Separate lead isotope analyses of leachate and residue rock fractions: implications for metal source tracing in ore deposit studies

Separate lead isotope analyses of leachate and residue fractions are applied to a broad spectrum of rocks commonly investigated in metallogenic studies. Resulting data highlight a systematic behavior of leachate and residue fractions with respect to lead isotope compositions, which essentially depends on the mineralogical composition of the rock. Granitoid and high-grade metamorphic rocks have residue compositions virtually identical to common lead. In contrast, low-grade metasedimentary rocks may have residue compositions swamped by radiogenic lead of leach-resistant zircons. Mafic magmatic rocks have residues that are often more radiogenic than leachates, depending on the ratio of leach-refractory zircons to common lead in the residual fraction of these rocks. Separate leachate and residue analyses of source rocks provide two lead isotope end members whose mixture may represent lead with the appropriate ore fluid composition. Our leaching experiments indicate that hot acid solutions (and by inference hydrothermal fluids) preferentially leach radiogenic lead from medium- to high-grade metamorphic and granitoid rocks, whereas they preferentially leach common lead from low-grade metasedimentary and mafic magmatic rocks. The method presented in this study provides a reliable alternative to other methods (i.e., age-correction of bulk-rock compositions) for the determination of the common lead signature of felsic to intermediate magmatic rocks. This may be preferable to age-corrected bulk-rock analyses, where ages to apply for corrections of bulk-rock data are not known or where moderately to highly altered rocks must be used. Case studies of orogenic gold and MVT districts of Peru (Pataz and San Vicente, respectively) show that separate leachate and residue lead isotope analyses carried out systematically on whole rocks allow a more thorough evaluation of metal source reservoirs than does the standard method of age-corrected or uncorrected bulk-rock analyses.     

Chlorine-36 in groundwater of the United States: empirical data

Natural production of the radionuclide chlorine-36 (³⁶Cl) has provided a valuable tracer for groundwater studies. The nuclear industry, especially the testing of thermonuclear weapons, has also produced large amounts of ³⁶Cl that can be detected in many samples of groundwater. In order to be most useful in hydrologic studies, the natural production prior to 1952 should be distinguished from more recent artificial sources. The object of this study was to reconstruct the probable preanthropogenic levels of ³⁶Cl in groundwater in the United States. Although significant local variations exist, they are superimposed on a broad regional pattern of ³⁶Cl/Cl ratios in the United States. Owing to the influence of atmospherically transported ocean salt, natural ratios of ³⁶Cl/total Cl are lowest near the coast and increase to a maximum in the central Rocky Mountains of the United States. Electronic Publication     

Fault plane solutions of the january 26th, 2001 bhuj earthquake sequence

A 12-station temporary microearthquake network was established by the Geological Survey of India for aftershock monitoring of the January 26th, 2001 Bhuj earthquake (M _w 7.6) in the Kutch district of Gujarat state, western India. The epicentres of the aftershocks show two major trends: one in the NE direction and the other in the NW direction. Fault-plane solutions of the best-located and selected cluster of events that occurred along the NE trend, at a depth of 15–38 km, show reverse faulting with a large left-lateral strike-slip motion, which are comparable with the main-shock solution. The NW trending upper crustal aftershocks at depth <10 km, on the other hand, show reverse faulting with right-lateral strike-slip motion, and the mid crustal and lower crustal aftershocks, at a depth of 15–38 km, show pure reverse faulting as well as reverse faulting with right-lateral and left-lateral strike-slip motions; these solutions are not comparable with the main-shock solution. It is inferred that the intersection of two faults has been the source area for stress concentration to generate the main shock and the aftershocks.     

Geology and Genesis of the Ta'ergou Skarn - Quartz Vein Tungsten Deposit in the North Qilian Caledonian Orogenic Belt, Northwest China

Abstract. The Ta'ergou tungsten deposit in Gansu province, northwestern China, is located in the western part of the North Qilian Caledonian orogen, and consists of scheelite skarn bodies and wolframite quartz veins. The tungsten‐bearing skarn developed by the replacement of carbonate layers intercalated in the Precambrian schist and amphibolite whereas wolframite‐quartz ore veins developed along a group of fractures that cut through horizontal skarns. The Ta'ergou tungsten deposit is genetically related to the Caledonian Yeniutan granodiorite intrusion and occurs ca. 500 m wide in the exo‐contact zone 300 ～ 500 m apart from the intrusion. The granodiorite displays a lower grade of differentiation, low content of SiO₂ and high contents of mafic components. There are three types of fluid inclusions in the wolframite‐quartz vein systems, i. e. aqueous, CO₂‐H₂O and CO₂‐rich. The homogenization temperature of aqueous inclusion ranges from 140 to 380d?C and their salinities from 6.4 to 17.4 equivalent wt% NaCl. Laser Raman spectroscopy shows that the inclusions contain a relatively high content of CO₂. The δ³⁴S values of skarn type sulfides range from +8.1 to +12.7 per mil and those of quartz vein sulfides from +9.3 to +14.9 per mil, similar to sulfides of the granodiorite with from +6.0 to +11.7 per mil. The δ¹⁸O values of quartz are between +10.5 and +13.3 per mil and those of wolframite between +3.4 and +5.1 per mil. The δ¹⁸O water values of ore forming fluids range from +0.6 to +6.4 per mil and suggest the mixture of magmatic fluids with meteoric water formed the ore‐forming fluids. It has been proved that Precambrian strata in the west sector of North Qilian region are enriched in tungsten. We propose the strata were remelted to be tungsten‐granitoid during subduction. The polymetallic tungsten was gradually accumulated into the roof pendants of the granite intrusion by fractional crystallization and then was deposited by hydrothermal fluids during metasomatism and infilling along fractures. On the other hand, the granite intrusion also acted as “heating machine” to make hydrothermal fluids leach out the metals from Precambrian strata and these metals joined the ore‐forming hydrothermal system.     

Cretaceous deformation history of the middle Tan-Lu fault zone in Shandong Province, eastern China

Based on field analysis of fault-slip data from different rock units of the Cretaceous basins along the middle part of the Tan-Lu fault zone (Shandong Province, eastern China), we document polyphase tectonic stress fields and address the changes in sense of motion of the Tan-Lu fault zone during the Cretaceous. The Cretaceous deformation history of the Tan-Lu fault zone can be divided into four main stages. The first stage, during the earliest Cretaceous, was dominated by N-S extension responsible for the formation of the Jiaolai basin. We interpret this extension to be related to dextral strike-slip pull-apart opening guided by the Tan-Lu fault zone. The second stage, during the middle Early Cretaceous, was overwhelmingly rift-dominated and characterized by widespread silicic to intermediate volcanism, normal faulting and basin subsidence. It was at this stage that the Tan-Lu-parallel Yi-Shu Rift was initiated by E-W to WNW-ESE extension. The tectonic regime then changed during the late Early Cretaceous to NW-SE-oriented transpression, causing inversion of the Early Cretaceous rift basin and sinistral slip along the Tan-Lu fault zone. During the Late Cretaceous, dextral activation of the Tan-Lu fault zone resulted in pull-apart opening of the Zhucheng basin, which was subsequently deformed by NE-SW compression. This deformation chronology of the Tan-Lu fault zone and the associated Cretaceous basins allow us to constrain the regional kinematic models as related to subduction along the eastern margin of Asia, or related to collision in the Tibet region.     

岩溶地区桩基的有限元分析

岩溶地区长桩存在着遇洞率的问题。为了研究岩溶地区桩的受力特点,采用有限元法模拟岩溶地区桩基的工作方式,分析了岩层厚度对桩的影响以及桩的受力状态,并研究了去桩的可能性。计算结果表明:岩层厚度对桩的影响较大,岩层的位置对桩的应力不产生影响,仅对桩的位移产生影响。     

Regional Fault Systems of Qaidam Basin and Adjacent Orogenic Belts

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the regional fault systems of Qaidam basin and ad-jacent orogenic belts. Field investigation and seismic interpretation indicate that five regional fault sys-tans occurred in the Qaidam and adjacent nment.qin belts, controlling the development and evolution of the Qaidam basin. These fault systems are: (1)north Qaidam-Qilian Mountain fault system; (2) south Qaidam-East Kunhm Mountain fault system;（3）Altun strike-slip fault system; (4) Elashan strike-slip fault system, and (5) Gansen-Xiaochaidan fault system. It is indicated that the fault systems controlled the orientation of the Qaidam basin, the formation and distribution of secondary faults within the basin,the migration of depocenters and the distribution of hydrocarbon accmnulation belt.     

Theoretical Study on Stochastic Modeling of Combined Gravity-Magnetic-Electric-Seismic Inversion and Its Application

As gravity field,magnetic field,electric field and seismic wave field are all physical fields,their object function,reverse function and compound function are certainly infinite contiuously differentiable func-tions which can be expanded into Taylor (Fourier) series within domain of definition and be further reduced in-to solving stochastic distribution function of series and statistic inference of optimal approximation,This is the basis of combined gravity-magnetic-electric-seismic inversion built on the basis of separation of field and source gravity-magnetic difference-value(D-value)trend surface,taking distribution-independent fault sys-tem as its unit,depths of seismic and electric interfaces of interests as its corresponding bivariate compound re-verse function of gravity-magnetic anomalies and using high order polynomial(high order trigonometric func-tion)approximating to its series distribution,The difference from current dominant inversion techniques is that,first,it does not respectively create gravity-seismic,magnetic-seismic deterministic inversion model from theoretical model,but combines gravity-magnetic-electric-seismic stochastic inversion model from stochastic model;second,after the concept of equivalent geological body being introduced,using feature of independent variable of gravity-magnetic field functions,taking density and susceptibility related to gravity-magnetic func-tion as default parameters of model,the deterministic model is established owing to better solution to the con-tradictioc of difficulty in identifying strata and less test analytical data for density and susceptibility in newly explored area;third,under assumption of independent parent distribution,a real modeling by strata,the prob-lem of difficult plane closure arising in profile modeling is avoided,This technology has richer and more detailed fault and strata information than sparse pattern seismic data in newly explored area,successfully inverses and plots structural map of Indosinian discontinuty in Hefei basin with combined gravity-magnetic-electric-seismic inversion,With development of high precision gravity-magnetic and overall geophysical technology,it is certain for introducing new methods of stochastic modeling and computational intelligence and promoting the develop-ment of combined gravity-magnetic-electric-seismic inversion to open a new substantial and promoting the develop-ment of combined gravity-magnetic-electric-seismic inversion to open a new substantial path.