Tectonic and structural setting for active mesothermal gold vein systems,Southern Alps,New Zealand |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo — State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States;2. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China;3. Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin — Madison, WI, United States |
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| Abstract: | The Southern Alps of New Zealand is an active oblique collisional mountain belt with extensive regional tectonically driven fluid flow. There is no evidence for igneous activity, and fluids consist of varying proportions of meteoric water and mid-crustal fluid derived from dehydration reactions. Fluid flow is controlled by fracture porosity, particularly in damage zones along faults and fault intersections. Gold and arsenic bearing veins exposed at the surface indicate two principal zones of gold mineralisation at depth. One of these is in the highest mountains, near to, but not in the region of maximum uplift. Deformation is dominated by reverse faulting, but some normal and strike-slip faults occur as well. The other zone of gold mineralisation is at and near the intersection of regional oblique dextral reverse faults and regional strike-slip faults. Both zones are characterised by small discontinuous vein systems, locally accompanied by ankeritic alteration of host rock. Veins occur in extensional and shear veins, and in dilational jogs with implosion breccias. Gold mineralisation occurred at many structural levels between the brittle–ductile transition and the near-surface region. The Southern Alps hydrothermal system represents an active roof zone to a mesothermal gold deposition system at depth. As such, this is a modern analogue for mesothermal gold terranes elsewhere in New Zealand and around the world. Observations on the regional distribution of fluid flow in active orogens can give insights into fluid flow at depth where gold mineralisation is occurring now. Comparison of these observations with ancient gold-bearing belts allows construction of three-dimensional concepts of orogenic fluid flow and gold mineralisation. |
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