Geologic types of glass-sand deposits and some North American representatives

Abstract

Although the major glass-sand deposits of the midwestern United States are of the classic blanket marine sandstone type, throughout the United States and Canada a wide variety of geological types of silica deposits is available as glass-sand sources and potential sources. These include: (I) Unconsolidated sands: (A) Littoral — Cohansey Formation, New Jersey; (B) Alluvial plain — Citronelle Formation, Florida; (C) Marine dunes — Pacific Grove, California; (D) Lake dunes — Redcliff, Alberta; (E) Stream channel — Ravensdale, Washington. (11) Arkosic sands: Idaho Formation, Idaho. (III) Consolidated sandstones and orthoquartzites: (A) Marine and littoral — St. Peter Formation, Oriskany Formation, Potsdam Sandstone; (B) Alluvial — Pottsville Formation, Pennsylvania. (IV) Quartzites: Lorrain–north shore Lake Huron, Ontario; Grenville — Baie Comeau, Quebec. (V) Hydrothermal veins: Quartz Mountain, Washington; Carson City, Nevada. (VI) Tectonically crushed rocks: (A) Sandstone — Moberly Mountain, British Columbia; (B) Quartzite — St. Donat and St. Remi, Quebec. (VII) Weathering products — Oriskany Formation, Goshen, Virginia. Another, nongeological category would be waste sands — leftovers from other mining operations, such as the residual sands from the Fort McMurray, Alberta, tar sands operations. The chief deposits of the north-central United States are the St. Peter (Ordovician) and Sylvania (Devonian) sandstones. The St. Peter is believed to have been derived from Precambrian quartzites of the Canadian Shield (which themselves originally may have been second-generation sandstones), and the Sylvania probably was derived from St. Peter outcrops, making it a third- (or fourth-) generation sandstone.