Geochemical data for alkaline igneous rock units in the Cripple Creek district, Colorado USA: 1989-2016

This data release includes new major and trace element geochemical data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for igneous rocks in the Cripple Creek district in Colorado. Cripple Creek is among the largest epithermal districts in the world, with more than 800 metric tons (t) Au (>26.4 Moz). The ores are associated spatially, temporally, and genetically with ~34 to 28 Ma alkaline igneous rocks that were emplaced into an 18 km2- diatreme complex and surrounding Proterozoic rocks (Kelley and others, 2020). Igneous rocks associated with Cripple Creek are part of a regionally extensive episode of Oligocene alkaline magmatism that extended southward along the axis of the Rio Grande rift through New Mexico and into the Trans Pecos [...]