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Los fluidos anormalmente ricos en metales forman depósitos de mineral hidrotermal
Jamie J Wilkinson1, Barry Stoffell, Clara C Wilkinson
1Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK. j.wilkinson@imperial.ac.uk
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|February 7, 2009
Resumen
Los depósitos de mineral hidrotermal se forman a partir de fluidos ricos en metales. El análisis de las inclusiones de fluidos en la esfalerita revela concentraciones de metales significativamente más altas de lo que se entendía anteriormente, lo que desafía los modelos existentes de formación de mineral.
Área de la Ciencia:
- La geoquímica es la geoquímica.
- Geología económica Geología económica.
- La mineralogía es la Mineralogía.
Sus antecedentes:
- Los depósitos de mineral hidrotermal se forman a partir de soluciones acuosas que precipitan metales en la corteza terrestre.
- Las inclusiones de fluidos en silicatos/carbonatos tradicionalmente informan los estudios de los fluidos formadores de mineral.
- Este paradigma asume que las inclusiones reflejan soluciones de precipitación de mineral.
Objetivo del estudio:
- Para probar el paradigma del uso de inclusiones de fluidos tradicionales para el análisis de fluidos de formación de mineral.
- Para investigar las concentraciones de metales en las inclusiones de fluidos dentro de la esfalerita de los sistemas de mineral de zinc y plomo.
Principales métodos:
- Espectrometría de masa de plasma acoplada inductivamente por ablación láser (LA-ICP-MS).
- Análisis de las inclusiones fluidas alojadas en la esfalerita de dos depósitos distintos de mineral de zinc y plomo.
Principales resultados:
- Las concentraciones de metales en las inclusiones fluidas alojadas en esfalerita son hasta dos órdenes de magnitud más altas que en las inclusiones alojadas en cuarzo.
- El contenido de metales observado excede significativamente los valores reportados anteriormente.
- Esto indica que la formación de mineral está relacionada con la afluencia de fluidos ricos en metales.
Conclusiones:
- El paradigma tradicional de usar inclusiones de fluidos alojadas en silicato/carbonato puede subestimar el contenido metálico del fluido mineral.
- Es probable que los sistemas de formación de mineral impliquen flujos episódicos de fluidos altamente ricos en metales.
- Las inclusiones de fluidos alojados en esfalerita proporcionan una representación más precisa de la química de los fluidos formadores de mineral.
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