Geologic Factors in Exploration
Coming to the geological aspects of exploration, the procedure in its early stages is again one of elimination. Oil and coal, for instance, are found in certain sediments of certain ages, and one would not look for them in an area of granite. For every mineral resource there are broad geologic conditions of this sort, particularly the genetic, structural, and metamorphic conditions, which make it possible to eliminate vast areas from consideration and to concentrate on relatively small areas.
After the elimination of unfavorable areas, there comes the hunt for positively favorable geologic conditions—for a definite kind of sediment or igneous rock, for a definite structure, for the right kind of mineralogic and metamorphic conditions, or for the right combination of these and other geologic elements. The geologic considerations used in exploration for the various mineral deposits are so many and so diverse, and they require so much adjustment and interpretation in their local application, that one would be rash indeed to attempt anything in the nature of an exhaustive discussion. It is hardly practicable to do more than to outline, for illustrative purposes, a few of the geologic factors most commonly used in exploration.