for your interest!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

January 8. The Stillwater Complex

By Richard I. Gibson


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Transcript: At about the same time as cyanobacteria were developing photosynthesis, the earth was still separating its various materials. This process continues today, in volcanoes that move rocks from inside the earth to its surface. 2.7 billion years ago, there was still a good bit of molten, metal-rich stuff floating around. Molten material undoubtedly reached the surface in volcanoes – we call those rocks extrusive, on the surface – and there were also intrusives forming, where molten rock was forced through or into pre-existing rocks well below the surface.

When magmas rich in dense elements like iron, nickel, and chromium were intruded into older rocks, sometimes the densest minerals would settle out under gravity, just as dense gold settles in a stream bed. But in this case, the “stream” was molten rock in what is today south-central Montana. The accumulation of different layers of different density led to something called a Layered Igneous Complex, and the one in the Beartooth Mountains is called the Stillwater Complex. Its rocks solidified about 2.7 billion years ago, and they contain some of the richest reserves of platinum, palladium, and chromium in the Western Hemisphere.

The mines in the Stillwater Complex are the only sources of platinum and palladium in the United States, and they manage to make us only 91% dependent on imports for platinum and 54% dependent on palladium imports. These elements are far more important to everyday life than as jewelry. In fact the biggest use of platinum-group elements is in catalytic converters in vehicles. They also serve as catalysts in petroleum refining, and can be found in flat-panel displays such as TVs and Computers. Apart from the Stillwater Complex, most U.S. platinum and palladium come from Russia, South Africa, and specialized metal refineries in Germany.

Map from USGS Misc. Investigations Map I-797, 2002 (1974), by N.J. Page and W.J. Nokleberg.

1 comment:

  1. It was another joy to see your post. It is such an important topic and ignored by so many, even professionals. I thank you to help making people more aware of possible issues. Great stuff as usual...
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    ReplyDelete