Abstract
This study couples in situ 16O, 17O and 18O isotope and in situ trace element analyses to investigate and characterize the geochemical and textural complexity of magmatic-hydrothermal quartz crystals. Euhedral quartz crystals contemporaneous with mineralization were obtained from four magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits: El Indio Au–Ag–Cu deposit; Summitville Au–Ag–Cu deposit; North Parkes Cu–Au deposit and Kingsgate quartz-Mo–Bi–W deposit. The internal features of the crystals were imaged using cathodoluminescence and qualitative electron microprobe maps. Quantitative isotopic data were collected in situ using 157 nm laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (for 40 trace elements in quartz) and sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (for 3 isotopes in quartz). Imaging revealed fine oscillatory zoning, sector zoning, complex “macromosaic” textures and hidden xenocrystic cores. In situ oxygen isotope analyses revealed a δ18O range of up to 12.4 ± 0.3 ‰ in a single crystal—the largest isotopic range ever ascribed to oscillatory zonation in quartz. Some of these crystals contain a heavier δ18O signature than expected by existing models. While sector-zoned crystals exhibited strong trace element variations between faces, no evidence for anisotropic isotope fractionation was found. We found: (1) isotopic heterogeneity in hydrothermal quartz crystals is common and precludes provenance analysis (e.g., δD–δ18O) using bulk analytical techniques, (2) the trace element signature of quartz is not an effective pathfinder toward noble metal mineralization and (3) in three of the four samples, both textural and isotopic data indicate non-equilibrium deposition of quartz.
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Notes
The Mineralogical Society of America (http://www.minsocam.org/msa/collectors_corner/faq/faqquartz.htm) defines the term gwindel as a group or often a line of quartz crystals in a cavity that are twisted along the c-axis.
Assuming quartz-water fractionation factors from Matsuhisa et al. (1979) at the minimum formation temperatures obtained using TitaniQ.
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Acknowledgments
D. Tanner acknowledges the support of an APA scholarship and an SEG student fellowship, as well as the support of her PhD supervisors while she worked abroad. S. Craven is thanked for help with SelFrag®. F. Brink and H. Chen at the Centre for Advanced Microscopy at the Australian National University are thanked for their help in running the FE-SEM. R. Rapp at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University is greatly thanked for his help running the EMPA overnight and on weekends. F. Robert and C. Tellez of Barrick Gold Corporation, John Gray (USGS), Northparkes Mines and M. Peacock are thanked for providing samples. The authors acknowledge the Australian Research Council and Newcrest for their financial support. The authors would also like to thank R. Herrington, J. Wilkinson, N. Tailby and A. Akhavan for valuable discussions regarding the data prior to the submission of this manuscript. J. Touret and two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive and thoughtful reviews.
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Communicated by Jaques L.R. Touret.
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Supplementary Appendix 1: Electronic dataset containing corresponding in situ isotopic and trace element analyses (XLS 249 kb)
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Supplementary Appendix 2: Plots showing the concentration and LODs for each individual analysis and every element analyzed (PDF 1371 kb)
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Tanner, D., Henley, R.W., Mavrogenes, J.A. et al. Combining in situ isotopic, trace element and textural analyses of quartz from four magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits. Contrib Mineral Petrol 166, 1119–1142 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-013-0912-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-013-0912-3