Fluid inclusion and microfabric studies on Zechstein carbonates (Ca2) and related fracture mineralizations – New insights on gas migration in the Lower Saxony Basin (Germany)

New petrographic and fluid inclusion data from core samples of Upper Permian dolomitic limestone (Hauptdolomit, Zechstein group, Stassfurt carbonate sequence) from a gas field located at the northern border of the Lower Saxony Basin (LSB) essentially improve the understanding of the basin development. The gas production at the locality is characterized by very high CO₂ concentrations of 75–100% (with CH₄ and N₂).Samples consist of fine grained, mostly laminated and sometimes brecciated dolomitic limestone (mudstone/wackestone) from the transition zone between the shallow water zone (platform) and the upper slope. The study focuses on migration fluids, entrapped as fluid inclusions in diagenetic anhydrite, calcite, and fluorite, and in syn-diagenetic microfractures, as well as on the geochemistry of fluorite fracture mineralizations, obtained by LA-ICP-MS analysis. Fluid inclusion studies show that the diagenetic fluid was rich in H₂ONaClCaCl₂. Recrystallized anhydrite contains aqueous inclusions with homogenization temperatures (T_h) of ca. 123 °C, but somewhat higher T_h of ca. 142 °C was found for calcite cement followed by early Fluorite A with T_h of 147 °C. A later Fluorite B preserves gas inclusions and brines with maximum T_h of 156 °C. Fluorite B crystallized in fractures during the mobilization of CO₂-bearing brines. Crossing isochores for co-genetic aqueous-carbonic and carbonic inclusions indicate fluid trapping conditions of 180–200 °C and 900–1000 bars. δ¹³C-isotopic ratios of gas trapped in fluid inclusions suggest an organic origin for CH₄, while the CO₂ is likely of inorganic origin.Basin modelling (1D) shows that the fault block structure of the respective reservoir has experienced an uplift of >1000 m since Late Cretaceous times.The fluid inclusion study allows us to, 1) model the evolution of the LSB and fluid evolution by distinguishing different fluid systems, 2) determine the appearance of CO₂ in the geological record and, 3) more accurately estimate burial and uplift events in individual parts of the LSB.     

山东省肥城陆房地区萤石矿成矿地质条件及找矿方向

肥城陆房地区是一个重要萤石矿分布区,目前评价的2个萤石矿,分别位于九山和赵家庄矿区,赋存于二长花岗岩中,受NE,NNE向构造控制,均为岩浆热液充填型。从这2个萤石矿的矿床地质特征入手,结合国内已有萤石矿资料,分析肥城陆房地区的成矿地质条件及矿床成因,总结其成矿规律,并指出今后该区找矿方向。     

浙江武义萤石矿床遥感找矿预测

在分析了武义地区构造、岩性、地球化学和现有萤石矿床蚀变类型和编制出１：５００００遥感解译地质图基础之上，提出本区的萤石控矿因素及遥感找矿标志，建立遥感找矿模型。用主成分分析方法提取与萤石矿化密切相关的硅化、高岭土化蚀变信息，用“证据权重模型”法进行区域找矿预测；找到了断裂硅化蚀变带。     

Fluorite deposits at Encantada–Buenavista, Mexico: products of Mississippi Valley type processes

Petroleum and aqueous fluid inclusions from the Encantada–Buenavista fluorite mineralized zone in northern Mexico were analyzed by microthermometry, UV fluorescence, Raman Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) to evaluate the geochemical evolution of the mineralizing fluids. Two-phase (petroleum or brine+vapor) and three-phase (petroleum+brine+vapor) inclusions are described. Aqueous and petroleum-rich inclusions commonly occur in the same plane. Vapor-decrepitated and stretched fluid inclusions are present. A low-salinity methane-saturated fluid and a high salinity-fluid with highly variable methane contents are recognized. H₂S is not quantified but is always detected in close association with methane. Petroleum inclusions are of two types: a low methane petroleum fluid (20 mol%) with low T_h (60 °C) and a petroleum fluid with a methane of content near 30 mol% and a T_h of 90 °C.Pressure and temperature diagrams for the aqueous and petroleum inclusions show three main intersects that allow P–T–X reconstruction of fluid evolution at La Encantada–Buenavista. A CH₄- and H₂S-rich low-salinity brine was mixed with oil that migrated under hydrostatic conditions with a thermal gradient of 70 °C/km. The arrival and mixing of a high-salinity aqueous fluid produced overpressure to 300 bars. A return to hydrostatic conditions was accompanied by an increase in the thermal gradient.The brine related to the fluorite orebodies appears to have a genetic relationship with the brines reported from the Jurassic petroleum basins located west of the fluorite bodies and similarities with reported fluids from Mississippi Valley type deposits. It is interpreted that the fluorine-rich fluids migrated toward the platform margins during the mid-Tertiary (30 to 32 Ma) using extension zones related to Basin and Range tectonism. Mixing of two different brines was responsible for precipitation and mineralization. Heat from magmas, related to tectonic extension, caused decrepitation and changes in the shape of fluid inclusions near the contact zones.     

The Sweet Home rhodochrosite specimen mine,Alma District,Central Colorado: the porphyry molybdenum–fluorine connection

Intermediate sulfidation veins containing quartz–sphalerite–tetrahedrite–rhodochrosite–fluorite in the Sweet Home Mine, Alma District, Colorado were originally mined for silver starting in 1873. For the last 13 years up until 2004, however, the mine has produced world-class rhodochrosite specimens. Some of these specimens are considered to be among the finest mineral specimens ever produced and the finest of their species with values well over $1 million US dollars. The extraction, preparation, and marketing techniques pioneered at the Sweet Home operation have revolutionized the minerals specimen industry. The Sweet Home deposit is interpreted as a single pulse variant of a Climax-type hydrothermal system. Evidence for this includes (1) an age of mineralization (25.8 ± 0.3 Ma) that coincides with the age of the end stages of mineralization of the Climax molybdenum deposit approximately 7.5 km to the northeast; (2) a geochemical (Mn, W, F) and mineralogical (topaz, fluorite, hubnerite, greisen muscovite) signature typically associated with Climax-type systems; (3) the presence of porphyry rhyolite dikes, a breccia dike, and local quartz–molybdenite veins in the nearby area; (4) a small pegmatite within the mine with an age (25.9 ± 0.3 Ma) coincident with mineralization, which also contains minor amounts of disseminated molybdenite; and (5) the presence of similar-appearing gemmy, red rhodochrosites at Climax and other high-silica rhyolite systems. A significant difference is that unlike Climax-type systems, the Sweet Home hydrothermal system appears to have consisted of a single, relatively small pulse of magmatic fluid that slowly cooled and diluted with groundwater. This is inferred to have occurred at moderate depths in the order of 1.5–2.5 km below the surface. The fluids that formed the Sweet Home veins were dilute (salinity in the order of 2–4 wt% NaCl equivalent), high-temperature (temperatures of homogenization up to 370°C), and initially of magmatic origin. Gem quality ruby-red rhodochrosite at the Sweet Home Mine is nearly pure manganese carbonate with minimal solid solution with Fe⁺², Ca, or Mg. It formed at higher temperatures and salinities in comparison to lower value, pink rhodochrosite. Gemmy, ruby-red rhodochrosite is distinctly associated with highly evolved silica-rich igneous/hydrothermal systems. The high fluorine content typical of such systems suggests that Mn was transported in solution as fluoride complexes, which, in turn, favored rhodochrosite deposition at above-average temperatures and with minimal cation contamination. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Sr and Nd isotope data from the fluorspar district of Asturias, northern Spain

The origin and age of the hydrothermal fluids related to the precipitation of fluorite, barite and calcite in the Villabona, La Collada and Berbes localities (Asturias fluorspar district, N Spain) have been evaluated from Sr and Nd radiogenic isotopes. Sr isotope data (⁸⁷Sr / ⁸⁶Sr = 0.7081 to 0.7096) are compatible with mixing between seawater and a more evolved groundwater that interacted with the basement. From Nd isotopes in fluorite, an isochron age of 185 ± 29 Ma (Lower Jurassic) was obtained, consistent with other hydrothermal events in the Iberian Peninsula and Europe. These constraints are essential to proceed with a quantitative model for the genesis of the mineralization that includes fluid and heat flow together with reactive transport of solutes.     

浙江萤石矿床成矿规律与成矿模式

对浙江萤石矿床类型、空间分布及其与大地构造关系、成矿温度、成矿时代、成矿流体等特征进行了总结,并对其形成机制进行了探讨。指出浙江萤石矿的形成可能与深部年龄为80Ma的岩体有关,成矿作用发生在太平洋板块快速扩张俯冲之后的减速松弛阶段;成矿流体为幔源流体、变质水、岩浆水及大气降水的混合流体;萤石矿的富化经历了多次溶解与沉淀的反复过程。提出了流体-地层-岩体-断裂控制的"四位一体"的成矿模式。     

贵州戈塘金矿萤石微量元素特征及钐—钕测年

对与戈塘金矿共生的萤石微量元素特征研究表明:萤石中Mo,W,As,Cd,Bi等高温元素含量均高于地壳值,V,Cr,Cu,Cs,Th,Mo,Ga和Ge等元素变异系数大,活化能力强。萤石的稀土总量很低,仅为10.299×10-6～17.455×10-6,明显富集重稀土(LREE/HREE为0.48～0.69),并具有Eu和Ce的负异常(δEu为0.71～0.91,δCe为0.62～0.78),Tb/Ca-Tb/La图解显示萤石为热液成因且为热液的晚期阶段。萤石的Rb/Sr比值和初始87Sr/86Sr比值均与地幔值较为接近,反映出其成矿流体主要来源于上地幔或(岩浆)深部。萤石的形成经历了长期演化的热液活动,成矿温度较低(<200°～250°),成矿年龄为(35.83±0.37)Ma(Sm-Nd等时线年龄)。     

浙江青田县万山萤石矿矿床地质特征及成因

浙江青田县万山萤石矿成矿作用主要由地热水浅循环伴含氟成矿流体,在特定的物理化学条件下,沿有利的构造空间富集成矿,属低温热液充填型脉状矿床.矿体矿石、矿物组分比较简单,矿石矿物为萤石,脉石矿物以石英为主,次为蛋白石、高岭石、黄铁矿、方解石、绿泥石等.矿石主要化学成分为CaF2和SiO2,矿石中SiO2、CaF2二者总量约占97％～99％.随着CaF2含量的增加,SiO2含量减少.