Graphite as an electrically conductive indicator of ancient crustal-scale fluid flow within mineral systems

Murphy, Benjamin S., Huizenga, Jan Marten, and Bedrosian, Paul A. (2022) Graphite as an electrically conductive indicator of ancient crustal-scale fluid flow within mineral systems. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 594. 117700.

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Abstract

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 CO2-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.

Item ID: 75547
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1385-013X
Keywords: mineral systems; IOA-IOCG; Olympic Dam; Southeast Missouri Iron Province; magnetotellurics; graphite
Copyright Information: © B.S. Murphy, J.M. Huizenga and P.A. Bedrosian /Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Date Deposited: 25 Jul 2022 22:05
FoR Codes: 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3703 Geochemistry > 370399 Geochemistry not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes: 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280107 Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences @ 100%
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