mineral veins
Rock's metallic threads
Mineral veins are sheet-like deposits of minerals that fill cracks or fissures in rock.
They form when mineral-rich fluids flow through fractures and deposit their contents as they cool or react chemically.
Veins often contain valuable ores—gold, silver, copper, quartz—and are primary targets for mining: The prospectors followed a quartz vein into the hillside.
Geologists study vein patterns to understand a region's geological history.
- quartzCrystalline silicon dioxide
- pyriteBrass-yellow iron sulfide
- fissuresNarrow splits in material
- goldElement seventy-nine
- fracturesBreaks in rigid material
mining · fault zones · rock face · lodes · calcite · gangue · galena · silver · pay dirt · gold rush · prospecting · glinting · hematite · shaft · ore · embedded · outcrop · crystalline
- mininggold, mines, gold mines, mine, coal
- undergroundunderground, subterranean, cave systems, tunnels, tunnel
- underground resourcesore, gemstones, fossil fuels, petroleum, crude oil
- natural beautyrock formations, ice crystals, snowflakes, sand dunes, spiderwebs
- British geologychalk, flint, limestone, shale, sandstone
- gem sourcesmines, riverbeds, geodes