THE ORIGIN OF VEINLETS IN THE SILURIAN AND 
DEVONIAN STRATA OF CENTRAL NEW YORK* 
STEPHEN TABER 
University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 
CONTENTS 
INTRODUCTION 
STRATIGRAPHIC FEATURES 
STRUCTURAL FEATURES 
Types OF VEINS 
SOURCE OF THE VEIN MINERALS 
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIBROUS VEINS 
ORIGIN OF THE FIBROUS VEINS 
DESCRIPTION OF THE NON-FIBROUS VEINS 
ORIGIN OF THE NON-FIBROUS VEINS 
NATURE OF ForcES THAT SEPARATED THE VEIN WALLS 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 
INTRODUCTION 
Although the origin of metalliferous veins has long been of 
interest to the geologist and mining engineer, very few facts have 
been definitely established concerning the mechanics of vein forma- 
tion. Direct investigation of the subject is difficult because of the 
complexity of the processes involved and because only the final 
results are available for examination. The evidence that may have 
existed during the early stages of vein growth has commonly been 
obliterated by alterations due to vein-forming solutions or to 
secondary changes. Most metalliferous veins are found in regions 
of dynamic metamorphism and where igneous processes have been 
active. Consequently these veins, as a rule, furnish little or no 
evidence relative to the mechanics of their origin. The study of 
small barren veins in regions of unaltered sedimentary rocks has 
been largely neglected because they are of no commercial impor- 
tance, and yet such veins often furnish more positive evidence con- 
« Presented in abstract at the Albany meeting of the Geological Society of America, 
December, 1016. 
56 
