Fluid and source magma evolution of the Questa porphyry Mo deposit,New Mexico,USA |
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Authors: | Leonhard M Klemm Thomas Pettke Christoph A Heinrich |
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Institution: | 1.Isotope Geochemistry and Mineral Resources, Department of Earth Sciences,Eidgen?ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich,Zurich,Switzerland;2.Institute of Geological Sciences,University of Bern,Bern,Switzerland |
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Abstract: | Combined fluid inclusion microthermometry and microanalysis by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
(LA-ICPMS) are used to constrain the hydrothermal processes forming a typical Climax-type porphyry Mo deposit. Molybdenum
mineralisation at Questa occurred in two superimposed hydrothermal stages, a magmatic-hydrothermal breccia and later stockwork
veining. In both stages, texturally earliest fluids were single-phase, of low salinity (~7 wt.% NaClequiv.) and intermediate-density. Upon decompression to ~300 bar, they boiled off a vapour phase, leaving behind a residual brine
(up to 45 wt.% NaClequiv) at temperatures of ~420°C. The highest average Mo concentrations in this hot brine were ~500 μg/g, exceeding the Mo content
of the intermediate-density input fluid by about an order of magnitude and reflecting pre-concentration of Mo by fluid phase
separation prior to MoS2 deposition from the brine. Molybdenum concentrations in brine inclusions, then, decrease down to 5 μg/g, recording Mo precipitation
in response to cooling of the saline liquid to ~360°C. Molybdenite precipitation from a dense, residual and probably sulphide-depleted
brine is proposed to explain the tabular shape of the ore body and the absence of Cu-Fe sulphides in contrast to the more
common Cu-Mo deposits related to porphyry stocks. Cesium and Rb concentrations in the single-phase fluids of the breccia range
from 2 to 8 and from 40 to 65 μg/g, respectively. In the stockwork veins, Cs and Rb concentrations are significantly higher
(45–90 and 110–230 μg/g, respectively). Because Cs and Rb are incompatible and hydrothermally non-reactive elements, the systematic
increase in their concentration requires two distinct pulses of fluid exsolution from a progressively more fractionated magma.
By contrast, major element and ore metal concentrations of these two fluid pulses remain essentially constant. Mass balance
calculations using fluid chemical data from LA-ICPMS suggest that at least 25 km3 of melt and 7 Gt of deep input fluid were necessary to provide the amount of Mo contained in the stockwork vein stage alone.
While the absolute amounts of fluid and melt are uncertain, the well-constrained element ratios in the fluids together with
empirical fluid/melt partition coefficients derived from the inclusion analyses suggest a high water content of the source
melt of ~10%. In line with other circumstantial evidence, these results suggest that initial fluid exsolution may have occurred
at a confining pressure exceeding 5 kbar. The source of the molybdenum-mineralising fluids probably was a particularly large
magma chamber that crystallised and fractionated in the lower crust or at mid-crustal level, well below the shallow intrusions
immediately underlying Questa and other porphyry molybdenum deposits.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
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Keywords: | Porphyry molybdenum Fluid inclusion Questa |
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