The Triassic Pulang porphyry Cu-Au deposit, located in the South Yidun terrane, is the oldest and one of the largest porphyry deposits in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. The mineralization occurs mostly in the potassic alteration zone of the Pulang intrusive complex. U-Pb-He triple dating, namely apatite (U-Th)/He, zircon U-Pb, and zircon (U-Th)/He dating, together with inverse thermal modeling, reveals that the Pulang complex was emplaced at a paleodepth of ~5.0 to 6.5 km at 215 ± 2 Ma. The deep-level emplacement of the complex, coupled with the episodic replenishment of the magma chamber, gave rise to the establishment of a prolonged magmatic-hydrothermal system at Pulang.
The file contains the P-wave velocity model and related plotting scripts for the manuscript entitled " Eastward growth of Tibetan Plateau controlled by Cenozoic Indian slab tearing". The P wave velocity model is stored in Vp.xyz, it contains four columns, which are longitude, latitude, depth (unit: km) and velocity perturbation relative to AK135 model, respectively. The plotting scripts are stored at " Figure1(b)" and "Figure2", which are used to plot figure 1(b) and figure 2 in the manuscript.
The continental crust in the overriding plate of the India-Asia collision zone in southern Tibet is characterized by an overthickened layer of felsic composition with an underlying granulite-eclogite layer. A large data set indicates that this crust experienced magmatism from 245 to 10 Ma, as recorded by the Gangdese Batholith. Magmatism was punctuated by flare-ups at 185−170, 90−75, and 55−45 Ma caused by a combination of external and internal factors. The growth of this crust starts with a period dominated by fractional crystallization and the formation of voluminous (ultra)mafic arc cumulates in the lower crust during subduction, followed by their melting during late-subduction and collision, due to changes in convergence rate. This combined accumulation-melting process resulted in the vertical stratification and density sorting of the Gangdese crust. Comparisons with other similarly thickened collision zones suggests that this is a general process that leads to the stabilization of continental crust. ▪The Gangdese Batholith records the time-integrated development of the world's thickest crust, reaching greater than 50 km at 55–45 Ma and greater than 70 km after 32 Ma.▪The Gangdese Batholith records three magmatic flare-ups in response to distinct drivers; the last one at 55−45 Ma marks the arrival of India.▪Magmatism was first dominated by fractional crystallization (accumulation) followed by crustal melting: the accumulation-melting process.▪Accumulation-melting in other collision zones provides a general process for vertical stratification and stabilization of continental crust.
This special volume provides a comprehensive review of the current state of knowledge for rare earth and critical elements in ore deposits. The first six chapters are devoted to rare earth elements (REEs) because of the unprecedented interest in these elements during the past several years. The following eight chapters describe critical elements in a number of important ore deposit types. These chapters include a description of the deposit type, major deposits, critical element mineralogy and geochemistry, processes controlling ore-grade enrichment, and exploration guides. This volume represents an important contribution to our understanding of where, how, and why individual critical elements occur and should be of use to both geoscientists and public policy analysts.The term "critical minerals" was coined in a 2008 National Research Council report (National Research Council, 2008). Although the NRC report used the term "critical minerals," its focus was primarily on individual chemical elements. The two factors used in the NRC report to rank criticality were (1) the degree to which a commodity is essential, and (2) the risk of supply disruption for the commodity. Technological advancements and changes in lifestyles have changed the criticality of elements; many that had few historic uses are now essential for our current lifestyles, green technologies, and military applications. The concept of element criticality is useful for evaluation of the fragility of commodity markets. This fragility is commonly due to a potential risk of supply disruption, which may be difficult to quantify because it can be affected by political, economic, geologic, geographic, and environmental variables.Identifying potential sources for some of the elements deemed critical can be challenging. Because many of these elements have had minor historic usage, exploration for them has been limited. Thus, as this volume highlights, the understanding of the occurrence and genesis of critical elements in various ore deposit models is much less well defined than for base and precious metals. A better understanding of the geologic and geochemical processes that lead to ore-grade enrichment of critical elements will aid in determining supply risk and was a driving factor for preparation of this volume. Understanding the gaps in our knowledge of the geology and geochemistry of critical elements should help focus future research priorities.Critical elements may be recovered either as primary commodities or as by-products from mining of other commodities. For example, nearly 90% of world production of niobium (Nb) is from the Araxá niobium mine (Brazil), whereas gallium (Ga) is recovered primarily as a by-product commodity of bauxite mining or as a by-product of zinc processing from a number of sources worldwide.
Abstract: In the arc (basin)–back area of the Yidun arc belt in the north segment of the Sanjiang tectonic zone, southwestern China, there occurs a post‐orogenic granite belt extending for more than 300 km in NNW direction. It strides across two different tectonic units of the arc (basin)–back area and the subduction area, and is accompanied by extensive Ag‐Sn polymetal–lic mineralizations. More than ten granite bodies have very similar geochemical characteristics: high SiO 2 (73.8–76.3 wt%) and K 2 O+Na 2 O (7.16‐8.41 %), and low Al 2 O 3 (11.9–13.6 %), CaO (0.46‐1.54 %) and MgO (0.16‐0.61 %), as well as high enrichment of Nb, Ta, Ga and Y, and strong depletion of Sr and Eu. Most of these features are peculiar to A‐type granite. Rb‐Sr and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar isotopic dating results indicate that the formation ages of the granites decrease from 103.7 Ma of the north end to 75.2 Ma near the south end, and that the magmatism became younger from north to south. The tectonic environment analysis clearly reveals that they were formed in post‐orogenic within–plate extension settings. The magma genesis was controlled by a united crustal extension regime after the arc‐continent collision. The granites have low Nd values ranging from –4.96 to –8.40, whereas the Sr values vary greatly ranging from –31.7 to 296, reflecting that the source composition transited from mantle – differentiated igneous rocks in the north to basement – dominated metamorphosed sedimentary rocks in the south. Under high temperature and water‐absent conditions, the anatexes of the crustal rocks made a great amount of plagioclase separated from melts and left in magma sources. Through this mechanism, the post‐orogenic granites took geo‐chemical characteristics such as low Al 2 O 3 and CaO, and strong depletion of Sr and Eu.
Abstract Magmatic fluid degassing within shallow magma chambers underneath the ore bodies is critical to the formation of porphyry Cu-Au deposits (PCDs). Yet, it remains unclear how the fluid degassing influences the development of PCDs. Here, geochemical data of apatite, amphibole, and plagioclase from ore-bearing and coeval barren porphyries have been analyzed in Sanjiang metallogenic belt, China. The ore-bearing porphyries normally exhibit high and wide XF/XCl (31.76–548.12) and XF/XOH (0.779–7.370) ratios of apatites, which are evidently higher than those of the barren porphyries (XF/XCl of 1.03–26.58; XF/XOH of 0.686–3.602). Combined with the continuous variation features of Cl/OH ratios and H2O contents of melts calculated by amphiboles, as well as fluid migration models, we constrained the mechanisms of fluid degassing within shallow magma chambers underneath PCDs. There are three different ways of fluid degassing, while only fluid degassing via fluid channel stage can migrate and focus the metal-rich fluids effectively, conducive to the development of PCDs. The mechanisms of magmatic fluid degassing processes are further controlled by the storage depths of magma chambers and initial H2O contents of the magmas revealed by the compositions of amphibole, plagioclase, and thermodynamic modeling. Magmas with shallower storage depths and higher initial H2O contents are more likely to experience extensive and focused fluid degassing, leading to the generation of PCDs. This study demonstrates the potential utility of integrated mineral analyses and thermodynamic modeling for investigating the mechanisms of magmatic fluid degassing in porphyry systems, as well as for identifying prospective buried PCDs.