Magmatic-Hydrothermal Origin of Nevada's Carlin-Type Gold Deposits
Magmatic-Hydrothermal Origin of Nevada's Carlin-Type Gold Deposits
Magmatic-Hydrothermal Origin of Nevada's Carlin-Type Gold Deposits
Jerritt Canyon
Mag: 3942 Myr
Min: <41 Myr
40
My
r
Getchell
Min: ~ 3742 Myr
41 N
Latitude
Carlin trend
Mag and Min:
37 41 Myr
40 N
Cortez
Mag: 3336 Myr
Min:3435 Myr
36
25
39 N
yr
M
118 W
117 W
116 W
Longitude
My
115 W
(km)
50
100
1 Nevada
Bureau of Mines and Geology, Mail Stop 178, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, Nevada, 89557-0178, USA, 2 University of Nevada, Las Vegas,
Department of Geoscience, 4505 Maryland Parkway, PO Box 454010, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89514-4010, USA. *e-mail: [email protected].
122
ARTICLES
Carlin-type
gold deposits
20
Cu
Transitory
magma
chamber
Cu Cu
Conrad
discontinuity
Lower
crustal
mash zone
30
Crust
40
Ponding of
mafic magma
SCLM
50
Melting of hydrated
metasomatized SCLM
with elevated Au/Cu
80
Oceanic crust
g
lin
120
SCLM
SOLM
re
S
fa ink
ra ing
sl llo
ab n
14
Ductile
sp
he
Brittle
we
l
10
Ast
he
no
Up
Depth (km)
140
123
ARTICLES
Condensation
of brine
Critical
curve
Vapour leaves
two-phase surface
150
Vapour
cooling
one-phase field
Brine
100
Lowsalinity
vapour
Meteoric
water
heating
to 150 C
at 500 bars
Ore fluid
(aqueous liq
uid)
Mixing
50
C.P.
600
400
200
Cl
40
20
Na
Halite
saturation
100
80
60
%
800
Boiling
curve
wt
T (C)
124
Single-phase fluid
200
P (MPa)
K
10 m
Rim
Core
35 m
1,000,000
100,000
ARTICLES
10,000
1,000
100
10
1
20
Au
As
40
S
Fe
Rim
Core
60
80
Time (s)
Cu
Hg
Te
Sb
100
120
TI
Ag
125
ARTICLES
individual deposits by lithogeochemical studies that indicate S was
added to rock containing varying amounts of Fe (ref. 38). Ore
formation was probably facilitated by extremely efficient scavenging
of Au through adsorption of Au1+ onto negatively charged pyrite
surfaces, from acidic fluids that were undersaturated with respect
to native Au0 (ref. 39; see Supplementary Note S13). Late-orestage mineralization, characterized by open-space deposition of
drusy quartz, orpiment, realgar and stibnite with little to no
associated Au, is best explained by cooling36 , which was related
to the collapse of the hydrothermal system and incursion of nearsurface meteoric waters.
CTGDs reflect a major thermal and mass transfer event in the
Great Basin during which CTGDs formed along with other types
of ore deposits including the giant Bingham Canyon porphyry
CuAuMo and Mount Hope porphyry Mo deposits. The large
number and variety of ore deposits that formed during this event
are an indication of multiple evolutionary paths for magma and
their evolved ore fluids. Such major thermal events and magma
and hydrothermal fluid pathways, including the one outlined here
for CTGDs, are not necessarily unique to the Great Basin. The
clusters and varieties of large Neoarchean gold deposits in the
Superior craton of eastern Canada and the Yilgarn craton of
Western Australia also formed during major crustal-scale thermal
events from multiple fluid pathways40 .
As the magmatichydrothermal processes in CTGDs are not
geologically unusual, the apparent restriction of CTGDs to
Nevada represents a convergence of these processes with an ideal
geological setting that is specific to Nevadathat is, a deformed,
carbonate-bearing, continental margin that was underlain by
SCLM, which itself was modified by 175 Myr of subductioninduced fertilization. It is this convergence that created an ideal
system for the formation of CTGDs. The critical trigger was the
rollback of the shallow Farallon slab that caused the asthenosphere
to impinge on strongly hydrated and trace-metal-enriched SCLM,
resulting in profuse magmatism. Au-bearing aqueous fluids were
generated, transported, and focused into reactive carbonate wall
rocks. Ore fluids dissolved and sulphidized Fe-bearing carbonate
rocks, and Au adsorbed onto newly precipitated pyrite in an
extremely effective depositional mechanism.
Received 17 February 2010; accepted 14 December 2010;
published online 23 January 2011
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (EAR awards 0635657 to
J.L.M., 0635658 to J.S.C. and 0609550 to A.C.S.), the US Geological Surveys Mineral
ARTICLES
Resources External Research Program, Placer Dome Exploration and Barrick
Gold Corporation.
Author contributions
J.L.M., J.S.C., A.C.S. and A.A.L. conceived the model for the CTGDs. J.L.M. took the
lead in preparation of the manuscript and figures and contributed Supplementary Data
S1. J.S.C. and A.A.L. contributed Supplementary Data S2 and A.C.S. contributed
Supplementary Data S3.
Additional information
The authors declare no competing financial interests. Supplementary information
accompanies this paper on www.nature.com/naturegeoscience. Reprints and permissions
information is available online at http://npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.L.M.
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