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Vein identification and geology

A sheet-like body of mineral matter that fills a fracture or fissure in rock, precipitated from hydrothermal or other mineral-bearing fluids flowing through the fracture. Quartz and calcite are the most common vein minerals, but veins can contain economically important ore minerals including gold, silver, copper, and sulfides. Vein systems can be simple single veins or complex stockworks, sheeted vein zones . Field: economic geology. Example: The Mother Lode gold district of California consists of a system of quartz veins up to 3 m wide extending for over 190 km along a major fault zone in Sierra Nevada metamorphic rocks, producing over 30 million ounces of gold since the 1849 Gold Rush.. Related terms: Hydrothermal, Quartz, Fracture, Ore.

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  • Hydrothermal
  • Quartz

Sources, scope & corrections

These authoritative resources support category-level nomenclature, terminology, identification methods, and safety. When a specimen-specific safety warning appears, the public-health source listed here directly supports that precaution. They are not line-by-line citations for every other property on this entry, and natural specimens vary.

Editorial owner
GeoMiner
Last updated
2026-03-30T15:19:42.096023+00:00
Review status
Published; not independently peer-reviewed
  • USGS Thesaurus — U.S. Geological Survey. Controlled earth-science terminology used to describe USGS information resources.
  • Glossary of Geologic Terms — U.S. National Park Service. Geologic definitions prepared by the NPS Geologic Resources Inventory.

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Common questions

What does Vein mean in geology?
A sheet-like body of mineral matter that fills a fracture or fissure in rock, precipitated from hydrothermal or other mineral-bearing fluids flowing through the fracture. Quartz and calcite are the most common vein minerals, but veins can contain economically important ore minerals including gold, silver, copper, and sulfides. Vein systems can be simple single veins or complex stockworks, sheeted vein zones .
What is an example of Vein?
The Mother Lode gold district of California consists of a system of quartz veins up to 3 m wide extending for over 190 km along a major fault zone in Sierra Nevada metamorphic rocks, producing over 30 million ounces of gold since the 1849 Gold Rush.
Which earth-science field uses the term Vein?
Vein is used in economic geology.
Which terms are related to Vein?
Related terms in this reference are Hydrothermal, Quartz, Fracture, Ore.

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