Geochemical survey of the Dolly Ann Roadless Area, Alleghany County, Virginia

Lesure, Frank G. · 1982 · Report

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) made a reconnaissance geochemical survey of the Dolly Ann Roadless Area (fig.

This 1982 document, Geochemical survey of the Dolly Ann Roadless Area, Alleghany County, Virginia, is preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library for research and reference. Original source: pubs.usgs.gov.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Base from U.S. Geological Virginia State map, 1973, Survey 1:500,000 [£] Do] ly Ann Roadless Area

10 MI LES 1 5 KI L.OMETERS Figure 1.-Index map showing location of Dolly Ann Roadless Area. Table 1.--A"naive;c,; oj" ~,on-ri<'h r·ock. em;,"!~" [Aluminum, iron, phosphorus, and some zinc analyses by indu"-tively--induced plasma (ICP) methods using aqua regLs digestion by A. L. Meier and J. M. Motooka, u.s. Geological Survey (USGS) laboratories, Denver, Colo.; most zlnc analyses by atomic-absorption methods by R. F. Arbogast and J. D. Sharkey, USCS labo.-atories, Denver, Colo,; uranium by spectrofluorometric methods by J, D, Mensik, Genco, I n<·., Wheat Ridge, Colo.; and other elements analyzed for by semiquantitative optic.al-emission speclrographic methods by Shannon Gore, Specomp Services, Inc., Hayden, Colo, Spectrographic analyses are l.'cporc-.ed as six steps per order of magnitude (I, 0,7, 0,5, 0,3, 0.2, 0,15, or multiples o-f 10 of these nnmhera) and are approximate geometric midpoints of the conce11tration ranges. Symbols u~ed: N, not detected; not determined; L, amount detected ia below the lo""-r limit of determination, whfr.h is number shown ln p.~relltheses below element symbol in column heading; less than number shown,] Sample No, VDA 002 VDA 005 VDA 006 VDA 008 VDA 014 VDA 015 VDA OH, VDA 017 VOA Olf! VOA 023 VOA 024 VOA 025 VOA 026 VDA 027 VOA 028 VDA 038 VOA 039 VOA 040 VOA 041 VOA 042 VOA 043 VOA 046 VOA 049 VOA 050 VOA 060 VOA 067 VOA 069 VOA 073 VOA 077 VOA 078 VDA 079 VOA 223 VOA 226 VOA 227 VOA 235 A, ,. ' Percent o.6/i 16.1 o. s9 13,4 0,32 o.92 213,2 0,68 20 , 4 o.56 2B.o o.64 0.32 19,5 o.34 0,35 16.1 0.42 lfl.3 0.2a 11 .o o .i.o 16,2 0,38 o.li? o.40 0,55 o.4s 1s.6 o.s2 0,68 0,71 10,7 0,33 0,38 0,82 o.48 o.29 o.43 0,43 o.76 rn.s o.47 Q.36 Q.37 Q.39 0,73 0.34 14.3 0.37 Q.90 15,7 0,39 0.1,2 17.0 0.45 17,0 0,40 Co (S) w rn ' ' ' ' ' '" (5) " Ma " '" (5) ( 10) (10) Parts per mill,rn ROSE lllLL FORMATION )00 WO rn " ' ' ' " ' ' ' ' ' ' ,0 ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' rn " w " " ' (l Saaple description 2-ra chip sample, hem,Hitic sandstone. Specific gravity (sp gr) 2.82. 1-m chip sampl e, hematitic sandstone, sp gr J.O. 2-n chip simple, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,67. 1-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,90, 2-,n chip sample, hernatitic sandstone , sp gr 3,09, 1-m chip sample, hewatitic sandstone, sp gr 3,13, 1-m chi p sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2.94, 2-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 3.33. 1-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2.90. 1-m chip sample, hcnatit i c s"ndstone, sp er 2,63, 1-m chip sample, hematitic satldstone, sp gr 2,68, 2-m chip sample, f,ematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,94. 1-m chip snmpl e, hematitic satldstone, sp gr 2,91. 1-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2.86. 1-m chip sample, hemati ti c sandstone, Sp gr 2.85. 2-m chip sample, hematit i c sands~one, sp gr 2.93. 2-m ~hip sample, hemat l t i c sandstone, Sp gr 2.95. 3-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone and shale, sp gr 2,81. 2-m chip sample, hcmatitic sandstone, sp gr 2.94. 2-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,77, 1-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 1-m chip sample, grayish-red shale, sp gr 2.52. 1-m chip aample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2.96. 2-m chip sample, hematitie sandstone, spgr 2.84. 1-m chip sample, hemalitic sandstone, sp gr 3.22, 0.5-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr Z.99 , 2-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,913, 1-m chip simple, hematitie sandstone, sp gr 2.94. 2-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2.88. 1-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, Sp gr 2.89. 2-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2.89. 2-m chip simple, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,66, 2-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,67. 1-m chip sample, hemstitic sandstone, Sp gr 2 .91. 2-m chip sample, hematitic sandstone, sp gr 2,99, LIMONITIC SANDSTONE (Oriskany iron ore) VOA 032 VDA 047 VOA 04!1 VDA 052 VOA 053 VOA 055 VOA 059 VOA 256 VOA 257 0,67 o.42 o.14 0,31 o.46 Zinc in Umonite deter111.ined by ICP methods. '°' ' (1 Iron determined by semiquantitative apec.trographic analyHII 0.3-m chip sample, limonite. Composite sample, sandy limonite, sp gr 2,72, 2-m chip sample, limonite-cemented sandstone, sp gr 2,63, 2-m chip sample, limonite-cemented sandstone, sp gr 2,93, 1-m chip sample, sandy limonite sp gr2.92. 1-m chip sample, sandy limonite, sp gr3.14. 2-11 chip sample, limonite-cemented sandstone. Compo11ite 11simple, limonite, ap gr 3.20, CoTL!polite sample, llmonite and limonitic 11andatone, Ip gr 2.33. Table 2.--Analy"e" of misae&laneous ro<'k samptee containing high aonaentrations of one or mor,e elementJ [All analyses by semiquantitative optic.st eniseion spectrographic 11ethoda by Shannon Gore, Specomp Service", Inc., Hayden, Colo. except zinc, which l8 by atollic-sbaorption methods by B. F. Arbogast and J, D. Sharkey, USGS laboratories, Denver, Colo., uranium, which is by spectrofluorometric methods by J. n. Mensik, Geoco, Inc., Wheat Ridge, Colo., and one phosphorus analysis by inductively-coupled plasma methods using aqua regia digestion, by 7. M. Motooka, USGS laboratories, Denver, Colo. Spectrographic data reported as six steps per order of magnitude (1, 0.7, 0.5, 0.3, 0,2, 0.15, or 111multiples of 10 of these numbers) and are approximate geometric midpoints of the concentration ranges. Symbols used: N, not detected; L, amount detected is below the lower limit of determination, which is number shown below element symbol; G, greater than value shown; --, not determined.] Sample No. Al Fe p .. 0, 0, "" Ho ., " '" Sample description VDA 030 VOA 036 VOA 044 VOA 054 VDA 063 VDA 075 VDA 216 VOA 219 VOA 230 VOA 236 VOA 241 VOA 262 VOA 276 VOA 291 ' ' Percent o., o.54 0,7 ( 0.5) (5) ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ,0 ' ' , N JO o ' ' N N ' (5) (10) (5) (5) Parts per million ., G5000 ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' " ' (10) WO

o.6-m chip sample, cherty limestone, Licking Creek Limestone. 1-m chip sample, fossiliferous limestone, Licking Creek Limestone. 0,5-m chip sample,weathered quartzose sandstooe, Keyser Limestone. 2-m chip sample, shaly limestone, Tonoloway Limestone. 2-m chip sample, phosphatic siltstone, Martinsburg Shale. 1-m chip sample, shaly limestone, Tonoloway Limestone, 1-m chip sample, shale, Romlley Shale. 1-m chip sample, shale, Romney Shale. 1-m chip sample, shale, Romney Shale. 1-m chip sample, sbaly limestone, Licking Creek Limestone. 1-m chip sample, shale, Romney Shale. 1-m chip sample, friable asndetone, Keyser Limeetone. 1-m chip sample, siltstone Martinsburg Shale, 1-m chip sample, cherty limestone, Licking Creek Limestone, B,e from U.S. Ueo!ogical Survey Covington, , gsi lLS of 1009 POl)'<'oolc project,a,. 19~1 Ncrlh American Wtum l O,OOO-!oot weld b88ed oo Ylrlllm ,ystem, ooutO """" 1,000-met.,,. Umv<!'Sol T,ons,e"'e Morea.tor K?"d ticks, zone 17 r sc:u 48 OGO 1 MILE I slcOMC!CH EXPLANATION Smal l drainage basin and locality-- All sample stream-sediment sample number:; are preceded by "VOA" t,ables and text

SS 55 m Gool{"LO' simplified from Lesure ( ijl ) ,,. EXPLANATION OF MAP UNITS I Qlc J }Holocene UNCONFORMITY usu '

Middle Devonian Lower Devoni1111 Upper Silurian Middle Silurian }Quaternary Devonian Silurian Cenozoic

Low~ Silwiw Paleozoic S( OJ Orn Upper Ordovician Ordovician Middle Ordovician , DESCRlPTJON OF MAP UNITS (Note: The following explanation is for the screened g:eologic base map used with figures 2, ari.d 5.) Alluvium (Holocene)-Sand aOO gravel containing abundant boulders and cobbles of sandstone Landslide and eolluvium {Holooenel-Large chaotic masses of boulders, cobbles, and pebbles nf quartzite and hematitic sandstone, mostly from the Keefer Sandstone and R~e Hill Formation. Mapped where most obvious and in areM where contacts of mderlying formations are completely hidden Romney Shale (Middle Devonian)-Shale, black, fissile, pyritic, sparsely fossiliferous. Grades into shale, medium-to lightolive-gray, celcareoua, fossiliferous in lower 100 ft . Black shale correlates with lower part of MillbOl'O Shale, and lower gray shale correlates with Needmore Shale Lower Devonian and Upper SilUl'ian rocks, undivided~Contaim the following formations which are poorly exposed and cannot be mapped separately in this area: Ridgeley Sandstone (Lower Devonian). Sandstone, medium-to coarse-grained, calcareous. Where cemented by secondary iron oxides, forms hanging wall of Oriskany iron deposits Licking Creek Limestone 1 (Lower Devonian). Limestone, upper part light--gray, sandy; where replaced by secondary iron oxides, forms Oriskany iron deposits. Lower part, dark-to mediumgray, cherty; forms footwall of Oriskany iron deposits Healing Sp~s Sandstone (Lower Devonian). Sandstone, lightgray to gn.ylsh-orange, medium-to coarse-grained, crosebedded, calcareous. Deeply weathered and poorly expa;ed New Creek Limestone (Lower Devonian). Limestone, medium-gray, roan1e-grained, crinoida.l, sandy. weathered and poorly expoeed light-to Deeply Keyser Limestone (Lower Devonian and Upper Silurian). Limestone, medium-to dark-gray, fossiliferous, cberty; 90me argillaceous layers contain thin nodules and lenses of black chert. Deeply weathered aOO poorly exposed. Includes the Clifton Forge Sandstone Member (Lower DevoniM) near ~ase. Sandstone, white to light-gray, fineto eoarse--gramed, crossbedded, calcareous, !CBsiliferous Tonolway Limestone (Upper Silurian). Limestone, light---(llivegra.y to medium-gray, thin-bedded, laminated, impure and argillaceous. Mudcracb, intraformational breeeiM, and thin, coarse-grained beds, locally. Weathen readily to grayish-yellow shaly clips, Deeply weathered and poorly expa;ed Figure 2.-Small drainage basins and localities of stream-sediment samples. Williamsport Sandstone(?) or Wills Creek Shale(?) (Upper Silurian). Sandstone, white to brown, porous, ealcueous, crossbedded; mterbedded light-gray shale and minor amountll of pale-yellow-orange, friable, silty sandstone in lower part. Deeply weathered and poorly exposed. Called "Wills Creek" Formatioo by Lesure (1957, p. 39). Exposures are too poor to correlate this wiit with better e11posed sect10ru; outside the area ·-. Bose frorr U.S. Goo!ogi""I Survey Covl1,gton, 19<'12 POOlo,ev,,u., as of l ""il Polyo,.,;e proJretJa. 1!21 !<o,th Amo,,,,.n ,J,,tun, 1 0,000-/oo! grid on V!rilln,a sy,\err,, OQOth ZOrle 1,000-meter Unlve,sol Tl'>lMv,,.., Mere,toc gnd helc, irone 17 MRTINSBL'RG SHALE cal~areoua aisle and liate~tone 1' sa .. ples Average Elemeots Los lligh :lledisn shale ' ' ' " Th ' ' '" " o., o.' ' " soo ' ' ' ' (100 ' " )20 ' o. 7 '50 '50 ' ' ; " 12" 0,5 ' )00 ' ' <10

' Tureklan and Wedepohl (1961). Leaure and others (in p~eas, table 1). Only sru1;ples analyzed for uranium. ICP aoalyees on 7 samples, see table 1.

2,21 '.7 0,46 0,07 100 ,., 1' " w ' " " " ''° '" SCAlE I :)()I I MllE I SILUME7EO )

EXPLANATION ' - , ; i J

All sample by "VOA" nuT;"Lbers are preceded in tables and text Rock sample locality 217 ® Iron-rich rack sample U68 Soil sample locality locality '. - p " '

Keefel' Sandstone {Middle Silurian)-Sandstone, white to light-gray, vsy fine-to fine-grained, neBrly pure quartz. Thin-to thickbedded and locally crossbedded. Weathered surfaces commonly stained red, pink, er brown, Generally unfossiliferous except fer Scolitlais tl.Des R<:6e Hill Fermatioo (Midclle Silurfon)-Sandstone, dusky-!'ed-purple, hematitic, thine thick-bedded, crossbedded, mterbedded greenish-gray to moderate-red shale. Sandstone forms abundant slabby float that conceals 90fter and more ee.~ily eroded shale beds. Hematitic beds are low-grade iron resource. Some thin beds, O.S-2 ft (0.1--0.6 m) thick, of fossiliferous, oolitic, hematitic sandstone were mined for iron locally east and ilOUth of the area Tuscarora Quartzite (Lower Silurian}-Quartzite, white to light-gray, fine-to coarse-grained, conglomeratic neu base. Generally medium-to thick-bedded and locally crossbedded. Resistant to erosion J1miata Formation (Upper Ordovicien)-S8ndstone, mostly grayislt-red, but some light-gray to olive-gray, Vel'Y fine-grained, thin-- bedded, crossbedded, micaeeous; interbedded grayish-red and olive-gray silty shale Martiroburg StuLle {Upper and Midcl.le Ordovician)-She.le, medmmto light-gray, medium-grained, calcareous; interbedded argillaceous limestone. Weathers to gr,amish-yellow and yellowish-orange shale chips Contact-Approximately located; dashed where covered by Quaternary depos1lli Strike and dip of beds Inellned Hcrizontal Overturned Vertical Boundary of study area lroo mine ( Abandoned open cut or gro~ of cuts PrCJEIPeet pit or small cut Figure 3.-Localities of rock and soil samples. Cos ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' w " JUNIATA FORMATION Sandstolle 7 samples High ' ;oo ; ,0 ' ' (100 ' 3S ,oo Median (0 .05 J .5 ,., o.3 ' ,oo mo ' ' (100 ' ,oo Table 3.--Ronge and media. concentrations of 28 elements In rock, stream-~ediment, and 30f! mmples frum Dolly Am Roodless Area and vicinity compared with the median clues for Bimilor samples from the MUI CrMk, Motmtain Lake, and Peters Mowitain Wilderness Study Area.ii, Craig and Giles Counties, Va,, and Monroe County, W. Va. IAU analyses of Dolly Ann samples by seimquantitative optical-emission speetrographic methods by Shannon Gore, Speeomp Servuies, Ine., Hayden, Colo., and D. F. Siems, USGS laboratories, Denver, Colo., except uranium, which is by spectrofluorometric methods by Geoeo, Inc., Wheat Ridge, Colo., and zinc, which is by atomie-absorption by B. F. Arbogast and J. D. Sharkey, USGS laboratories, Denver, Colo. Spectrographic analyses were reported as six steps [)er order of magnitude (I, 0.7, 0.5, 0.3, 0.2, 0.15, or multiples of 10 of these numbers) and are approximate geometric rniqmints of the concentration ranges. Symbols used: N, not detected;<, emo,.ml detected is below the lower limit of determination, which is number sOOwn;>, amount 1s greater than number sOOwn; -, not determiried, Elements looked for spectrogmphically but not found and their lower limits of determination (ppm): B.nd RIDGELEY SANDSTONE AND TOSCAMRA QUARTZITE ROSE HILL FORMATION KEKFV.R SANDSTONE LICKING CREEK LIMESTONE ROMNEY SHALE 20 ' aamples Median 0,12 0.6R (0,4

' GO '" ' '15 L"' ' o.os ' w ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Sandstone 12 samples High 0,07 0,5 "

' ' ' ' ' " '" 'Median (0.05 0,07 0,025 ' f),06 ' <10

' ' w ' ' ' ' ' " " ' samp1:_e.s Medfan 0,31 0,48 0,19 (0,4 "

u D "

' " <13 m n Hematitic sandstooe Los ' ' ' ' w '

' " ' ' ' ' w ' mo Hlgh o.; o., o., ' so '50 1'0 woo ' ,0 ' mo ' ISO rno '° Med tan ' 0,07 '

50 , ' !) ' ' ' ,0 ' shale '" ' samples Mediam m 0,093 Sandstoru, u samples

High PERCENT o., ' 0,05 (0,02 ' ' ' o.3 ,., Median (0.05 ' PARTS l'ER MlLLION (0,4 " ' " LOO ,10 ' " ' ' ' ' ' ' rn ' ' (100 ' ,oo '° ' w w

' Lo

' ' ' ' ' ' ' '

' LO " ' samI'les Median o., (),022 " '"

" " "' " (10 ' '15 Gl ' LJ.monitic sandstone

' ' ' '

w ' ' so ' ' ' ' ' " w samples High '20 0,03 ' '°' WO ' ' ,00 ' WO ' Hedi.an '

' ' (100 ' 4 430 4 6700 ,0 Median o. 7 'l,026 ,,, 0,013 '" uo ' <JO " m " "' ''° '"

' (0,05 ' o., o., ' ' ' ' ' ' ' <10 Shale 7 samples High rno ''° w ' ,0 3'0 Median 0,07 ' o., ' rn >00 ''°

'

w ' ' " ,oo "

Zinc

in parts MISCELLANEOUS FIELD STUDIES MAP MF-1358-B

100 150 200 300 500 700 per million (ppm) Figllre 4.-Histogram showing distribution of zinc in stream sediments. Data grouped in six steps per order of magnitude (Motooka and Grimes, 1976, p. 2). ., Eo,e lro'" U.S. Ge,:,log,cnl 8urV<-y Covrngtoo, l .., of J g;;s Poly,:,,mc P"' i""""'· 1927 North M ,,..,can dntum 10,om>-foot grid based on Vlrgrn,a eooNinote sy,tem, ilOU!t. zone 1,000-mete, mversel ·1 ""'""-,;e Y.erootor ,,1~ tick,. ,one 1, SCAI F 1 lrll I KIIJMEIU ' G..,log:; slmpll!!OO r..,m L"""'"" ( 1981 ) I r.-lE Figure 5.-Distribution of zinc in stream sediments. STUDIES RELATED TO WILDERNESS Roadless Areas The Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577, September 3, 1964) and related acts require the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines to survey certain areas on Federal lands to determine their mineral resource potential. Results must be made available to the public and be submitted to the President and the Congress. This report presents the results of a geochemical survey of the Dolly Ann Roadless Area in the George Washington National Forest, Alleghany County, Va. The area was classified as a further planning area during the Second Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE II) by the U.S. Forest Service, January 1979. INTRODUCTION The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) made a reconnaissance geochemical survey of the Dolly Ann Roadless Area (fig. 1) to test for indistinct or unexposed mineral deposits that might be recognized by their geochemical halos. Similar geochemical surveys based on trace-element analyses have been credited with the discovery of many types of mineral deposits (Hawkes and Webb, 1962). No metallic mineral deposits other than iron Md manganese are known in the sequence of rocks exposed in the study area, and no evidence of any other deposit was found in the geochemical ?tudies. Samples collected by the author, assisted by M. B. Longacre in May 1979 and A. E. Grosz in April 1980, include 39 stream sediments, 17 soils, and 120 rocks. PROCEDURES of the small drainage basins in the study area and a few to it were sampled by collecting a few handfuls of the finest available (fig. 2). After drying in the laboratory, the samples were sieved, and the minus SO-mesh (0.007 in. or 0.177 mm) fraction was used for analyses. Most adjacent sediment The rock samples consist of a few small chips taken from beds of mostly one lithology and of known thickness (fig. 3). The samples are representative of the major rock types exposed in the study area. About one-third are samples of hematitic sandstone from the Rose Hill Formation. Sandstones from the Juniata Formation, Tuscarora Quartzite, and Keefer Sandstone and siltstones from the Martinsburg Shale make up another one-third. The rest are from the poorly exposed Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian formations. Soil samples were collected, mostly in areas of few outcrops (fig. 3). The soil samples are from the A2 or upper B soil zones, just below the dark, organic-rich surface soil (A1 zone). All samples were scanned spectrographically for 34 elements and analyzed chemically for zinc and uranium. The Iron-rich samples were analyzed separately for iron and phosphor1.1s. The complete analytical data and rock sample descriptions are given in Lesure and others (1981). Tables 1 and 2 give the concentrations of selected elements in the iron-rich samples and in some miscellaneous rock samples having high concentrations of one or more elements.

(0,05 O .os ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '

IS STREAM SHDLMENTS 39 samples High 5 o., ' rn

' " ,oo ,0 ' ' ''° Median ' ' o., o., ;o '" ' rn ' ' G samples Median 0.' O.IS (0.4 rn ' ,0 w <JO w w m m SOIL H samples " ' Los High ' (0.05 0,2 0,2 )I ' ' O ,0 so ' ' , ,

' ' ' ' G ,0 ,oo '

''° uo )1000 ---'!..~ples ' 0,15 GOO ' Median ' ,0

,0 ''° " <,O ' (15 ' DISCUSSION A summary of the analytical data for samples from the Dolly Ann Roadless Area is compared with the median values for analyses on similar samples collected in Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain Wilderness Study Areas, Craig and Giles Counties, Va., and Monroe County, W. Va. (table 3). These three study areas, which are about 40-55 mi (64-88 km) southwest of Covington, have the same rock formations exposed as in Dolly Ann. The median concentrations of many elements for all sample types in Dolly Ann are as similar to those from Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain as can be expected considering that the data are semi~antitative that the an:9-lyses were done by different analysts using different machines and techmques. The analytical data indicate areas rich in iron; they do not indicate any other well-defined anomalous areas obviously related to mineralized rock. The sandy limonite deposits in the Licking Creek Limestone and Ridgeley Sandstone, the so-called Oriskany iron ores (Lesure, 1957, p.80105), also contain zinc in amounts ranging from 190 to 6,700 parts per million (ppm) (table 1). The zinc content is typical for this type of iron deposit in Virginia and may have accumulated with the iron during weathering and ore formation. Zinc has long been reported as a minor constituent of these ores (Benton, 1886, p. 283) and was considered a nuisance in the early smelting operations (Firmstone, 1879; Means, 1889). Samples of unweathered Licking Creek Limestone and weathered Romney Shale contain 60-550 ppm zinc (table 2). Unweathered calcareous sandstone of the Lower Devonian rock that crops out about 3 mi (5 km) northeast of White Sulfur Springs, Greenbrier County, W.Va., and about 15 mi (24 km) west of Covington, locally contains as much as several percent zinc (Lesure and others, in press). The zinc is not considered to be of resource value. A few of the stream-sediment samples contain high concentrations of zinc (figs. 4 and 5). The areas from which these samples were collected seem to be related to areas containing limonite deposits or the Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian limestones that contain traces of zinc. The limonite deposits also contain trace amounts of cobalt, nickel, manganese, and uranium (table I). The type of strong, tough cast iron, containing 0.184 percent combined nickel and cobalt, reported by Firmstone (1909, p. 548) to have been produced from typical Oriskany iron ore probably is responsible for iron from this area being a favorite of the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond for use in naval ordnance (Bruce, 1931, p. 119,190). All but one sample of limonitic sandstone contain traces of uranium (U) ranging from l to 22 ppm (table 1). A few other rock samples also have traces of uranium (table 2). All the soil samples have less than l ppm u, and only 5 stream-sediment samples contain traces of it. Sample nos. VDA 035, VDA 234, and VDA 250 contain I ppm U; sample no. VDA 260 has 2 ppm U; and sample no. VDA 264 has 3 ppm U. Both samples 260 and 264 are from small drainage basins containing limonite iron mines. None of these uranium concentrations appears to have any economic significance. REFERENCES CITED Benton, E. R., 1886, Notes on the samples of iron ore collected in Virginia: U.S. Tenth Census, v. 15 (Mining Industries), p. 261-288. Bruce, Kathleen, 1931, Virginia iron manufacture in the slave era: New York, Century Co., 483 p. Firmstone, Frank, 1909, An tmusual blast-furnace product; and nickel in some Virginia iron-ores: American Institute of Mining Engineers Transactions, v. 39, p. 547-549. Firmstone, H., 1879, Note on a deposit of cadmia in a coke furnace: American Institute of Mining Engineers Transactions, v. 7, p. 93-99. Hawkes, H. E., and Webb, J. S., 1962, Geochemistry in mineral exploration: New York, Harper and Row, 415 p. Lesure, F. G., 1957, Geology of the Clifton Forge iron district, Virginia: Virginia Polytechnic Institute Bulletin, Engineering Experiment Station Series no. 118, 130 p. , Geologic map of the Dolly Ann Roadless Area, Alleghany County, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-1358-A, scale 1:24,000. Lesure, F. G., Williams, B. B., Dunn, M. L., Jr., in press, Mineral resources of the Mill Creek, Mountain Lake, and Peters Mountain Wilderness Study Areas, Craig and Giles Counties, Virginia, and Monroe County, West Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1510. Lesure, F. G., Arbogast, B. F., Meier, A, L., Matoaka, J.M., and Siems, D. F ., 1981, Analyses and descriptions of geochemical samples, Dolly Ann Roadless Area, Alleghany County, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-1126, 18 p. Means, E. c., 1889, The flue-dust of the furnaces at Low Moor, Va.: American Institute of Mining Engineers Transactions, v. 17, p. 129-131. Motooka, J. M., and Grimes, D. J., 1976, Analytical precision of one-sixth order semiquantitative spectrographic analysis: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 738, 25 p. Turekian, K. K., and Wedepohl, K. H., 1961, Distribution of the elements in some major tits of the earth's crust: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 72, no. 2, p. 175-192. GEOCHEMICAL SURVEY OF THE DOLLY ANN ROADLESS AREA, ALLEGHANY COUNTY, VIRGINIA By Frank G. Lesure INTEAIOR---GECI OGICAI SURl'E I , RfS70N, VA - 19tll for ,ale JY Urcrnh of 01st11but1on US Geological Su;vey. 1200 South [ads Street, VA 22202