Much of Europe, from Northern Scandinavia and Iceland to the Southern Iberian Peninsula, has been covered by valley glaciers and extensive ice sheets during long periods of the Pleistocene. Consequently, in both highlands and wide areas of the lowlands (particularly in Sweden, Finland, Northern Russia, and Central Europe) deposits of glacial origin (frontal moraines, different types of tills, lateral moraines, drumlins, and eskers) and other deposits indirectly related to glaciers (fluvioglacial terraces, lacustrine deposits, kames, and outwash plains) can frequently be found.

A variety of techniques have been used in attempts to date the mineralization in Carlin-type deposits in the Great Basin, with highly variable results. These techniques and results are reviewed in this paper, along with presentation of two new dates, for the Rodeo deposit on the Carlin trend and for the Barneys Canyon deposit in Utah. Complete resetting of sericite by hydrothermal fluids of the temperature and duration of hydrother-mal activity that form Carlin-type deposits is considered highly unlikely. Therefore, dates from sericite are generally of questionable value unless that sericite can be shown to have formed during the same hydrothermal event during which Au was deposited. For the deposits that have been investigated to date, sericite dates rarely, if ever, record the age of Au mineralization. However, sericite ages do appear to record pre-Au events in some districts. Such events may have contributed to ground preparation and, to a much lesser extent, to the tenor of the ore. Fission-track and U/Th-He techniques provide important age constraints on mineralization in some districts but also suffer from a less than clear association with Au. Rb-Sr dating of galkhaite, an Hg sulfosalt, provides the only direct age of mineralization, but galkhaite has been recognized in only a few locations (and dated in only two deposits). In a similar manner, adularia is contemporaneous with Au at Twin Creeks, but Twin Creeks is the only Carlin-type deposit where adularia has been reported. Several other techniques (U-Pb, Re-Os, Sm-Nd) have been used in attempts to date the deposits but with limited success.

On the basis of textural features and spatial distributions, both supergene and hypogene origins have been proposed for alunite in sediment-hosted micron gold deposits. If alunite is indeed primary, its presence provides important constraints on the chemistry of the ore fluid. Thus, determination of the genesis of alunite is critical to the understanding of the geologic history of these ore deposits.

At the Post deposit in Nevada K/Ar ages of alunite are much younger than the age of mineralization. Sulfur isotope compositions of alunite from several sediment-hosted micron gold deposits are virtually identical to those of sulfides, suggesting that alunite sulfur came from quantitative (closed-system) oxidation of primary sulfide minerals during weathering. Sulfur and oxygen isotope compositions of barite are markedly different from those of alunite. The oxygen and hydrogen isotope compositions of alunite fall in the supergene alunite fields; data for cogenetic kaolinite fall on the kaolinite line, whereas those for hypogene kaolinite do not. From all available petrographic and geochemical data, it would appear that alunite in the micron gold deposits of Nevada is entirely of secondary supergene origin.

Hace exactamente 30 anos, en octubre de 1969, se celebro en Salamanca el I Simposio Intemacional de Zooftlogenia. Las Actas correspondientes serian publicadas en 1971 por Rafael Alvarado, Enrique Gadea у Andres De Haro. La introduction se abria con una frase que bien puede considerarse plenamente vigente, aunque los tiempos, metodos у tecnicas han ido. cambiando en gran medida. Decla: