The Geology and Mineralization of the Sedimentary Hills Area, Pima County, Arizona

Abstract

Mildly metamorphosed Cretaceous siltstones, arkoses and limey shales and a small composite stock of granitic composition are the principal rocks exposed in the Sedimentary Hills area, which lies six miles west of Tucson, Arizona. About 2400 feet of sediments were measured and assigned to the Amole Arkose Formation. The beds dip to the south and strike northwesterly. The stock is composed of two granitic facies. The northern and earlier part of the stock is a quartz monzonite which is mildly altered. The southern part of the intrusive is a granite porphyry which is altered to a greater degree and exhibits significant disseminations of chalcopyrite and pyrite. A quartz-pegmatite plug, probably a late phase of the intrusions, intrudes the quartz monzonite. Structure in the area is dominated by a large thrust zone which strikes generally parallel to the bedding. Within the Sedimentary Hills area, normal faulting and drag folding are tributary to the thrusting. Minor copper oxide minerals are frequent along large and small faults, and in the granite porphyry stock. Wide brick-red and brown gossans occur along the major thrust plane.