Used especially of ore deposits enriched by weathering processes and altered by the transfer of materials in aqueous solution, percolating downwards from the zone of weathering. The term was coined by the Russian geochemist Fersman, who considered the supergene zone to be the region of the earth where chemical elements migrate at low temperatures and pressures in the processes inter alia of weathering and soil formation. According to Perel’man (1967, p. 1) the supergene zone may extend for several thousand meters below the surface.
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Bibliography
Perel’man, A.I., 1967. Geochemistry of Epigenesis. Translated from Russian by Kohanowski, N.N., Foreword by Fairbridge, R.W. New York, Plenum Press, 266 pp.
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(2008). Supergene. In: Chesworth, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Soil Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3995-9_578
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