Orange Mineral Seeps
Printed From: ProfessorPaddle.com
Category: General
Forum Name: Chit Chat
Forum Discription: Non Boating Related Discussions
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10512
Printed Date: 19 Sep 2025 at 5:20pm
Topic: Orange Mineral Seeps
Posted By: Monk
Subject: Orange Mineral Seeps
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2011 at 12:53pm
|
Hey boaters- I was wondering if any of you have stumbled across small orange mucky seeps in the North Cascades. The one pictured is on Money Creek at low water, but I've seen them on the NF Sky downstream of the larger mineral spring at Garland, near Sloan Creek and on the NF Sauk. I'm curious if there are some others out there that anyone's stumbled across. Usually you'd miss them, unless out of your boat. Full disclosure, I'm a geothermal geologist and curious about the hydrology at these features. Thanks.  |
Replies:
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2011 at 12:55pm
|
Oh ok... I saw the pic first and thought you were saying this was Gold... ahahah I always thought they were run off from Iron deposits. I have seen them all over, on the Green, Cedar, in the woods by my house in Renton, they are up and down the Sultan too |
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2011 at 12:56pm
|
check river right toward the top of Boulder Drop. ------------- "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman |
Posted By: Monk
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2011 at 2:35pm
|
James- Some of these features are likely related to local buried iron (read logging cables/railroad tracks/mining equipment), as the orange is probably caused by siderophilic bacteria, and as such not really indicative of larger systems. But we have also seen them in association with cold carbon dioxide springs around the Cascades which are quite elusive. Brett- I'll check that out next time I'm up there. |
Posted By: Wiggins
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2011 at 2:39pm
|
We used to have these at my family's old house in Kent. They would flow off the hill into our pool. We always thought it was an iron deposit until someone built a house on the lot uphill of us. Turns out a farmer buried an old tractor, and the tractor was rusting.
Kyle ------------- I smell bacon |
Posted By: Jimmy
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2011 at 3:20pm
|
Originally posted by Wiggins
We used to have these at my family's old house in Kent. They would flow off the hill into our pool. We always thought it was an iron deposit until someone built a house on the lot uphill of us. Turns out a farmer buried an old tractor, and the tractor was rusting. Kyle Unless it was a toy tractor, it probably had a fair amount of iron in it. I've never built a tractor though, so I could be wrong.
|
Posted By: PowWrangler
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2011 at 4:28pm
|
Money Creek got it's name for a reason. I've actually heard it's the best creek to pan gold in the region. On that note, I swear last time I was on the creek, I was broached sideways on a boulder, looked down and saw a nugget the size of an egg, but flushed before I could reach down and grab it. I coulda been rich, rich I tell ya!
|
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2011 at 3:06am
|
I've seen some isolated small deposits like you describe- but can't recall all of the places- I'm familiar with the spot Bret refered to on the Sky. I tend to associate them with tanic acid related to strip mining because where I grew up paddling on the Cheat River in West Virginia (playboating that makes the Wenatchee seem bland and sparse by comparison), the effects were on such a large scale that the entire riverbed was a rusty orange- all the way from put in to take out. in fact , I used to tell the people in my raft that if they wore their gold jewelry down the river, they would end the trip with some bright shiny gold, provided the river spirits didn't manage to liberate them from such worldly posessions before they reached the T.O. (one of the many witicisms borrowed from jP The Elder- gotta give credit where credit is due) But as humorous as that sounds, it wasn't an exageration- I mean, the whole canyon looks like it came out of Chester Cheetah's factory. Sadly, the effects all but killed a once vibrant rafting industry on the Cheat, a stretch way better for rafting than anything Washington has to offer (talkin strictly whitewater here, er--uh- orange water), though the season is short. Somehow I just know Chester Cheetah does crystal meth. I just know it. ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2011 at 3:20am
|
I don't know about Washington so much(refering to various mineral deposits- we know there's plenty of Meth in Washington, and way too many bags of Cheetos On the Yellowstone River we used to stop at an eddy on River right somewhere between the "Gardiner Stretch" and Yankee Jim Canyon and show the peeps the hot springs trickling in there- definitely lots or iron and sulfur deposits in that case. The spring wasn't big enough to soak in beyond warming your feet. I never let anyone out of my raft there anyway- the place deserves to be preserved. It resembled the formations found up at Mamoth Hotsprings, not far up the Gardiner River. Plenty of Cheetos to be found in abundance there, too. Cheetos. that must be it. Bret- next time you head up to the Sky you ought to bring some plain 'ol corn chip product with you and dip it into that stagnent orange pool and see if it tastes like Cheetoes. There's gotta be some sort of Class Action suit we can muster against that damn methed out Cheetah! He must be stopped! ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: GHannam
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2011 at 8:59am
|
Monk:
Awesome pic-- thanks for sharing it
 Siderophilies are really common, as I'm sure you know. You'll see them all over the place, year round, but during certain times of the year when the water table rises, you'll see them more often off the side of riverbanks. They're indicitive of the oxidation of carbon and other organic matter, and organic matter dissolving in water, as you stated.
This is all part of the glorious cycle of nutrient recycling by microbes!!
Yellowstone is one of the greatest places to see microbial cycles and other extremophiles!!
|
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2011 at 10:12am
|
Jp, I'll get right on that. ------------- "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2011 at 1:42pm
|
Originally posted by GHannam
Yellowstone is one of the greatest places to see microbial cycles and other extremophiles!! what did you call me?  ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: Wiggins
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2011 at 7:12pm
|
In her defense we were all thinking it!
Kyle ------------- I smell bacon |
Posted By: jella
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2011 at 10:28pm
|
check out AK, the Kennicott River has many wonderful geological features you will not see anywhere else. As many other rivers up there. In the Kennicott/McCarthy area there is one of the worlds larges copper mines. It is not mined, was once tried, unfortunately the million dollar bridge blew out before they could hall anything out. Now, it was one of the worlds most sacred beautiful, rural places to visit, raft, kayak..... pretty much anything outdoors. It is a little slice of heaven. I highly recomend it to anyone looking for an adventure. ------------- |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 23 Feb 2011 at 11:36am
|
Originally posted by Wiggins
In her defense we were all thinking it! Kyle I guess I can't be surprised ~ sigh! ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |