Post-depositional tectonic modifications of VMS deposits in Iberia and its economic significance

The original stratigraphic relationships and structure of VMS deposits are commonly obscured by deformation. This can also affect their economic significance, as shown by several Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB, SW Iberia) examples. The contrasting rheologic properties of the different lithologies present in an orebody (massive sulphide, feeder stockwork, alteration envelope, volcanic and sedimentary rocks) playa major role in determining its overall behaviour. Variscan thin-skinned tectonics led to stacking of the massive pyrite and stockwork bodies in duplex structures, resulting in local thickening and increased tonnage of minable mineralization. Furthermore, differential mechanical behaviour of the different sulphide minerals localised the detachments along relatively ductile sulphide-rich bands. The result was a geochemical and mineralogical reorganisation of most deposits, which now consist of barren, massive pyrite horses, bounded by base metal-rich ductile shear zones. Metal redistribution was enhanced by mobilisation of the base metal sulphides from the initially impoverished massive pyrite, through pressuresolution processes, to tensional fissures within the already ductile shear zones. In NW Iberia, VMS deposits were also strongly overprinted by the Variscan deformation during emplacement of the Cabo Ortegal and Órdenes allochthonous nappe complexes, but no stacking of the orebodies was produced. Original contacts were transposed, and the orebodies, their feeder zones and the country rock acquired pronounced laminar geometry. In lower-grade rocks (greenschist facies, Cabo Ortegal Complex), solution transfer mechanisms are common in pyrite, which remains in the brittle domain, while chalcopyrite shows ductile behaviour. In higher-grade rocks (amphibolite facies, Órdenes Complex), metamorphic recrystallisation overprints earlier deformation textures. The contrasting behaviour of the IPB and NW Iberian deposits is explained by key factors that affect their final geometry, composition and economics, such as pre-deformation structure, size and mineralogical composition of the orebody and associated lithologies, temperature, crustal level, deviatoric stress and availability of a fluid phase during deformation and the style and rate of deformation

Diachronism in the late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian arc-rift transition of North Gondwana: a comparison of Morocco and the Iberian Ossa-Morena Zone

In the northwestern border of the West African craton (North Gondwana), a transition from late Neoproterozoic subduction/collision to Cambrian rift processes was recorded in the Anti-Atlas (Morocco) and in the Ossa-Morena Zone (Iberia). Cambrian rifting affected both Pan-African and Cadomian basements in a stepwise and diachronous way. Subsequently, both areas evolved into a syn-rift margin episodically punctuated by uplift and tilting that precluded Furongian sedimentation. A comparison of sedimentary, volcanic and geodynamic evolution is made in the late Neoproterozoic (Pan-African and Cadomian) belts and Cambrian rifts trying to solve the apparent diachronous (SW–NE-trending) propagation of an early Palaeozoic rifting regime that finally led to the opening of the Rheic Ocean

Rift-related volcanism predating the birth of the Rheic Ocean

Two very different periods of magma emplacement in the crust of the Ossa-Morena zone (early and main events) in SW Iberia have been previously interpreted to record a Cambrian/Early Ordovician rifting event that is thought to have culminated in the opening of the Rheic Ocean during the Early Ordovician. New stratigraphic, petrographic, geochemical and Sm–Nd isotope data from Cambrian volcanic rocks included in six key low-grade sections in both Portugal and Spain considerably improve our understanding of these events. These data: (1) confirm the existence of two rift-related magmatic events in the Cambrian of the Ossa-Morena zone, (2) demonstrate that the early rift-related event was associated with migmatite and core-complex formation in the mid-upper crust and is represented by felsic peraluminous rocks, the parent magmas of which were derived mainly from crustal sources, and (3) show the main rift-related event to be represented by a bimodal association of felsic and mafic rocks with minor amounts of intermediate rocks. Some of the mafic rocks show N-MORB affinity, whereas others have OIB or E-MORB affinities, suggesting different heterogeneous mantle sources (depleted and enriched, asthenospheric and lithospheric, plume-like and non-plume-like). The acid and intermediate rocks appear to represent hybrid mixtures of crust and mantle-derived magmas. This new data supports the hypothesis that the onset of rifting was associated with a process of oblique ridgetrench collision. We interpret the significant differences between the early and main events as reflecting the evolution froma wide rift stagewith passive extensionmainly accommodated by lower-crust flowin a high heatflow setting, to a narrow rift stage with active extension characterized by extension rates that outpaced thermal diffusion rates

Ediacaran–Palaeozoic tectonic evolution of the Ossa Morena and Central Iberian zones (SW Iberia) as revealed by Sm–Nd isotope systematics

Sm–Nd isotopic analyses of Palaeozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks in the southwest Iberian Massif (western end of the European Variscan Belt) are presented in order to unravel its complex poly-orogenic evolution during the closure of the Rheic Ocean and the amalgamation of Pangea. The Gondwanan margin in southwest Iberia SW Iberia is subdivided into the Ossa Morena and Central Iberian zones, separated by the Badajoz–Córdoba Shear Zone which represents a cryptic suture zone between these terranes. The relationships between these terranes, and between units preserved within the suture zone (e.g. the Sierra Albarrana Group) during the Palaeozoic and Neoproterozoic are controversial. Sm–Nd isotopic studies of representative sedimentary sequences covering the entire pre-Variscan record of the Ossa Morena and Central Iberian zones show very similar characteristics from the uppermost Ediacaran onwards. These data indicate that their accretion to one another must have been completed by the Late Neoproterozoic–Ediacarin that time (an event assigned to Cadomian orogeny) and that they never separated substantially from each other since that time. The Sm–Nd isotopic composition of the Sierra Albarrana Group metasedimentary rocks is similar to that of the pre-Cadomian sequences of the Ossa Morena Zone (Serie Negra), suggesting derivation from a common source. The common provenance of the Palaeozoic sequences in the two zones is identical to that of the pre-Cadomian Serie Negra of the Ossa Morena Zone, which in accordance with the data presented herein and published U–Pb zircon data indicates a West African affinity

The Patricia Zn–Pb–Ag epithermal ore deposit: An uncommon type of mineralization in northeastern Chile

The Patricia ore deposit represents an unusual example of economic Zn–Pb–Ag mineralization at the northernmost end of the Late Eocene–Oligocene metallogenic belt in Chile. It is hosted by volcano-sedimentary units, which are typically tuffaceous and andesitic breccias. The ore body consists of a set of subvertical E-W vein systems developed under a sinistral strike-slip regime that included transtensive domains with generalized extensional structures where the ores were deposited. The deposit is divided into two blocks by a set of NNW-ESE-trending reverse faults, which uplifted the eastern block and exhumed thicker and deeper parts of the deposit. At least 200 m of volcano-sedimentary pile hosting the mineralization has been eroded in this block. By contrast, the western block exposes a shallower part of the system where cherts, amorphous silica and jasperoids occur. Three main stages of mineralization have been defined: (1) pre-ore stage is characterized by early quartz, pyrite and arsenopyrite, (2) base-metal and silver stage; characterized by sphalerite (6 to 15 mol% FeS), galena, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and Ag-bearing minerals (freibergite, polybasite, stephanite, pyrargyrite, freieslebenite and acanthite) and (3) post-ore stage; characterized by late quartz, kutnohorite and minor sulfides (arsenopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite, galena, Ag-bearing minerals and Pb-sulfosalts). Whole-ore geochemistry shows two groups of elements that are positively correlated; 1) Ag–Cd–Cu–Pb–Zn related to the base metal sulfides and 2) Au–As–Ge–Sb–W related to arsenopyrite and pyrite. Hydrothermal alteration is pervasive in the outcropping mineralized areas, including silicification and locally, vuggy silica textures. At depth, chloritic and sericitic alteration is developed along vein selvages and is superimposed to the regional propylitic alteration. Fluid inclusions indicate that the base-metal ores were deposited from 250 to 150 °C moderate salinity fluids (1–9 wt.% NaCl). The pre-ore stage is characterized by a saline fluid (6–22 wt.% NaCl) and between 210 and 250 °C whereas the post-ore stage has salinity of 4–8 wt.% and temperature from 175 to 215 °C. Cooling was the mechanism of ore mineral precipitation in the Patricia deposit, although mixing of fluids could have occurred in the pre-ore stage. Mineralogical, geochemical and fluid inclusion evidence is consistent with an intermediate sulfidation (IS) epithermal deposit type. This study highlights the high potential for hidden economic mineralization at depth in the western block and for extension of the ore body both to the south and to deeper levels in the eastern block of the Patricia ore deposit. To a larger extent, the implications of finding such polymetallic epithermal style of mineralization in the northern Chile Precordillera is relevant both to the regional metallogenic perspective and to the exploration potential of the region, where the late Eocene–early Oligocene metallogenic belt apparently disappears.This research was financially supported by the project CGL2010 – 17668 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain) and the company Herencia Resources Plc.Peer reviewe

Tectonic Plates Come Apart at the Seams

Around the time that the first birds evolved from their reptilian ancestors, between 100 million and 200 million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean was being born. Its creation marked the destruction of the supercontinent Pangea, in which all the land on Earth formed a gigantic, unbroken island surrounded by a worldwide sea

Origin of the Rheic Ocean: Rifting along a Neoproterozoic suture?

The Rheic Ocean is widely believed to have formed in the Late Cambrian–Early Ordovician as a result of the drift of peri-Gondwanan terranes, such as Avalonia and Carolina, from the northern margin of Gondwana, and to have been consumed in the Devonian Carboniferous by continent-continent collision during the formation of Pangea. Other peri-Gondwanan terranes (e.g., Armorica, Ossa-Morena, northwest Iberia, Saxo-Thuringia, Moldanubia) remained along the Gondwanan margin at the time of Rheic Ocean formation. Differences in the Neoproterozoic histories of these peri-Gondwanan terranes suggest the location of the Rheic Ocean rift may have been inherited from Neoproterozoic lithospheric structures formed by the accretion and dispersal of peri-Gondwanan terranes along the northern Gondwanan margin prior to Rheic Ocean opening. Avalonia and Carolina have Sm-Nd isotopic characteristics indicative of recycling of a juvenile ca. 1 Ga source, and they were accreted to the northern Gondwanan margin prior to voluminous late Neoproterozoic arc magmatism. In contrast, Sm-Nd isotopic characteristics of most other peri-Gondwanan terranes closely match those of Eburnian basement, suggesting they reflect recycling of ancient (2 Ga) West African crust. The basements of terranes initially rifted from Gondwana to form the Rheic Ocean were those that had previously accreted during Neoproterozoic orogenesis, suggesting the rift was located near the suture between the accreted terranes and cratonic northern Gondwana. Opening of the Rheic Ocean coincided with the onset of subduction beneath the Laurentian margin in its predecessor, the Iapetus Ocean, suggesting geodynamic linkages between the destruction of the Iapetus Ocean and the creation of the Rheic Ocean

Early Palaeozoic evolution of Gondwanan units in the Iberian Massif: from subduction through rifting and drift on the southern passive margin of the Rheic Ocean

Ordovician geodynamics: The Sardic Phase in the Pyrenees, Mouthoumet and Montagne Noire massifs International Meeting (2017. Figueras, España)Currently it is broadly accepted that the Iberian Massif consists of various tectonostratigraphic terranes, accreted to one another during the Variscan collision of Gondwana and Laurussia. These include: 1) units that occupied the northern margin of Gondwana prior to the Variscan orogeny (now exposed in the Cantabrian, West Asturian-Leonese, Central Iberian, lower allochthons of the Galicia-Tras os Montes, and Ossa-Morena zones, from inner to outer margin, respectively); 2) oceanic affinity units (ophiolites) exposed in the intermediate allochthons of the Galicia-Tras os Montes Zone and in the Pulo do Lobo Zone; and 3) exotic units thought to belong to Laurussia (upper allochthons of the Galicia-Tras os Montes Zone and the South Portuguese Zone). In this contribution focus is placed on the evolution recorded in the Iberian Massif’s Gondwanan units during Cambrian through Ordovician times.Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, EspañaDepartamento de Mineralogía, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, EspañaPeer reviewe

Influencia del PICG en los avances producidos en España en el campo de la Geodinámica

Se presenta una revisión sucinta de las actividades realizadas en España, o por investigadores españoles, en el campo de la Geodinámica, en el marco de proyectos del Programa Internacional de Geociencias (PICG) desde su inicio. Se concluye la notable influencia de la cooperación y el intercambio científico promovidos por el PICG en el desarrollo de la Geodinámica en España.Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, EspañaDepartamento de Mineralogía, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Españ