In Brief—Mt. Isa metal ores and Noah’s Flood
by Andrew Snelling
Mount Isa in north-west Queensland, Australia, is one of the world’s largest
(and richest) metal deposits, with silver-lead-zinc and copper ore bodies in the
same beds. The silver-lead-zinc ore is found as thin layers of minerals alternating
with bands of hardened mud (shale), whereas the copper ore consists of cross-cutting
veinlets of copper minerals within masses of ‘silica dolomite’ Most
geologists today agree that the minerals at Mt. Isa were originally deposited at
the same time. In addition, it is now commonly recognized that they were deposited
by hot underwater metal rich volcanic ‘springs’ like those found today
in the Red Sea, Gulf of California and the East Pacific.
Statistical analysis of the metal ores and the sediments they are in, shows that
all the silver-lead-zinc ore bodies and their host shales could have been deposited
in less than 20 days! Lead isotope data also points to rapid deposition on a massive
scale. Such a turbulent underwater volcanic setting for this rapid deposition is
reminiscent of the ‘fountains of the deep’ during Noah’s Flood,
and the fact that the shales which contain the metal ores are full of fossils, only
reinforces this. For further information see the technical article in this issue.
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