For part four I want to discuss yet another prospecting hypothesis that I have for glacial gold areas. This one may be more difficult to prove one way or the other due to certain limitations such as the depth that prospecting equipment can effectively reach as well as State Laws for certain areas.
So, the basic premise is that larger waterways should have better gold in them and large East-West waterways even more so. The thought behind this is that the larger the waterway/drainage basin, the more glacial gold bearing till the river has cut through, sorted and concentrated.
The issue though is that larger waterways/drainages, here in Western PA and the mid-west in general is that they tend to run in more North-South orientations. This means that most of the larger waterways have been cut deeper from the advancing glaciers and may only have one era of glacial gravel in their channels since any older gravels would have been carved out by the aforementioned advancing glaciers. Please see post 2 for further explanations on glaciated North – South vs. East – West waterways.
So, the question is, does the amount of material moved, sorted and concentrated by large waterways that run N-S offset the negatives of probable deep bedrock, only one era of glacial material. But from this information large waterways that run E-W or have sections of them that run E-W should be prioritized, given that they have the mainy positive features going for them in regard to the concentration of gold.
Hope you enjoyed this hypothesis and I look forward to hearing your experiences!
For Ohio gold prospecting documents and map go here: Ohio Gold Documents : The Prospecting Geologist
For Pennsylvania gold prospecting documents and map go here: Pennsylvania Gold Documents : The Prospecting Geologist
