Geology Question
rwells
Registered Users Posts: 6,084 Major grins
Any smarty pants out there?
Over the years I've visited hundreds of old mines, but this is the first time that I've ever seen blue water come from one :dunno
The water is actually very clear, but the streambed has something on it that is a striking blue.
Any educated ideas on what causes this?
Over the years I've visited hundreds of old mines, but this is the first time that I've ever seen blue water come from one :dunno
The water is actually very clear, but the streambed has something on it that is a striking blue.
Any educated ideas on what causes this?
Randy
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Link to my Smugmug site
Got lil help from a chemist did we
To Randy:
Nice find Pard!!!
Ores in the mine or working were probably hosted in, or included, sulfide minerals. Mining exposes the remnant ore minerals in the mine to ground water or to surface water in the tailings piles.
Sulfide minerals react with the water to form sulfuric acid which can dissolve additional minerals into the water, which drains away from the mine.
Massively generalizing, once the runoff starts getting diluted, you start precipitating minerals from the water, basically down the acidity gradient that forms with distance from the acid mine drainage source. At higher acidity levels (low pH) iron compounds start precipitating, lots of reds and oranges, as the water becomes diluted to moderately lower acidity levels, copper, aluminum, nickel, zinc compounds in blues and greens and whites begin precipitating. Some iron compounds can be blue/green as well, what exactly precipitates depends on the exact conditions of the effluent and environment.
Keep your dog away from from that water, there could be all sorts of nasty minor elemental compounds like cadmium, and the water is still acidic. One drink probably wouldn't have a lasting effect, but you don't want animals ingesting heavy metals, not to mention the acidity of the water, on a regular basis.
I knew we had smart folks around here.