Does ice cover affect flood gold deposits?

[Leonard F.]

I took a drive up to Clear Creek north of Golden, CO the other day to check some of the spots where I prospected last summer. Last summer was my introduction to gold prospecting, and I can't wait to get back at it this spring. Anyway, I was wondering if the winter ice cover affects gold deposits, and once the ice is gone should I be looking at those areas of interest any differently?

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Water MOVES placer gold. Freezing and thawing erodes host rock. Winter freezing, and the flooding from snow and ice melt Moves and sometimes concentrates gold into patches. Look at the runoff areas as they act like natural sluices.

 

[Leonard F.]

Thanks Terry. I wasn't sure if I was over-thinking the situation, but I was just curious to know if placer deposits were altered in this situation.

I am not one-hundred percent on what you mean by "runoff areas". Sorry, I am new at this and just trying to understand as much as I can.

 

[B H Prospector]

Runoff areas would be the little draws and ravines the slope down towards the creeks or rivers. They are usually dry during summer and only carry water during spring thaw. Just remember everything flows down hill. Imagine drive through rolling farm land with alot of hills and little depressions or valleys. Those are runoff areas. One way that nature drys out the land.

B H Prospector

 

[Leonard F.]

Thanks B H. Make sense.

 

[LP13]

When I lived in Wyoming, near Cody, I found dinosaur bones there. Tracking the source there was a solid sandstone layer a few feet below the surface of the dirt. These pieces had migrated to the surface straight up from the intact bone below. Then I found out about 'frost heave'. This is a process of thawing and freezing that cracks rocks and moves fragments to the surface. Imagine a solid rock below, freezing and cracking, water filling the crack and lifting it up away from the other piece of rock because the water swells as it freezes. As it thaws, small particles in the dirt fill in the gap keeping it lifted up. Now repeat this process over and over and over. Soon the rock fragment has reached the surface. This would also apply to anything, so after freezing and thawing over and over during the winter, gold and anything else may have been moved to the surface or away from the underlying bedrock anyhow. Not sure if that is helpful to you, but it is information that may be useful. I suppose it might suggest checking the overburden to determine whether much has been moved up into it through the winter, and just how far it was moved up.