Mineralium Deposita (2002) 37: 788–790
DOI 10.1007/s00126-002-0284-5
D IS C U S S IO N
Jeremy P. Richards
Discussion on ‘‘Giant versus small porphyry copper deposits
of Cenozoic age in northern Chile: adakitic versus normal
calc-alkaline magmatism’’ by Oyarzun et al.
(Mineralium Deposita 36: 794–798, 2001)
Received: 20 February 2002 / Accepted: 21 February 2002 / Published online: 12 April 2002

Springer-Verlag 2002
Keywords Porphyry copper deposits Æ Adakites Æ
Magmatism Æ Chile
Oyarzun et al. (2001) present a model for the formation of giant
Late Eocene–Early Oligocene porphyry copper deposits in north-
ern Chile which invokes direct melting of a shallow-subducting slab
as a source for porphyry magmas. They contrast this magma source
with a mantle-wedge origin for magmas emplaced during an earlier,
generally less metalliferous period of magmatism in the Paleocene–
Early Eocene. Oyarzun et al. (2001) go on to discuss the role of
coeval volcanism and prevailing stress conditions in controlling the
escape of SO2 from the magma, retention of which they suggest
should lead to the formation of giant porphyries.
This paper covers a lot of ground in a very short space (five
journal pages). Many of the topics discussed, such as arc magma
genesis, crustal interactions, plutonism versus volcanism, arc
crustal stress, magma devolatilization, magmatic-hydrothermal ore
formation, and Andean tectonomagmatic history, are the subjects
of entire research fields, if not individual journals. A review of this
vast literature reveals little support for the petrogenetic model
presented by Oyarzun et al. (2001) for Andean magmatism, and
indeed much evidence which directly contradicts it in the context to
which it is applied.
A fundamental premise of the paper is that intermediate-com-
position igneous rocks (‡56 wt% SiO2, ‡15 wt% Al2O3, and typi-
cally £ 3 wt% MgO; note: not 3–6 wt% MgO, as given in
Oyarzun et al. 2001) from arc environments with Sr/Y ratios ‡22
and £ 18 ppm Y may be classified as ‘‘adakites’’, with the impli-
cation that they are derived by direct melting of the subducting slab.
The authors point to a seminal paper by Defant and Drummond
(1990) in support of this argument, and incorrectly cite this paper as
the source of the ‘‘adakite’’ and ‘‘typical arc’’ fields shown on their
Sr/Y versus Y plot (Fig. 3; the correct reference is Defant and
Drummond 1993, but see below). In using the work of Defant and
Drummond (1990), Oyarzun et al. (2001) fail to point out that these
authors were at pains to focus on island arcs, not continental arcs, to
constrain the origin of adakites. In fact, the field which Oyarzun et
al. (2001) label ‘‘typical arc’’ on their Fig. 3 is labeled ‘‘island-arc’’
in the original diagram of Defant and Drummond (1993). This
distinction is of critical importance, because of the potential for
primary magma contamination by crustal sources in continental or
near-continent arcs (Defant and Drummond 1990, p. 662). In
Editorial handling: B. Lehmann
J.P. Richards
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,
University of Alberta, Edmonton AB T6G 2E3, Canada
E-mail: jeremy.richards@ualberta.ca
particular, Defant and Drummond (1990) suggested that Y and Yb
concentrations would likely be lowered by such contamination,
leading to compositions which might resemble adakites. For
example, Gill (1981) noted that andesites with Y<15 ppm are
characteristic of arcs with crustal thicknesses >30 km. In
acknowledging these observations, Defant and Drummond (1990)
allowed that rocks with ‘‘adakitic’’ compositions may also be
formed by processes other than slab melting, particularly in conti-
nental arcs. Thus, simply finding rocks with adakitic compositions is
not sufficient to prove the occurrence of slab melting.
As an example of arc magmas with adakitic composition which
were not derived by slab melting, Feeley and Hacker (1995) pre-
sented a detailed analysis of the petrogenesis of volcanic rocks from
Volcán Ollagüe, a large, Quaternary stratovolcano from the An-
dean Central Volcanic Zone (CVZ; 21S). They showed that the
basaltic-andesite to dacite lavas from Volcán Ollagüe, as well as
numerous other CVZ lavas, straddle the adakite and island-arc
fields of Defant and Drummond (1993), with some compositions
extending to Sr/Y>100 (Y10 ppm). However, a key distinction
between the Andean volcanic arc and the island arcs studied by
Defant and Drummond (1990) is the presence of the old (Prote-
rozoic–Paleozoic) and thickened continental crust upon which the
Andean arc has been built since the Mesozoic. Numerous studies
have shown that primary arc magmas typically do not erupt
through such thickened continental crust, but instead undergo ex-
tensive interaction with the crust prior to upper crustal emplace-
ment or eruption (e.g., Francis et al. 1977; Tilton 1978;
Hawkesworth 1982; Déruelle et al. 1983; Brown et al. 1984; Thorpe
et al. 1984; Hildreth and Moorbath 1988; Rogers and Hawkes-
worth 1989; Davidson et al. 1990, 1991; Walker et al. 1991; Feeley
1993; Hawkesworth and Clarke 1994; Wörner et al. 1994; Ort et al.
1996; Kraemer 1999; Trumbull et al. 1999; Richards and Villeneuve
2002). Feeley and Hacker (1995) show that the apparently dis-
tinctive geochemical characteristics of these CVZ lavas, such as
their relatively low HREE and Y concentrations, and decreasing
Sr/Y with increasing Y concentrations, can readily be explained by
interaction of mantle-derived mafic magmas with garnet-bearing
lower crustal rocks, followed by shallow-level plagioclase feldspar
fractionation. The important role of crustal contamination is un-
derpinned by the variable and evolved Nd and Sr isotopic com-
positions of Volcán Ollagüe lavas, all of which have 87Sr/86Sr
compositions >0.7060 [note that Defant and Drummond (1990)
identify adakites as having 87Sr/86Sr <0.7040; see also Drummond
et al. (1996) for a specific discussion of this point]. Thus, Feeley and
Hacker (1995) have clearly demonstrated that the ‘‘adakitic’’
character of these Andean volcanic rocks is not derived from slab-
melting processes, but instead by contamination during passage
through old and thickened continental crust.
Oyarzun et al. (2001) reproduce Sr and Y data for Andean-cycle
plutonic and volcanic rocks from northern Chile, and show that

intrusions associated with large, Late Eocene–Early Oligocene
porphyry copper deposits are characterized by a range extending to
lower Y and higher Sr concentrations than earlier (Late Cretaceous
to Eocene) arc magmas. They suggest that the small to medium-
sized Paleocene–Early Eocene porphyry deposits, which formed in
a narrow magmatic belt 150–200 km inland from the trench, were
derived from ‘‘normal calc-alkaline’’ magmas originating in the
asthenospheric mantle wedge. They further suggest that magma-
tism was interrupted by the Late Eocene Incaic orogenic phase, but
resumed after this event with the emplacement of the Late Eocene–
Early Oligocene porphyries. These plutons were emplaced along an
equally narrow belt overlapping the eastern edge of the Paleocene–
Early Eocene belt, 200 km from the trench. Oyarzun et al. (2001)
correlate the reduction of magmatism with the flattening of the
subduction angle, and suggest that the shallowly dipping but rap-
idly subducting Farallon plate melted to give rise to the Late Eo-
cene–Early Oligocene porphyries. In support of this model,
Oyarzun et al. (2001) point to the work of Gutscher et al. (2000),
who suggested that a progressive isobaric rise in temperature of the
slab as it tracks horizontally beneath the continent may eventually
result in slab melting, to form a broad, diffuse ‘‘adakitic’’ arc ex-
tending several hundred kilometers behind the original calc-alka-
line arc (300 to 600 km inland from the trench). However, this is
not what is observed during the Late Eocene–Early Oligocene in
northern Chile, where the supposedly adakitic porphyry belt is
within 50 km of the axis of the earlier calc-alkaline arc, and
within 200 km of the trench. This position suggests a slab dip of
30 (assuming a depth of 100 km to the Benioff zone), which
does not constitute flat-slab subduction, and is comparable with the
dip beneath other active volcanic arcs such as East Japan, Peru,
and the Aegean (Gill 1981). The only other mechanisms which have
been proposed for slab melting involve subduction of young
(<25 Ma) and, therefore, hot oceanic crust (Defant and Drum-
mond 1990; Peacock et al. 1994), or melting at plate edges (Yo-
godzinski et al. 2001). However, there is no evidence that either of
these scenarios are applicable to subduction of the Farallon plate
beneath northern Chile during the mid-Cenozoic.
A more detailed analysis of the tectonic and magmatic evolu-
tion of this region supports the contention that slab flattening in
the Oligocene shut down rather than triggered the Late Eocene–
Early Oligocene arc, and that the locus of magmatism moved
further east to form the Late Oligocene–Neogene Central Volcanic
Zone arc (Jordan and Gardeweg 1989; Palacios et al. 1993; All-
mendinger et al. 1997; Zappettini et al. 1997; James and Sacks
1999; Richards et al. 2001). As noted above, there is no compelling
evidence that CVZ magmas of the High Andes are anything other
than ordinary arc magmas erupted through a thickened crust, and
so it is even less likely that the earlier, more oceanward Late Eo-
cene–Early Oligocene magmas are slab melts (see also Kay et al.
1991, 1994, 1999 for petrogenetic models specific to Neogene An-
dean flat-slab magmatism).
Geochemical studies of Paleogene volcanic and plutonic rocks
from the Escondida area of northern Chile reveal no significant
change in magma chemistry throughout this period, which termi-
nated with a locally voluminous pulse of dioritic plutonism in the
Late Eocene (Richards et al. 2001). These plutons intruded
the eastern margin of the Paleocene–Early Eocene volcanic suite
(the Augusta Victoria Formation), and are geochemically indis-
tinguishable from that suite. Richards et al. (2001) further dem-
onstrated that dacitic porphyry plutons in this area were genetically
related to and coeval with the regional diorites, and that the rela-
tively low abundances of HREE and Y in the suite as a whole were
caused by crustal amphibole fractionation. Furthermore, clear
evidence for the important role of crustal contamination in these
Late Eocene–Early Oligocene porphyry magmas was provided by
Zentilli et al. (1994), Cornejo et al. (1997), and Richards et al.
(1999), who documented the presence of Paleozoic zircons inherited
from felsic crustal rocks in samples of porphyry intrusions used for
U–Pb dating from Chuquicamata, El Salvador, and La Escondida,
respectively. Following Feeley and Hacker (1995), therefore, the
most probable explanation for the relatively low HREE and
Y abundances in these Andean magmas is fractionation and
789
interaction of asthenospheric magmas with continental crust (the
MASH process of Hildreth and Moorbath 1988).
In conclusion, I see no compelling evidence for the role of slab
melts (adakites) in the petrogenesis of Late Eocene–Early Oligo-
cene porphyry magmas in northern Chile, but abundant evidence
for derivation of ‘‘adakitic’’ geochemical signatures through crustal
processing of normal arc magmas. The further arguments for
porphyry copper potential relating to magmatic oxidation state,
sulfur fugacity, and volcanic venting are not new (e.g., Sillitoe and
Bonham 1984; Hattori 1993; Imai et al. 1993; Sillitoe 1994; Pasteris
1996; also see reviews by Hedenquist and Richards 1998, and
Tosdal and Richards 2001), but have no relationship which I can
see to the premise of slab melting. Alternative models for the op-
timization of large porphyry systems through tectonic processes
operating in the upper plate have been suggested by Richards et al.
(2001) and Tosdal and Richards (2001).
Acknowledgements I thank Keiko Hattori and Tom Chacko for
helpful discussions of these issues.
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