157 3.

2 Hydrothermal deposits formed around magmatic centres

degrees of leaching than vuggy silica, such that K and Al that were originally in the rock
remain in addition to silica.
The surrounding alteration zone is argillic facies in which one or more of kaolinite,
illite, smectite or interlayered illite–smectite is a major mineral. This zone may be
pervasively developed between ore zones in larger deposits, but around isolated small
deposits, such as shown in Figure 3.31, the argillic alteration zone is surrounded by a
propylitic alteration zone with assemblages including calcite, sericite and epidote similar
to those at porphyry deposits.
Ore minerals are typically disseminated through the most strongly altered rock, most
particularly in the vuggy-silica zone. Ore mineral concentrations are up to a few per cent
by mode. The minerals are either intergrown with quartz or have grown as euhedral grains
into the vughs that formed as a result of the alteration. Characteristic ore minerals are
pyrite, chalcocite (Cu2S), covellite (CuS), and multiple Cu–As sulfosalts such as
enargite–luzonite (Cu3AsS4). The sulfosalts may occur together in complex intergrowths.
Gold is present as both native gold and as solid solution in sulfide minerals. Native sulfur
is present locally with sulfide minerals in some ore bodies.

Interpretation of the environment of formation of high-sulfidation epithermal deposits

The geological settings of high-sulfidation epithermal deposits show that they formed
in magmatic centres during active magmatism. The ore and alteration assemblages and
other geochemical and mineralogical data such as differences in ratios of the stable
isotopes of S between sulfate and sulfide minerals indicate ore formation at 150–350  C,
most commonly at about 250  C. However, there is evidence from for instance fluid-
inclusion data, and the presence of fine intergrowths of sulfosalt minerals that grew from
droplets of sulfide melt, that hydrothermal fluid temperatures were higher, up to about
600  C, at least transiently in some high-sulfidation deposits. Temperatures may thus not
have been held at around 250  C through all stages of ore formation, and may have
varied through ore bodies during their formation.
The almost complete leaching of all major cations other than Si from vuggy-silica
alteration zones indicates that the core of these deposits formed from extremely acidic
fluids (pH of 1–2). Acidity decreased outwards through the enveloping alteration zones.
Strongly acidic conditions are also inferred for the formation of the lithocaps that form as
a widespread blanket over degassing magma chambers. These strongly acid conditions
can be produced through chemical reactions similar to those that produce acid rain, that is,
the condensation of acid gas species (SO2, H2S, CO2, HCl) into water. Sulfur dioxide is
probably the most critical component for producing pH of 2 or lower at these deposits
through the reaction:
H2 O þ SO2 þ ½O2 ! H2 SO4 ! Hþ þ HSO4 : ð3:12Þ
The textural setting of many ore minerals as euhedral crystals that have grown into vughs
implies that they grew either after the intense acid alteration or at a late stage in the
development of the alteration assemblages.
The ratios of stable isotopes of H, O and S in alteration and ore minerals that have
precipitated from the hydrothermal fluid, e.g. alunite, show that the water and the sulfur in
solution were dominantly sourced from magma. Fluid inclusions preserve multiple
hydrothermal fluids of contrasting composition and density similar to those in the upper

Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 158.109.192.111 on Thu Jan 09 15:26:48 WET 2014.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139135528.004
Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2014
158 Hydrothermal ore deposits I: magmatic and orogenic environments

levels of porphyry deposits (Box 3.1). Three types are repeatedly recognised: low-density
vapour-like fluids, relatively low-salinity (3–10 wt % salts), liquid-like fluids, and rarer
high-salinity brines (up to greater than 40 wt % salts). A low-salinity magmatic-hydro-
thermal fluid that is exsolved from magma at greater than 700  C at depths of less than
about 2 km will have vapour-like density at source (see Figure 3.1). The different fluid-
inclusion types can be interpreted as having formed from such a fluid as it rises and loses
pressure above a magma chamber. Vapours may have been little modified from source or
may have expanded as pressure is reduced with little loss of temperature: vapours that
cool as they rise may contract to low-salinity liquid-like fluids; brines may have con-
densed from the vapour as it decompressed and cooled.

Volcanic degassing and metal flux through volcanoes

High-sulfidation epithermal deposits are formed at a shallow level in active magmatic
centres by rising hydrothermal vapours, some of which may have degassed to the
atmosphere. In view of the settings of ore formation, we can use observations and
measurements on fluids and vapours at active arc volcanoes in order to understand the
hydrothermal processes that contribute to the formation of these deposits. The available
data include those that have been collected, for instance, for understanding volcanic
hazards and styles of volcanic eruption.
Many active volcanoes emit gases between eruptions at temperatures of between about
200  C and magmatic temperatures of up to about 900  C. These emissions occur even
when cooling magma is not present at the surface, and historical records show that they
can either be short-lived, during and after an eruption, or be more continuous, in some
cases over time spans of at least a few hundred years. Where emissions are continuous, the
temperature and flux of gases can be very variable over time spans of a few years.
The emissions are variably diffuse through craters or lava domes, or through discrete
hydrothermal vents. Fumaroles are vents of high-temperature gases; solfataras are fuma-
roles that emit sulfuric gases. Where gas temperatures are high (> 600  C), the gases can
be inferred to be sourced essentially directly from magma and have risen as a plume
upwards above the magma with little interaction with lower-temperature rock or with
surface-derived waters on their rise. The source of the gases is presumably partially
molten magma at shallow depth in a chamber such as a feeder pipe to the volcano,
possibly at a depth of less than about 1 km. Lower-temperature emissions indicate greater
cooling between the magma and the surface. Fluid cooling may be because of a deeper
source, escape through less-permeable rock and hence greater heat exchange with rock,
mixing with surface-derived waters, for instance in a perched water table on or under the
flanks of the volcano, or a combination of these processes.
At active calc-alkaline volcanoes, the emitted gases are dominantly water vapour, but
include a few per cent of other gas species, especially SO2 and CO2. Higher concentrations of
SO2 in particular are measured emitting from some volcanoes with alkaline magmas. These
gases carry metals in solution. At many volcanoes, ore mineral sublimates line fumarole
vents, for instance the hydrated molybdenum oxide ilsemanite around vents emitting gases at
around 800  C at the andesitic Merapi volcano in Indonesia. Direct sampling of the gases
allows detection of and measurement of the concentrations of the metals, with the most
commonly recorded at arc volcanoes being As, Cd, Cu, Au, Fe, Pb, Mo, W and Zn. Although
the metal concentrations are low, as would be expected in solution in these extremely

Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 158.109.192.111 on Thu Jan 09 15:26:48 WET 2014.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139135528.004
Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2014
159 3.2 Hydrothermal deposits formed around magmatic centres

Table 3.2
Satsuma Mt Ladolam,
White Island, Iwojima, Augustine, Etna, Papua New Rotokawa,
New Zealand Japan Alaska, USA Italy Guinea New Zealand
Style of Eruption Fumarole Fumarole Eruption Geothermal Geothermal
discharge
Temp. ( C) > 850 877 870 900 260 320
Flux (Mt a 1)
H2O 1.9 5.2 0.03 50 1.5 4.5
CO2 0.5 0.04 0.003 13 0.014 0.3
Cl 0.04 0.06 0.005 0.1–0.5 0.0032 0.0023
S 0.06 0.09 0.005 0.2–0.75 0.0048 0.0012
Cu (t a 1) 110 0.16 0.011 480–850 71 ND
Au (kg a 1) > 36 0.02 ND 80–1200 24 37–109

Fluxes of gas components and metals in solution in emitted gases at example volcanoes. The fluxes are
those emitted into the atmosphere from lavas at the surface during eruptions, those emitted from
fumaroles during quiescent periods, or the upward flux through the shallow subsurface in geothermal
fields above magma chambers (Hedenquist and Lowenstern, 1994; Simmons and Brown, 2006; 2007;
Calabrese et al., 2011). ND – not determined.

low-density gases, they are significant and the concentrations are such that, given the
measured gas flux, up to hundreds of tonnes of Cu and hundreds of kilogrammes of Au
can be emitted per year into the atmosphere from a single volcano (Table 3.2).
Active volcanoes also give evidence of the presence and nature of hydrothermal alteration
within a few hundred metres of the surface through, for instance, blocks ejected during
eruptions. Strong hydrothermal alteration is occurring under craters of many active volca-
noes, especially those volcanoes which are also emitting high-temperature gases. In many
cases, ejected blocks show high-sulfidation styles of alteration. Blocks of tuff and andesitic
lava ejected during recent explosive eruptions at the White Island volcano (New Zealand), for
instance, contain cristobalite, alunite, anhydrite and pyrite, i.e. minerals typical of advanced-
argillic zones of high-sulfidation deposits (Figure 3.32). This and other arc volcanoes have
also been a source of native sulfur mined from precipitates in the pore space of loose
volcaniclastic rubble in craters.

Genesis of high-sulfidation epithermal deposits

The typical lithological settings, the overall geochemical characteristics (acidity,
oxidation state) of the ore fluids together with geochemical source tracers (e.g. isotope
ratios) and the comparisons with observations at active volcanoes allow us to interpret the
typical settings and processes of formation of high-sulfidation epithermal deposits.
The deposits form above a crystallising and degassing magma chamber; in most cases the
chamber is at depths of slightly greater than 1.5 km below the surface (Figure 3.33). The
deposits may be formed within the edifice of a stratovolcano, or perhaps more commonly either
beneath relatively small lava domes or at the base of magmatic-hydrothermal breccia vents.

Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 158.109.192.111 on Thu Jan 09 15:26:48 WET 2014.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139135528.004
Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2014