Unnamed Occurrence (ARDF - NM023; Windy Creek), Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Unnamed Occurrence (ARDF - NM023; Windy Creek)	- not defined -
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The occurrence is on the ridge crest between upper West Fork Grand Central River and the head of Windy Creek. It is at an elevation of about 2,250 feet. This is locality 12 of Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) and locality 101 of Hummel (1975).
Geology: Graphite is disseminated in schist and with biotite in segregations as much as 18 inches thick. It also occurs as sparse disseminations in pegmatite. Moffit (1913, p. 135-136) described a graphite-rich layer 8 inches thick between pegmatite and schist walls. The host rocks to this graphite segregation are upper amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks that are probably derived from Precambrian protolith (Sainsbury, 1972; Bunker and others, 1979; Till and Dumoulin, 1994). They are thought to have undergone regional high-pressure metamorphism along with many other rocks of Seward Peninsula in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Patrick, 1988; Patrick and Evans, 1989; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). Higher temperature metamorphism overprinted these rocks in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Throckmorton and Hummel, 1979; Till, 1983; Evans and Patrick, 1987; Leiberman, 1988; Patrick and Leiberman, 1988; Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson and Arth, 1983; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998). Uplift of the higher temperature metamorphic rocks took place in the mid- to Late Cretaceous and in the Eocene (Calvert, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995).
Age: Mid-Cretaceous; the age of high temperature metamorphism in the Kigluaik Mountains

Commodities (Major) - Graphite
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Lenses and disseminations of graphite in amphibolite facies metasedimentary rock

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM023

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References