Jan Marten Huizenga
Paul A. Bedrosian
Benjamin Scott Murphy
2022
<div id="abstracts" class="Abstracts u-font-serif"><div id="ab0010" class="abstract author"><div id="as0010"><p id="sp0010">Magnetotelluric (MT) imaging results from mineral provinces in Australia and in the United States show an apparent spatial relationship between crustal-scale electrical conductivity anomalies and major magmatic-hydrothermal iron oxide-apatite/iron oxide-copper-gold (IOA-IOCG) deposits. Although these observations have driven substantial interest in the use of MT data to image ancient fluid pathways, the exact cause of these anomalies has been unclear. Here, we interpret the conductors to be the result of graphite precipitation from CO<sub>2</sub><span>-rich magmatic fluids during cooling. These fluids would have exsolved from mafic magmas at mid- to lower-crustal depths; saline magmatic fluids that could drive mineralization were likely derived from related, more evolved intrusions at shallower crustal levels. In our model, the conductivity anomalies then mark zones that once were the deep roots of ancient magmatic-hydrothermal mineral systems.</span></p></div></div></div>
application/pdf
10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117700
en
Elsevier
Graphite as an electrically conductive indicator of ancient crustal-scale fluid flow within mineral systems
article