Coupled Models of Brittle-plastic Deformation and Fluid Flow: Approaches,Methods, and Application to Mesoproterozoic Mineralisation at Mount Isa,Australia

Rock deformation has an important effect on the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of permeability in the Earth’s crust. Hydromechanical coupling is of fundamental significance to natural fluid–rock interaction in porous and fractured hydrothermal systems, and in the assessment and production of hydrocarbon resources and geothermal energy. Shearing and fracturing of rocks can lead to the creation or destruction of permeability when fractures or faults form, or when existing structures are reactivated. Changes in stress orientation or fluid pressure can drive rock failure and create dilating fault zones that have the potential to focus fluid flow, or to breach seals above overpressured fluid compartments. Here, numerical models of deformation and fluid flow related to Mesoproterozoic copper mineralisation at Mount Isa, Australia, are presented that show how changes in deformation geometry in multiply deformed geological architectures relate to changes in dilation patterns, fluid pathways and flow geometry. Coupled numerical simulations of deformation and fluid flow can be useful tools to better understand structural control on fluid flow in hydrothermal mineral systems.     

Testing Hypotheses for the Mount Isa Copper Mineralisation with Numerical Simulations

We have applied reactive transport simulations to evaluate conceptual models of hydrothermal fluid flow related to the Mesoproterozoic Mount Isa copper mineralisation. Numerical experiments have been performed specifically to investigate whether fluid flow was driven by mechanical deformation, higher than hydrostatic fluid pressure gradients, or thermal buoyancy, and what the mechanism of ore deposition was. One distinct feature of the Mount Isa mineralising system is a region of massive silica-rich alteration that surrounds the copper ore bodies within the Urquhart shale, indicating upward flow of a cooling fluid. Hydromechanical modelling revealed that contraction and horizontal shear can produce a dilation pattern that favours upward fluid flow, whereas strike slip movement causes dilation of pre-existing vertical structures. Reactive transport models show that hydraulic head driven flow is more likely to produce a more realistic silica alteration pattern than free thermal convection, but neither process generates a flow pattern capable of precipitating copper at the appropriate location. Instead we propose that gravity driven flow of a dense oxidised basin brine led to chalcopyrite mineralisation by fluid-rock reaction.     

Apparent polar wander relative to Australia during the Precambrian

Palaeomagnetic data for Australian Precambrian rocks allow the preparation of a tentative apparent polar wander curve. The proposed curve helps to “date” the magnetic remanence of many rocks whose age of magnetization or remagnetization is imprecise. Using this curve the CRMs of hematite ore deposits can be shown to have been acquired up to hundreds of millions of years after the deposition of the host rocks.Comparison of the Australian Precambrian apparent polar wander curve with proposed curves for Europe, Siberia, North America and Africa provides further evidence for the suggestion of relative continental movement during the Precambrian. If relative continental drift has not (or could not have) taken place, then “true” polar wander apparently varies relative to the continent for which it is determined.     

Palaeomagnetic study of the (Late Precambrian) West Greenland kimberlite-lamprophyre suite: definition of the Hadrynian Track

Kimberlite and potassic lamprophyre dykes were intensively intruded into the early Proterozoic Nagssugtoqidian mobile belt of West Greenland during an important phase of brittle reactivation in Late Precambrian-Early Cambrian times (ca. 580-570 Ma) and during at least one other minor phase. Thermal and alternating field demagnetisation studies of 52 of these dykes identify primary components residing in the critical blocking temperature range distributed between shallow westerly and steep positive directions. Near the axis of the Proterozoic shear belt the dykes (predominantly lamprophyres) have closely grouped shallow directions with a reversal; near the margins of the shear belt dykes (predominantly kimberlites) have steeper and distributed directions. The cleaned components of magnetisation appear to be single, and the distribution of directions is interpreted to record a migration of the palaeofield axis which intersecting relationships show to have been from shallow to steep. The dyke directions are grouped to define representative mean palaeopoles of 215°E 3°N (LK1, A₉₅ = 3.9°), 213°E 18°N (LK2, A₉₅ = 6.1°), 203°E 46°N (LK3, A₉₅ = 10.4°) and 259°E 54°N (LK4, A₉₅ = 11.0°); a subsidiary direction recorded in five dykes near the southern margin of the shear belt (LK5, palaeopole at 297°E 16°S (A₉₅ = 12.5°)) is derived entirely from lamprophyres and is possibly Silurian in age. An RbSr isochron on three lamprophyres of 1227 Ma and agreement of the remanence direction with ca. 1220 Ma rocks from elsewhere in Greenland suggests that the LK1 component is wholly or partly of that age.The remaining sequence of palaeopoles falls along the Hadrynian Polar Track and the age data relating to this track are re-evaluated. Evidence for a pre-800 Ma age is no longer valid and the new data from West Greenland confirm that the track is latest Precambrian to Early Cambrian in age. It is shown to connect poles of Late Precambrian and Lower Cambrian age and to embrace other data from the Laurentian shield. The rapid passage of the shield across the South Pole is consistent with the sedimentation sequences, and suggests a high-latitude origin for the tillite horizon of this age. The Hadrynian Track is also compared with the contemporaneous record from Gondwanaland and it is shown that the two shields were in juxtaposition in the identical reconstruction to the Proterozoic Supercontinent until earliest Cambrian times. This discovery links the Lower Cambrian marine transgression and the widespread ca. 580-560 Ma alkaline province in the Gondwanaland, Laurentian and Fennoscandian shields to major continental break up, and it conforms with evidence that the Iapetus Ocean did not open until Cambrian times.     

Pumiceous peperite in a submarine volcanic succession at Mount Chalmers,Queensland, Australia

Pumiceous peperite comprising irregularly shaped apophyses of feldspar-phyric rhyolitic tube pumice and siltstone occurs within well-bedded volcaniclastic sandstone and siltstone facies of the Early Permian Berserker beds at Mount Chalmers, Australia. The tube pumice structure is preserved where sericite or silica have replaced the glass of vesicle walls and vesicles have been infilled by silica. In some instances, the peperite occurs gradationally above or below intervals of coherent feldspar-phyric rhyolite that are also predominantly pumiceous. The siltstone in the pumiceous peperite is texturally homogeneous, locally vesicular and contains shards and crystals derived from disintegration of the pumiceous rhyolite. Pumiceous rhyolite and peperite occur at various positions in the stratigraphy and may represent interconnected intrusive digits or lobes. Intrusion of the lobes was accommodated by expansion of the pore water and possible fluidisation of the host sediment, resulting in local destruction of bedding. The lobes developed chilled margins at contacts with wet sediment and inflated in response to vesiculation and the supply of new magma. Cooling of the lobes was possibly accompanied by development of microfractures in the glassy vesicle walls. Rupture of the chilled margin and propagation of fractures into the interior could have temporarily and locally depressurised the lobes, resulting in failure, disintegration and mixing with the adjacent wet and/or steam-rich sediment. Hot pumiceous rhyolite in lobe interiors may have interacted directly with the wet sediment and been dismembered by quench fragmentation and/or steam explosions. Bubbles of magmatic gas and/or steam were trapped in the sediment that mixed with the pumiceous rhyolite. The development of pumiceous texture in the sills was favoured by emplacement beneath a thin cover of wet sediment in a relatively shallow, submarine shelf setting in which the confining pressure was sufficiently low to permit vesiculation. This setting was also important in limiting the extent of degassing of the pumiceous rhyolite during cooling.     

Secondary welding of submarine,pumice-lithic breccia at Mount Chalmers,Queensland, Australia

Very thick units of massive pumice and lithic clast-rich breccia in the Early Permian Berserker beds at Mount Chalmers, Queensland, are deposits from cold, water-supported, volcaniclastic mass flows emplaced in a below-wave base submarine setting. Adjacent to syn-volcanic andesitic and rhyolitic sills and dykes, the pumice-lithic breccia shows a well-developed eutaxitic texture. The eutaxitic foliation is parallel to intrusive contacts and extends as far as a few metres away from the contact. At these sites, pumice clasts are strongly flattened and tube vesicles within the pumice clasts are compacted and aligned parallel to the direction of flattening. Some lenticular pumice clasts contain small (2 mm), round, quartz-filled amygdales and spherulites. Further away from the sills and dykes, the pumice clasts have randomly oriented, delicate tube vesicle structure and are blocky or lensoid in shape. Round amygdales were generated by re-vesiculation of the glass and the spherulites indicate devitrification of the glass at relatively high temperatures. The eutaxitic texture is therefore attributed to re-heating and welding compaction of glassy pumice-lithic breccia close to contacts with intrusions. In cases involving sills, secondary welding along the contacts formed extensive, conformable, eutaxitic zones in the pumice-lithic breccia that could be mistaken for primary welding compaction in a hot, primary pyroclastic deposit.     

Excess radiogenic Ar and undisturbed Rb-Sr systems in basic intrusives subjected to Alpine metamorphism in southeastern Spain

Metamorphosed basic intrusives in the Alpine orogen of southern Spain contain relicts of unmetamorphosed gabbroic rock. Rb-Sr investigation of one of these relicts indicates that the rock and constituent minerals remained closed to Rb-Sr during the plurifacial Alpine metamorphism. The Rb-Sr isochron age is 146 ± 3 Ma with initial⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of 0.7028 ± 0.0001 (λ⁸⁷Rb = 1.42 × 10^?11 a^?1), which is taken as approaching the intrusion age. All investigated relicts of unmetamorphosed rock are characterized by excess⁴⁰Ar contents between about 6 × 10^?6 and 14 × 10^?6 cm³ NTP/g, whereas the metamorphosed parts of the basic intrusives rarely show this phenomenon. It is argued that this argon, which is very inhomogeneously distributed, was acquired during the Alpine metamorphism. A comparison of the excess⁴⁰Ar contents of the pyroxene and the plagioclase with published data suggests that in all cases the crystals have acquired the argon under about the same prevailing⁴⁰Ar partial pressure, even when the geologic conditions were different.     

Seismic control of layering in intrusives

The intermittent occurrence of earth tremors during the solidification of magma is considered a possible mechanism for the development of layering in intrusives. Qualitatively, at least, the effect is comparable to that of shocks being administered to supersaturated liquids in the laboratory. It should be possible to interpret the seismic history of the region during the crystallization of the intrusive from a critical and detailed analysis of the pattern of layering developed. Convection currents, on the other hand, are unlikely to play a significant role in the development of layering, because the dimensions and the distribution of convection cells are rigorously controlled by the depth of the liquid, which changes continuously as crystallization progresses.     

Orographic controls on rain water isotope distribution in the Mount Lofty Ranges of South Australia

Hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of water are common environmental tracers used to investigate hydrological processes, such as evaporation, vegetation water use, surface water–groundwater interaction, and groundwater recharge. The water isotope signature in surface water and groundwater evolves from the initial rain signature. In mountain terrain, rain water stable isotope composition spatially varies due to complex orographic precipitation processes. Many studies have examined the isotope–elevation relationships, while few have quantitatively investigate the terrain aspect and slope effect on rain isotope distribution. In this paper, we examine the orographic effects more completely, including elevation, terrain slope and aspect, on stable isotope distribution in the Mount Lofty Ranges (MLR) of South Australia, using a multivariate regression model. The regression of precipitation isotope composition suggests that orographic effects are the dominant controls on isotope spatial variability. About 75% of spatial variability in δ¹⁸O and deuterium excess is represented by the regression using solely orography-related variables (elevation, terrain aspect and slope), with about 25% of δ¹⁸O spatial variability attributed to the terrain aspect and slope effect. The lapse rate is about −0.25‰ for every 100 m at both windward and leeward slopes. However, at the same elevation, δ¹⁸O at the leeward slope (eastern MLR) is 0.5‰ larger than that at the windward slope. The difference can be explained by different mechanisms – continuous rain-out processes on the windward side and sub-cloud evaporation on the leeward side. Both δ¹⁸O and deuterium excess maps (1 km resolution) are constructed based on the regression results for the MLR. Both maps are consistent with groundwater of local precipitation origin, and useful to examine groundwater recharge.     

Palaeomagnetic investigations on the Deccan Traps from Chincholi,Mysore State,India

Summary 38 oriented samples of Deccan Traps have been collected from the neighbourhood of Chincholi, Mysore State, India. The Natural Remanent Magnetisation of these rocks has been studied using an astatic magnetometer. It has been found that these rocks are magnetically reversed, the mean magnetic direction being N154°E in declination and 61° down in inclination. Thermoremanance studies conducted on four specimens showed that two specimens with weak NRM and a high secondary magnetisation have Curie temperatures around 560°C for the NRM and exhibited partial reversal of TRM at room temperature, while two specimens with high NRM and with little secondary magnetisation have Curie temperatures much lower than 560°C for the NRM.     

Palaeomagnetic evidence for the origin of Madeira

The remanent magnetization of ‘basement’ volcanics from Madeira define three different axes of magnetization, each having a dual-polarity build-up. The suggested oldest of these components, with declination 302 and inclination +4, is assigned to the late Lower Cretaceous and is thought to reflect the age of the early volcanism of the island. Subsequent magnetization overprints seem to have occurred in the Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary (minor) and in Neogene times, respectively. The latter magnetization, which is strongly developed, was most likely impressed during the extensive volcanism that swept the island in post-Late Miocene. The palaeomagnetic evidence for a Cretaceous origin of Madeira is supported by the finding of Lower-Middle Cretaceous tuff layers in DSDP site 136 which is located only 160 km north of the island. The inferred palaeomagnetic structure of the ‘basement’ rocks of Madeira is similar to that found in the old volcanic complexes of other east central Atlantic islands.     

Palaeomagnetic Reversals in Mississippian Sediments of Missouri

--Normal to reversed polarity transitions have been found in Mississippian limestones of Missouri at longitude 269.7 and latitude 38.6 in an area of approximately 2,000 sq.km centered on the city of St. Louis. The transitions suggest a reversal of the geomagnetic field during the time these limestones were deposited. The mean normal NRM direction of declination 323.2, inclination 14.8, alpha-95 10.0 and corresponding reversed direction declination 144.8, inclination of 11.7 with alpha-95 of 5.2, are each tightly grouped, while in between these two groups the circles of confidence reveal a large scatter. Six normally magnetized groups of sites and corresponding VGP positions were found while seven groups are reversed. The mean normal VGP was at longitude 146.2 and latitude 44.6 and the reversed one at longitude 313.9 and latitude ⪶.8. The large scatter in between these two groups is interpreted as being due to rapid changes in the direction of the geomagnetic field when compared with the rate of deposition of the sediments. Alternating field (AF) and thermal demagnetization (TH) techniques were used to remove secondary components of the NRM.     

Palaeomagnetic studies of the Kapiti phonolite of Kenya

Specimens of Kapiti phonolite from sixteen sites were treated in an alternating field up to 900 Oe peak. Four sites were discarded on the basis of Watson's Criterion for randomness. Variations in various magnetic parameters along a vertical section of the rock indicate that a hard secondary component of magnetization of high coercive force is present in the surface samples of the rock — a possible cause for the poor grouping of directions of the remaining sites. Weathering may have introduced this component in the surface samples.     

Triassic alkaline intrusives in the Yanliao-Yinshan area: their chronology, Sr, Nd and Pb isotopic characteristics and their implication

Dated isotopic ages for 15 alkaline intrusives in the Yanliao-Yinshan area, ranging from 268 to 190 Ma, ten of which are from 250 to 208 Ma, indicate that most of them were formed in the Triassic Epoch. All the E_Nd(t) ratios from - 17.19 to -3.21 averaging -7.09, the E_Sr(t) ratios fmm 11.7 to71.5 averaging 36.63, and the I_sr(t) ratios from 0.705 0 to 0.709 3 averaging 0.706 8, show their characteristics of enrichment. On the E_Nd (t) virus E_Sr(t) correlation diagram, the samples from these intmsives were plotted within the enriched mantle trend lines and just outside, demonstrating their close connection to materials from the enriched mantle reservoir, taking into account the same Pb isotopic composition as that of the mantle.     

江西省铜地球化学异常特征及找矿方向

在系统论述江西省铜的区域地球化学背景与异常特征的基础上,对江西省铜的成矿地质条件进行了初步分析,总结了铜的找矿标志,明确了今后找铜矿的方向。     

Palaeomagnetic evidence for large-scale dextral movement along the Trollfjord-Komagelv Fault,Finnmark, north Norway

Palaeomagnetic data from Late Precambrian dykes from the northern part of Varanger peninsula, north Norway, suggest a two-axis magnetization structure. The dominant component is considered to be syn- to late-tectonic and probably acquired at around 640 m.y. B.P. Superposed on this magnetization is a minor component which is compatible with the relative Lower-Middle Palaeozoic field; i.e. it was most likely imposed during the climax of the Caledonian orogenic movements in north Norway. The estimated relative Late Precambrian palaeopole cannot easily be reconciled with the European Late Precambrian polar path. This disagreement can be accounted for by assuming a post-magnetization dextral megashear, of the order of 500–1000 km, along the Trollfjord-Komagelv fracture zone. This type of displacement is in line with geological evidence and the palaeomagnetic reconstruction supports the long-held view of there having been continuity between the depositional environments of the Varanger Peninsula Barents Sea Group, the Eleonore Bay Group of east Greenland and the Hecla Hoek Formation of east Spitsbergen. The character and age of the horizontal displacement, post-640 to pre-500 m.y. B.P., is seen in conjunction with the opening up of the lapetus Ocean and reactivation of ancient deep-seated fractures during both the spreading and the contraction phases of ocean development.     

Palaeomagnetic study of some charnockites of the Palni Hills

The intensity of natural remanence magnetisation (NRM) is measured along the three mutually-perpendicular directions using an astatic magnetometer. The intensity of induced magnetisation is measured using an apparatus fabricated in the laboratory. The Koenigsberger ratio has been calculated for all the samples and the ratio has been used to test the stability of NRM in the samples. The mean direction of magnetisation is determined from the three components of the NRM intensity. The palaeomagnetic pole position of the samples is determined using the direction of magnetisation and the site location. An attempt has been made to fix the geological age of the charnockites using palaeomagnetic methods.     

Palaeomagnetic timing of the rotation and translation of Cyprus

The geological evolution of the Mesozoic Troodos Ophiolite Complex in Cyprus, and the tectonic nature and timing of the palaeomagnetically indicated anticlockwise rotation of Cyprus of some 80° and ca. 15° northward translation, have been open for debate for some time. New palaeomagnetic data from 18 sites ( 180samples) in the post-ophiolite sediments, ranging in age from Upper Cretaceous to Upper Miocene, are presented. Most of the sites are of normal geomagnetic polarity, but indications of reversed polarity have been found in an older group of sediments (the Lefkara Formation of Upper Palaeocene age).Six sites from the older group of sediments (Upper Cretaceous to Eocene in age) give a site mean direction of the AF cleaned sediments of (D, I) = (323°, 29°) with α₉₅ = 18°, while 5 sites from a younger group of sediments (Oligocene to Miocene in age) give a cleaned site mean direction of (D, I) = (334°, 58°) with α₉₅ = 9°. These and published data suggest that an anticlockwise rotation of Cyprus of 60 ± 10° occurred early during the post-igneous evolution of the Cyprus oceanic crust between 90 and 50Ma, leaving only a minor anticlockwise rotation of 20 ± 10° to occur during the last 50 Ma. It is furthermore concluded that the northward translation of Cyprus of 15° mostly took place during the last 30Ma.It thus appears that a fairly rapid rotation of the Cyprus microplate first took place in the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary time with an average angular velocity of 1–2°/Ma, during which the northward translation was minor or negligible. In the latter half of the Tertiary, the sense of movement appears to have radically changed, the northward translation now being dominant with an average velocity of 5–6cm/yr. This temporal evolution is found to be in good agreement with the Mesozoic and Tertiary movements of the African lithospheric plate relative to Europe, as evidenced from the Atlantic sea-floor magnetic anomaly spreading history.     

Palaeomagnetic constraints on formation of the Mianwali reentrant, Trans-Indus and western Salt Range, Pakistan

Successions of Lower to lower Middle Cambrian, Upper Permian to Upper Triassic and Lower Tertiary carbonates and arenites have been sampled in five sections, representative of the three main segments of the Mianwali reentrant in the (Trans-Indus) Salt Range (northern Pakistan), i.e.: the southern Khisor Range, the northern Surghar Range and the western Salt Range. Comparison of primary and secondary magnetization directions with the Indian APWP demonstrates the secondary origin of the Mianwali reentrant and shows a pattern of rotations which varies in sense and magnitude along the reentrant with the main structural trends. Data from the Trans-Indus and western Salt Range and published Early Cambrian, Early Permian and Late Tertiary palaeomagnetic results from the southern Salt Range and the Potwar Plateau show that the Hazara Arc underwent a 20–45° counterclockwise rotation relative to the Indian Shield. A contrasting clockwise rotation over about 45° has recently been established for thrust sheets in the opposing eastern limb of the Western Himalayan Syntaxis, i.e. for the Panjal Nappe [1] and the Riasi thrust sheet [2]. These palaeomagnetically established rotations conform with the about 75° azimuthal change in structural trend along the Syntaxis, and support Crawford's [3] suggestion that the Salt Range was originally in line with the northwestern Himalaya. The Salt Range front prograded and moved southwards as part of the Hazara Arc thrust sheet, detached from basement along the evaporitic Salt Range Formation. The Mianwali reentrant originated through obstruction of the southwards advancing thrust sheet by moulding around basement topography of the northwest oriented Sarghoda Ridge.