North America once nearly split in 2, with a 2,200 mile long series of rifts stretching from Oklahoma to Ontario all the way to Alabama. While this rift failed, it allowed for lake Superior to form, and also left behind numerous incredibly valuable ore deposits, especially elemental copper. Today's video will discuss this geologic province as it formed 1.1 billion years ago. Thumbnail Photo Credit: Google Earth, Image IBCAO, Image Landsat / Copernicus, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Image NOAA. This image was overlaid with text, and then overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border & the GeologyHub logo). If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: http://patreon.com/geologyhub) (YouTube membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeGh5VML5XPr5jYnzh3J6g/join) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: http://prospectingarizona.etsy.com) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: http://geologyhub.etsy.com) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image): Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Sources/Citations: [1] U.S. Geological Survey [2] Woodruff, L.G., Schulz, K.J., Dicken, C.L., and Nicholson, S.W., 2020, Mineral resource database for deposits related to the Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent Rift System, United States and Canada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2020–1069, 20 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20201069 [3] Stein, Carol & Kley, Jonas & Stein, Seth & Hindle, David & Keller, Randy. (2015). North America's Midcontinent Rift: When rift met LIP. Geosphere. 11. GES01183.1. 10.1130/GES01183.1. [4] Stein, Seth & Stein, Carol & Kley, Jonas & Keller, Randy & Merino, Miguel & Wolin, Emily & Wiens, Douglas & Wysession, Michael & Al-Equabi, Ghassan & Shen, Weisen & Frederiksen, Andrew & Darbyshire, F.A & Jurdy, Donna & Waite, Gregory & Rose, William I & Vye, Erika & Rooney, Tyrone & Moucha, Robert & Brown, Eric. (2016). New Insights into North America's Midcontinent Rift. Eos. 97. 10.1029/2016EO056659. [5] Bodden, Thomas & Bornhorst, Theodore & Bégué, Florence & Deering, Chad. (2022). Sources of Hydrothermal Fluids Inferred from Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Composition of Calcite, Keweenaw Peninsula Native Copper District, Michigan, USA. Minerals. 12. 474. 10.3390/min12040474. CC BY 4.0. [6] Prasanna Mahesh Gunawardana, Robert Moucha, Tyrone O. Rooney, Seth Stein, Carol A. Stein; North America's Midcontinent Rift magma volume: A coincidental rendezvous of a plume with a rift. Geology 2022; 50 (10): 1125–1129. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G49913.1 0:00 Midcontinent Rift 1:33 Flood Basalts 3:13 End of Rifting 3:35 Copper Deposition