Hydrothermal ore deposits II: sedimentary environments

John Ridley

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139135528.005

This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

4 - Hydrothermal ore deposits II: sedimentary environments

John Ridley

Show author details

John Ridley: Affiliation:
Colorado State University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Hydrothermal ore deposits in sedimentary basins are the dominant source worldwide of Pb, Zn, Co and U, and are significant sources of Ag and Cu. The major types of deposit are base-metal sulfide deposits and uranium deposits. Some of the types of uranium ore are not ‘hydrothermal’ based on the criterion that is commonly used to classify ore deposits in sedimentary basins – that the mineralising fluid was hotter than ambient temperatures. These ores are rather the result of groundwater flow at near-ambient conditions. They are, however, considered together with hydrothermal uranium ores because of the commonalities among the different deposit types.

The deposits in sedimentary basins are either syngenetic, and formed at the same time of sedimentation of the host-rocks, or epigenetic and formed up to hundreds of million years after sedimentation. Most of the host basins were not sites of magmatism over the times of mineralisation. Neither magmatic-hydrothermal fluids nor magmatic heat-driving fluid flow are thus considered to be factors in the formation of these ores. As will be discussed in this chapter, the metal-carrying solutions migrated distances of up to a few to hundreds of kilometres through the sedimentary rocks of the basin and in some cases also through underlying basement.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Ore Deposit Geology , pp. 241 - 289

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139135528.005 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Garven, G. (1995). Continental scale groundwater flow and geologic processes. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 23, 89–117.Google Scholar

Hanor, J. S. (1994). Origin of saline fluids in sedimentary basins. Geological Society Special Publication 78, 151–174.Google Scholar

Anderson, G. M. (1991). Organic maturation and ore precipitation in southeast Missouri. Economic Geology 86, 909–926.Google Scholar

Anderson, G. M. (2008). The mixing hypothesis and the origin of Mississippi Valley-type ore deposits. Economic Geology 103, 1683–1690.Google Scholar

Basuki, N. J. and Spooner, E. T. C. (2002). A review of fluid-inclusion temperatures and salinities in Mississippi Valley-type Zn–Pb deposits: identifying thresholds for metal transport. Exploration and Mining Geology 11, 1–17.Google Scholar

Sverjensky, D. A. (1986). Genesis of Mississippi Valley-type lead–zinc deposits. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences 14, 177–199.Google Scholar

Wenz, Z. J., Appold, M. S., Shelton, K. L. and Tesfaye, S. (2012). Geochemistry of Mississippi valley-type mineralizing fluids of the Ozark plateau: a regional synthesis. American Journal of Science 312, 22–80.Google Scholar

Wilkinson, J. J. (2010). A review of fluid inclusion constraints on mineralization of the Irish ore field and implication for the genesis of sediment-hosted Zn–Pb deposits. Economic Geology 105, 417–431.Google Scholar

Torres, M. E., Bohrmann, G., Dubé, T. E. and Poole, F. G. (2003). Formation of modern and Palaeozoic stratiform barite at cold methane seeps on continental margins. Geology 31, 897–900.Google Scholar

Bechtel, A., Gratzer, R., Püttmann, W. and Oszczepalski, S. (2002). Geochemical characteristics across the oxic/anoxic interface (Rote Fäule front) within the Kupferschiefer of the Lubin–Sieroszowice mining district (SW Poland). Chemical Geology 185, 9–31.Google Scholar

Jowett, E. C. (1992). Role of organics and methane in sulfide ore formation, exemplified by Kupferschiefer Cu–Ag deposits, Poland. Chemical Geology 99, 51–63.Google Scholar

Selley, D., Broughton, D., Scott, R., et al. (2005). A new look at the geology of the Zambian Copperbelt. Economic Geology 100th Anniversary Volume, Hedenquist, J. W., Thompson, J. F. H., Goldfarb, R. J. and Richards, J. P. (eds.), Colorado, Society of Economic Geologists, pp. 965–1000.

Hansley, P. L. and Spirakis, C. S. (1992). Organic matter diagenesis as a key to a unifying theory for the genesis of tabular uranium–vanadium deposits in the Morrison Formation, Colorado Plateau. Economic Geology 87, 352–365.Google Scholar

Hobday, D. K. and Galloway, W. E. (1999). Groundwater processes and sedimentary uranium deposits. Hydrogeology Journal 7, 127–138.Google Scholar

Komninov, A. and Sverjensky, D. A. (1996). Geochemical modelling of the formation of an unconformity-type uranium deposit. Economic Geology 91, 591–606.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.