PRACTICAL AND PREDICTIVE MODELLING OF ORE DEPOSITS IN HYDROTHERMAL SYSTEMS

Over the past five years,we have been making efforts to develop a practical and predictive tool to explore for giant ore deposits in hydrothermal systems.Towards this goal,a significant progress has been made towards a better understanding of the basic physical and chemical processes behind ore body formation and mineralization in hydrothermal systems.     

High-precision timing of PSR J1600−3053

We present the results of a high-precision timing campaign directed at the binary millisecond pulsar J1600−3053. Submicrosecond pulsar timing has long been the domain of bright, low dispersion measure millisecond pulsars or large diameter telescopes. This experiment, conducted using the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia, and utilizing the latest baseband recording hardware, has allowed this pulsar, although distant and faint, to present residuals to a model of its spin behaviour of 650 ns over a period of more than 2 yr. We have also constrained the orbital inclination via Shapiro delay to be between 59° and 70° to 95 per cent confidence and obtained a scintillation velocity measurement indicating a transverse velocity less than 84 km s⁻¹. This pulsar is demonstrating remarkable stability comparable to, and in most cases improving upon, the very best long-term pulsar timing experiments. If this stability is maintained, the current limits on the energy density of the stochastic gravitational wave background will be reached in four more years.     

Mary Kathleen metamorphic‐hydrothermal uranium — rare‐earth element deposit: Ore genesis and numerical model of coupled deformation and fluid flow

The Mary Kathleen U‐REE orebody of the Proterozoic Mt Isa Block was the product of chemical and physical interaction between regional metamorphic/hydrothermal fluids and preexisting calcic skarns. The deposit provides excellent examples of mechanical control on ore localisation and of the complexity of ores in rocks with protracted thermal histories. Host skarns were produced by contact metasomatism around the 1740 Ma Burstall Granite, whereas the allanite‐uraninite ore formed under amphibolite‐facies conditions, late during the D₂ phase of the ca 1550–1500 Ma Isan orogeny. Observations of ore geometry are consistent with previous geochronologic data demonstrating a large time gap between skarn formation and ore genesis. Numerical modelling of coupled deformation and fluid flow suggests that veins at the core of ore shoots may have formed as tensile or shear fractures during coupling of the competent skarn host with the late‐D₂ Mary Kathleen Shear Zone, allowing a change of orientation of ore shoots with distance from the shear zone. Mineral chemistry and petrographic observations suggest the possible role of a redox control on chemical localisation of ore by conversion of Fe²⁺‐rich clinopyroxene‐rich skarn host to Fe³⁺‐rich secondary garnet ‘skarn’ and uraninite‐allanite ore. Alternately, fluid pressure drops as a consequence of fracturing of the host skarn may have triggered fluid unmixing, or fluid mixing, leading to ore precipitation. Available data do not allow clear definition of the ultimate source of the U and REE, nor of the specific chemical ore‐forming mechanism. However, regional constraints, previous Sm–Nd modelling, and our numerical models suggest a combination from proximal skarn hosts and from distal sources accessed by flow of metamorphic and/or late tectonic igneous‐derived fluids. The deposit has some similarities with ironstone‐hosted Cu–Au ± U deposits found in the nearby Cloncurry Belt.     

An interface-condition substitution strategy for theoretical study of dissolution-timescale reactive infiltration instability in fluid-saturated porous rocks

A theoretical study of reactive infiltration instability is conducted on the dissolution timescale. In the present theoretical study, the transient behavior of a dissolution-timescale reactive infiltration system needs to be considered, so that the upstream region of the chemical dissolution front should be finite. In addition, the chemical dissolution front of finite thickness should be considered on the dissolution timescale. Owing to these different considerations, it is very difficult, even in some special cases, to derive the first-order perturbation solutions of the reactive infiltration system on the dissolution timescale. To overcome this difficulty, an interface-condition substitution strategy is proposed in this paper. The basic idea behind the proposed strategy is that although the first-order perturbation equations in the downstream region cannot be directly solved in a purely mathematical manner, they should hold at the planar reference front, which is the interface between the upstream region and the downstream region. This can lead to two new equations at the interface. The main advantage of using the proposed interface-condition substitution strategy is that through using the original interface conditions as a bridge, the perturbation solutions for the dimensionless acid concentration, dimensionless Darcy velocity, and their derivatives involved in the two new equations at the interface can be evaluated just by using the obtained analytical solutions in the upstream region. The proposed strategy has been successfully used to derive the dimensionless growth rate, which is the key issue associated with the theoretical study of dissolution-timescale reactive infiltration instability in fluid-saturated porous rocks.     

Double Diffusion-Driven Convective Instability of Three-Dimensional Fluid-Saturated Geological Fault Zones Heated from Below

We conduct a theoretical analysis to investigate the double diffusion-driven convective instability of three-dimensional fluid-saturated geological fault zones when they are heated uniformly from below. The fault zone is assumed to be more permeable than its surrounding rocks. In particular, we have derived exact analytical solutions to the total critical Rayleigh numbers of the double diffusion-driven convective flow. Using the corresponding total critical Rayleigh numbers, the double diffusion-driven convective instability of a fluid-saturated three-dimensional geological fault zone system has been investigated. The related theoretical analysis demonstrates that: (1) The relative higher concentration of the chemical species at the top of the three-dimensional geological fault zone system can destabilize the convective flow of the system, while the relative lower concentration of the chemical species at the top of the three-dimensional geological fault zone system can stabilize the convective flow of the system. (2) The double diffusion-driven convective flow modes of the three-dimensional geological fault zone system are very close each other and therefore, the system may have the similar chance to pick up different double diffusion-driven convective flow modes, especially in the case of the fault thickness to height ratio approaching 0. (3) The significant influence of the chemical species diffusion on the convective instability of the three-dimensional geological fault zone system implies that the seawater intrusion into the surface of the Earth is a potential mechanism to trigger the convective flow in the shallow three-dimensional geological fault zone system.     

Effect of Material Anisotropy on the Onset of Convective Flow in Three-Dimensional Fluid-Saturated Faults

In order to investigate the effect of material anisotropy on convective instability of three-dimensional fluid-saturated faults, an exact analytical solution for the critical Rayleigh number of three-dimensional convective flow has been obtained. Using this critical Rayleigh number, effects of different permeability ratios and thermal conductivity ratios on convective instability of a vertically oriented three-dimensional fault have been examined in detail. It has been recognized that (1) if the fault material is isotropic in the horizontal direction, the horizontal to vertical permeability ratio has a significant effect on the critical Rayleigh number of the three-dimensional fault system, but the horizontal to vertical thermal conductivity ratio has little influence on the convective instability of the system, and (2) if the fault material is isotropic in the fault plane, the thermal conductivity ratio of the fault normal to plane has a considerable effect on the critical Rayleigh number of the three-dimensional fault system, but the effect of the permeability ratio of the fault normal to plane on the critical Rayleigh number of three-dimensional convective flow is negligible.