Publication Date:
1903-12-01
Description:
In discussing a paper by Mr. J. S. Curtis on the Witwatersrand Gold Deposits, Mr. George Denny has raised the point that the slates or shales of the Witwatersrand, which especially characterise, but are not confined to, the Lower Witwatersrand Beds (Hospital Hill Series), are not of sedimentary, but of igneous origin. He relies chiefly on the fact that he has observed in places that a so-called band of slate cuts across the bedding of the quartzites. I think we are all prepared to agree with him that, where he can point out that this occurs, the rock which traverses the bedded formation must be an igneous intrusion; but such cases are rare. In the vast majority of sections where the slates are exposed, they are found to occur truly bedded, and in conformable relation with the quartzites with which they are associated. It seems to me that, after all, this is in the main a petrological question, which can be easily settled by the examination of the rocks in question under the microscope.With this end in view I have examined a number of thin sections of these rocks, in all cases prepared from the cores of boreholes, on account of the difficulty of obtaining near the surface specimens sufficiently fresh and unweathered for microscopic examination; and I have selected geological horizons which are well known on the Witwatersrand. They are (1) the band of slates which occurs in the neighbourhood of the Bird Reef Series, and (2) the slates which occur in the footwall of the Main Reef itself, in both cases in the eastern portion of the Witwatersrand, as at Van Ryn and Geduld.
Print ISSN:
0016-7568
Electronic ISSN:
1469-5081
Topics:
Geosciences
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