Lead isotopes from the Upper Mississippi Valley district: A regional perspective

Abstract

New lead isotopic data on galena from within and peripheral to the Upper Mississippi Valley lead-zinc district make it possible, by extending coverage to outlying locations, to trace the pathway traversed by the mineralizing fluids beyond the boundary of the main district. All but one of the samples exhibit elevated ratios of the radiogenic isotopes typical of the Upper Mississippi Valley ore deposits; grams, which permit their comparison and the calculation of refined slopes for the expanded data set. A two-stage model age for the time of mineralization can be determined from the 207Pb/204Pb-Pb206/Pb204 slope, provided that the source age of the lead is known. With our limited knowledge of this source age, the time of mineralization cannot be tightly