scholarly journals Rare element minerals’ assemblage in El Quemado pegmatites (Argentina): insights for pegmatite melt evolution from gahnite, columbite-group minerals and tourmaline chemistry and implications for minerogenesis

Author(s):  
Vanina López de Azarevich ◽  
Paolo Fulignati ◽  
Anna Gioncada ◽  
Miguel Azarevich

AbstractThe pegmatite district of El Quemado (NW Pampean Ranges, NW Argentina) hosts several Ordovician pegmatite bodies of the LCT (Li, Cs, Ta) type. We present paragenetic assemblages for a set of samples from two of the El Quemado pegmatite groups, Santa Elena and Tres Tetas, and mineral chemistry analyses for gahnite, columbite-group minerals, tourmaline, micas, albite, microcline, and discuss the relation between their major element composition and the degree of evolution of pegmatite melts. The chemical composition of rare element minerals allows recognizing an evolutive trend reaching highly differentiated compositions, with complex paragenetic assemblages including Li-, Zr-, U-, Zn-, P-, Mn- and Ta-bearing minerals. The temperature of crystallization during the magmatic phase was below 400 °C. Non-pervasive hydrothermal alteration, testified by a moderate presence of phyllosilicates, affected the pegmatite bodies. Chlorite geothermometry indicates that the circulation of post-magmatic hydrothermal fluids occurred at a temperature ranging between 200 °C and 250 °C. The mineralogical features recognized in the El Quemado pegmatite rocks have implications for the metallogenesis of the region, suggesting that the pegmatites potentially contributed to the genesis of Ta-Nb oxide placer mineralizations.

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Β. ΜΕΛΦΟΣ ◽  
Π. ΒΟΥΔΟΥΡΗΣ ◽  
Κ. ΑΡΙΚΑΣ ◽  
Μ. ΒΑΒΕΛΙΔΗΣ

The present study correlates both the mineralogy of the hydrothermal alteration and the mineral chemistry of molybdenites from three porphyry Mo ± Cu occurrences in Thrace: Melitena, Pagoni Rachi/Kirki and Ktismata/ Maronia. The mineralisations are genetically related to calcalkaline, subvolcanic bodies of Tertiary age. According to their mineralogical and chemical composition the host rocks are characterized as dacite (Melitena), dacitic andésite (Pagoni Rachi) and porphyry microgranite (Ktismata/Maronia). The molybdenites occur in disseminated form, as fracture fillings, as well within quartz stockworks crosscuting the central alteration zones of the intrusives. They are accompanied by the following mineral assemblages: quartz, sericite, pyrophyllite, diaspore, Ca-Ba-rich alunite, pyrite (Melitena); quartz, albite/K-feldspar, biotite, actinolite, magnetite (Pagoni Rachi); and sericite, kaolinite, pyrophyllite, chlorite (Ktismata). Preliminary microthermometric results showed homogenisation temperatures from 352° to 390 °C for Pagoni Rachi area and from 295° to 363 °C for Melitena area. The salinities range between 4.5 and 6.1 wt% eq. NaCl and between 2.7 and 3.4 wt% eq. NaCl, respectively. Detailed study on over 400 fluid inclusions from the porphyry Cu-Mo deposit in Maronia area revealed formation temperatures from 300° to 420 °C, whereas salinities are distincted in two different groups from 6 to 16 wt% eq. NaCl and from 28 to 55 wt% eq. NaCl. The chemical composition of the molybdenites from the three porphyry Mo±Cu deposits in Thrace was studied with 155 microprobe analyses. The results revealed unusual high and variable Re concentrations in the studied molybdenites. Re content in molybdenite from Melitena area vary from 0.21 to 1.74 wt%, 0.79 wt% on average. The highest values were measured in samples from Pagoni Rachi (0.45-4.21 wt%, 1.98 wt% on average). Finally, microprobe analyses from molybdenite in Ktismata/Maronia showed Re content between 0.12 and 2.88 wt% (0.76 wt% on average). Rhenium is a very rare element with many definite uses, and is mainly associated with molybdenite in porphyry type deposits. According to the data published so far the Re content in molybdenite reaches up to 0.42 wt%. It is obvious therefore that such high Re concentrations (0.12 to 4.22 wt%) from the studied molybdenites in Thrace, are very ineresting for a possible future exploitation.


The Holocene ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 1037-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bergrún Arna Óladóttir ◽  
Olgeir Sigmarsson ◽  
Gudrún Larsen ◽  
Jean-Luc Devidal

The Holocene eruption history of subglacial volcanoes in Iceland is largely recorded by their tephra deposits. The numerous basaltic tephra offer the possibility to make the tephrochronology in the North Atlantic area more detailed and, therefore, more useful as a tool not only in volcanology but also in environmental and archaeological studies. The source of a tephra is established by mapping its distribution or inferred via compositional fingerprinting, mainly based on major-element analyses. In order to improve the provenance determinations for basaltic tephra produced at Grímsvötn, Bárdarbunga and Kverkfjöll volcanic systems in Iceland, 921 samples from soil profiles around the Vatnajökull ice-cap were analysed for major-element concentrations by electron probe microanalysis. These samples are shown to represent 747 primary tephra units. The tephra erupted within each of these volcanic system has similar chemical characteristics. The major-element results fall into three distinctive compositional groups, all of which show regular decrease of MgO with increasing K2O concentrations. The new analyses presented here considerably improve the compositional distinction between products of the three volcanic systems. Nevertheless, slight overlap of the compositional groups for each system still remains. In situ trace-element analyses by laser-ablation-inductively-coupled-plasma-mass-spectrometry were applied for better provenance identification for those tephra having similar major-element composition. Three trace-element ratios, Rb/Y, La/Yb and Sr/Th, proved particularly useful. Significantly higher La/Yb distinguishes the Grímsvötn basalts from those of Bárdarbunga and Rb/Y values differentiate the basalts of Grímsvötn and Kverkfjöll. Additionally, the products of Bárdarbunga, Grímsvötn and Kverkfjöll form distinct compositional fields on a Sr/Th versus Th plot. Taken together, the combined use of major- and trace-element analyses in delineating the provenance of basaltic tephra having similar major-element composition significantly improves the Holocene tephra record as well as the potential for correlations with tephra from outside Iceland.


AMBIO ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 878-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olof Regnell ◽  
Mark Elert ◽  
Lars Olof Höglund ◽  
Anna Helena Falk ◽  
Anders Svensson

1983 ◽  
Vol 47 (344) ◽  
pp. 291-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Moorby ◽  
D.S. Cronan

AbstractOver 200 sediment samples taken from ten holes drilled in the Galapagos Hydrothermal Mounds Field during D.S.D.P. Leg 70 have been analysed for twenty-one elements. The three main sediment lithologies recognized are siliceous carbonate ooze, Mn-oxide crust, and an Fe-rich silicate (nontronite), the latter two being of hydrothermal origin. The major element composition of the hydrothermal deposits is similar in each mound hole, suggesting that formation conditions and hydrothermal solution composition have been constant both geographically and with time. The large variations which occur in the concentration of some trace elements in the Mn-oxide crusts and in transition metal ratios in the nontronite compared with the pelagic ooze suggests a hydrothermal supply to the mounds of Li, Mo, Pb, and Ba in addition to Mn, Fe, and silica.The data are compatible with suggestions that the nontronite formed at depth in the pelagic sediment blanket by replacement of biogenic ooze, whilst the Mn crusts formed at or near the sediment-water interface. Pelagic sediments in the mounds which have not been replaced are similar in composition to pelagic sediments from non-mounds holes.


Clay Minerals ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Bühmann ◽  
P. L. C. Grubb

AbstractThe sequential development of kaolin by progressive alteration of smectite, involving kaolin-smectite interstratifications as a genetic link is described from a red and black complex. Mineral compositions were studied using XRD, DTA and XRF techniques. The basalt-derived soils are situated along a 600 m transect and grade in colour from dark grey (10 YR 3/1) to red (5 YR 3/3). The kaolin proportions in the interstratification increase almost linearly with increasing reddening up to ∼80%. Whole-soil chemical analyses exhibit no significant variations in the major element composition, but dithionite extractable Fe increases along the transect from 1% to 4·16%. Hematite and goethite are the only secondary iron phases. Topographic differences are slight but sub-surface bedrock contours plus appreciable variations in sand content between red and black soils could be genetically significant.


Science ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 333 (6051) ◽  
pp. 1847-1850 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. R. Nittler ◽  
R. D. Starr ◽  
S. Z. Weider ◽  
T. J. McCoy ◽  
W. V. Boynton ◽  
...  

1976 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 627-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol M. Duffus ◽  
Roberta Rosie

SummaryChanges in the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and sodium present in intact grain, endosperm, testa pericarp and embryo throughout the developmental period were recorded. While the overall pattern in intact grain was one of steady accumulation, considerable variation from this pattern was found within the different parts. The results are discussed in relation to the biochemical events accompanying maturation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 154 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
PRANJIT HAZARIKA ◽  
DEWASHISH UPADHYAY ◽  
KAMAL LOCHAN PRUSETH

AbstractMica pegmatites from the Bihar Mica Belt contain three distinct generations of tourmaline. The major-element composition, substitution vectors and trajectories within each group are different, which indicates that the three types of tourmalines are not a part of one evolutionary series. Rather, the differences in their chemistries as well their mutual microtextural relations, can be best explained by growth of tourmaline from pegmatitic melts followed by episodic re-equilibration during discrete geological events. The euhedral, coarse-grained brown type I tourmaline cores have relatively high Ca, Mg (XMgc. 0.37) and Al with correlated variation in Sr, Sc, Ti, Zr, Y, Cr, Pb and Rare Earth elements (REEs). They are inferred to have crystallized from pegmatitic melts. Monazites included within these tourmalines give chemical ages of 1290−1242 Ma interpreted to date the crystallization of the pegmatitic tourmaline. The bluish type II and greyish type III tourmalines with low Ca and Mg contents (XMg = 0.16−0.27) and high Zn, Sn, Nb, Ta and Na, formed by pseudomorphic partial replacement of the pegmatitic tourmaline via fluid-mediated coupled dissolution–reprecipitation, are ascribed to a hydrothermal origin. The ages obtained from monazites included in these tourmalines indicate two alteration events at c. 1100 Ma and c. 950 Ma. The correlated variation of Ca, Mg and Fe and the trace elements Sr, Sn, Sc, Zn and REE within the tourmalines indicates that the trace-element concentrations of tourmaline are controlled not only by the fluid chemistry but also by coupled substitutions with major-element ions.


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