Considered too low grade to be of economic interest.
Location: Fourth Beach is the highest elevation auriferous strandline now known on the Nome coastal plain (Hopkins and others, 1960; Nelson and Hopkins, 1972; Tagg and Greene, 1973; Cobb, 1973 [B 1374, figure 29, p. 87]). The elevation of the Fourth Beach strandline is 125 feet. It is preserved at the base of Anvil Mountain, where it is buried by colluvium. The map location is about on Cooper Gulch at a surface elevation of 250 feet. It is in the west-central part of section 12, T. 11 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian. The location is accurate within about 500 feet.
Geology: Fourth Beach represents the farthest advance of the sea in Quaternary time, and it has been recognized only at the base of Anvil Mountain. It formed as a true strandline beach by waves impinging upon bedrock. Unlike Third Beach, which terminates landward on a prominent scarp marked by long-continued erosion at that sea level, Fourth Beach is an inconspicuous strandline that evidently formed during a relatively short seastand. It is not generally rich enough to mine. Probably some of the gold that was concentrated at Fourth Beach sea level was eroded seaward before the beach was buried by mass-wasting deposits. Hopkins and others (1960, p. 47-48) noted that the sediments of Fourth Beach are overlain by drift of the Nome River glaciation and that the seaward edge of the deposits is truncated at the Third Beach escarpment. They postulated that Fourth Beach may have formed during some part of Submarine Beach time or during an otherwise unidentified interglacial interval. Nelson and Hopkins (1972) diagrammatically show Fourth Beach at the base of Anvil Mountain (also see Cobb, 1973 [B 1374, figure 29]).
Workings: There is no substantial production from Fourth Beach. Gold originally concentrated on this beach could have been eroded and reconcentrated in alluvial deposits below the beach.
Age: Pleistocene.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Placer Au; buried, strandline beach deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Select Mineral List Type

Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

ⓘ Gold

Mineral List

ⓘ 'Garnet Group'

ⓘ Gold

1 valid mineral.

Detailed Mineral List:

ⓘ 'Garnet Group'

Formula: X₃Z₂(SiO₄)₃

References:

(2008) Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF) Open-File Report 2008-1225. US Geological Survey

ⓘ Gold

Formula: Au

References:

(2008) Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF) Open-File Report 2008-1225. US Geological Survey

Gallery:

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification

Group 1 - Elements
ⓘ	Gold	1.AA.05	Au
Unclassified
ⓘ	'Garnet Group'	-	X₃Z₂(SiO₄)₃

List of minerals for each chemical element

O	Oxygen
O	ⓘ Garnet Group	X₃Z₂(SiO₄)₃
Si	Silicon
Si	ⓘ Garnet Group	X₃Z₂(SiO₄)₃
Au	Gold
Au	ⓘ Gold	Au

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM259

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

North AmericaContinent

North America PlateTectonic Plate

Brooks-Seward DomainDomain
Nome ComplexAccretionary Complex

This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

References

Cobb, E.H., 1973, Placer deposits of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1374, 213 p. Hopkins, D.M., MacNeil, F.S. and Leopold, E.B., 1960, The coastal plain at Nome, Alaska, A late Cenozoic type section for the Bering Sea region, in Chronology and climatology of the Quaternary: International Geological Congress, 21st, Copenhagen, Proceedings, Part 4, p. 46-57. Nelson, C.H., and Hopkins, D.M., 1972, Sedimentary processes and distribution of particulate gold in the northern Bering Sea: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 689, 27 p., 1 plate. Tagg, A.R., and Greene, H.G., 1973, High-resolution seismic survey of an offshore area near Nome, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 795-A, p. A1-A23.

Quick NavTop Commodities Mineral List Other Databases Other Regions References

Mindat.org® is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Mindat® and mindat.org® are registered trademarks of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2026, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph and Ida Chau.
Content on this site may not be used to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop artificial intelligence or machine learning models without prior written permission - see our Terms & Conditions.
To cite: Ralph, J., Von Bargen, D., Martynov, P., Zhang, J., Que, X., Prabhu, A., Morrison, S. M., Li, W., Chen, W., & Ma, X. (2025). Mindat.org: The open access mineralogy database to accelerate data-intensive geoscience research. American Mineralogist, 110(6), 833–844. doi:10.2138/am-2024-9486.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: September 6, 2026 14:16:43 Page updated: July 20, 2025 04:04:41

Go to top of page