Rio Tinto: Variscan tectonics and VMS ores

Part of the Shear Zone Channel. Rob visits the hill country of central Andalusia to explore a famous mining district, looking at the ores, the geology and tectonic controls along with the environmental impacts. The Rio Tinto district has been one of the greatest sites of copper production, along with other metals - materials that are increasingly critical for the modern World.
#mining #geology #tectonics #andalusia #ore. #metal

[@shhtoo7157]

Perfect. Perfect

[@MarcoPollo77]

Great information. Thank you for sharing. I didn’t realize what a brilliant mess Spains geology was.

[@robbutler2095]

Thanks - mess is a bit harsh! ;) ... some great accounts of Variscan tectonics out there...

[@chrisfalconer8944]

Another fantastic video. Thanks Rob

[@StereoSpace]

I recall reading the Romans seized these mines when they expanded into this region, and over the following centuries mined them on a massive scale with slave labor and extracted enormous quantities of copper and silver.

[@robbutler2095]

Yes indeed - the Pyrite Belt was big for the Romans, also Cyprus

[@matthewmcauliffe6711]

Thanks Rob for putting these videos out there! I love the passion and the topics are very enlightening

[@robbutler2095]

Glad you enjoy them... more to follow!

[@muzikhed]

Enjoyable video. Awesome place, I would really like to go there. So much history wrapped up in those rocks. The formation of the Iberian peninsula is an intriguing and complex story.

[@andrewjohnston9115]

My absolute bad, I had no idea how geologically significant Spain was, as a petroleum geologist I haven't given much thought to ore mineralisation since I was a student, sometimes you need a good teacher to spark your interest again. Once again you've done a really interesting video.

[@robbutler2095]

Thanks for the interest... lots of good stuff in Spain!!

[@cybernescens]

Phenomenal Professor. This has genuinely helped with some review I have been doing on the Stibnite Mining District of Idaho, United States. There, the mineralization is Eocene through Precambrian metasediments.

[@robbutler2095]

Glad it was helpful... always good to compare the geology of different places... good luck with your study!

[@tariqaziz8566]

thoroughly enjoy your informative video lectures, watching each one attentively. Could you please consider creating a lecture series on seismic sedimentology and seismic geomorphology?

[@hongyuanZhang-pr6wt]

I like the pencil structure you discussed. Is there the third plane to control its 3D geometry "pencil structure"?

[@robbutler2095]

HI - thanks for the question. To make good pencil cleavage, two sets of planar fabrics provide the geomety - in this case bedding (thinly spaced when fine-grained unit) and cleavage...

[@kevinjones4559]

Never sure why Spanish geology overlooked by UK university degrees. Cycled across Spain and lots of great roadside geology.

[@robbutler2095]

Used to be popular for field excursions - but not this area... Pyrenees and Betics etc....

[@rgc8786]

There is an immense amount of roman mines and related works still extant in Spain, even after the intensive reworking of many of them in the XIX-XX centuries. Not a few of them are exactly as they were abandoned. Copper, tin, lead, silver, mercury, iron, marble and more exotic materials like glass quality gypsum ( _lapis specularis_ ) to make windows before glass was cheap enough for mundane uses. You can see very interesting and well documented videos in TH-cam from the engineer Isaac Moreno Gallo, @IsaacMorenoGallo. His works on the 700+ kilometers of water channeling for gold beneficiation in northern Iberia are specially noteworthy.

[@robbutler2095]

Thanks for the comment and the interesting link!