Hydrothermal ore forming processes Flashcards
What are hydrothermal ores?
Deposits of ore generated from hot, ion-rich fluids
What are the main types of hydrothermal ore?
Vein
Disseminated
WHat are hydrothermal vein deposits?
Localised zone of fracture filling materials that often form in rock fractures and fissures close to fault zones
What are desseminated hydrothermal ore deposits?
Minerals dispersed in igneous rock
What hydrothermal processes form ores?
Hydrothermal fluid generation
Fluid migration
Mineral precipitation
Ore mineral deposition
Post-deposit alteration
What is needed to allow water to dissolve large amounts of metal?
Something else must be dissolved in there as well so circulated through a large volume of rock
What conditions need to change for precipitation to occur?
Temperature
pressure
composition
What are some examples of non-magmatic fluid generation?
Sea
Meteoric
Connate
Metamorphic
How are minerals from river rocks thermally deposited in the sea?
The thermal circulation - mid-ocean ridges then reword through black smokers
What is meteoric fluid generation?
Rain and ground water which is low temperature and contaons different H and O isotopes depending on evaporation strength
What is connate fluid generation?
water trapped in subsurface rocks high temperature and pressure alters rock properties
How is the release of water controlled from connates?
Depth and the changing temp and pressure on pore spaces
How does fluid migration generate ores?
Large water mobalisation needed to form ores, controlled by pressure and permeability with minerals being dissolved from host rock
How does thermal fluid migration occur?
Sea water drawn down into Basaltic oceanic crust (convection)
Heat up scavenge metals and then exhaled at mid ocean ridges
How does orogenic fluid migration occur?
Tectonic loading and compression
Squeezing fluids out ahead of Orogenic front
How does gravity driven fluid migration occur?
Hydraulic head water wants to flow down under force of gravity
Headed up as drawn down – able to scavenge metals
May remerge as hot springs
What are fluid pathways?
Spaces/ conduits for fluid to flow through (pore space or permeability)
Connected pores, joints or fractures reopened by tectonics
What are the anomalous properties of water?
Liquid at room temp
High heat capacity
High surface tension
Density maximum just above freezing
High dielectric constant
What is the critical point with water?
Temperature and pressure beyond which no boiling occurs (374c and 225 bar)
What is the density of liquid and vapour at the critical point?
0.3 g cm-3
WHat are the subcatergories of ore mineral deposition?
Porphyry
Skarn
Volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS)
Sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX)
Mississipi Valley Type (MVT)
What are porphyries a global source of?
60% of global copper
What are porphyries associated with?
porphyritic felsic intrusions
WHat type of deposits are formed from porphyries?
Form large, low-grade deposits
Copper
Copper- Gold
Copper- Molybdenum
Molybdenum
How do porphyries form?
Partial melting of Oceanic crust. Melt rises and collect in magma chambers this rises and erupts forming volcanic cone magam solidifies but vent allows magma to keep accumulating and cooling
What are alterations like for porphyry?
Magam chamber cools out to in causing cystallisation (feldspar and quarts) left melt rich in volatiles and metals volatiles migrate to top (steam) increasing pressure cuaing rupture into country rock carrying metals into cooler rock altering surroundings
What are skarn deposits?
Silicate rocks produced by the interaction between the hot hydrothermal fluids released by crystallizing magma with carbonate rocks
What is the name of the process which produces skarn deposists?
metasomatism
Where are skarn deposits often found?
Contact zones between intrusive igneous rocks
What are the types of skarn?
Endoscarns
Exoscarns
How do exoscarns form?
Form outside an intrusive body
Fluids left over from crystallisationof intrusion are ejected from the mass (boiling)
Common
What are endoscarns?
Form within fractures, cooling joints and stockworks inside intrusive body
Rare
What are metasomatic fluids commonly rich in?
Si, Fe, and Mn react with Ca and/or Mg-bearing carbonate rocks
Causes release of CO2 and producing a wide range of Ca-Mg-Fe-Mn silicates