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Economic Geology; January 2000; v. 95; no. 1; p. 131-142; DOI: 10.2113/gsecongeo.95.1.131
© 2000 Society of Economic Geologists
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Three-Dimensional Oxygen Isotope Imaging of Convective Fluid Flow around the Big Bonanza, Comstock Lode Mining District, Nevada

R. E. Criss{dagger} and M. J. Singleton

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130

D. E. Champion

U.S. Geological Survey, Mail Stop 937, 345 Middlefield Rd., Menlo Park, California 94025

{dagger} criss{at}levee.wustl.edu

Oxygen isotope analyses of propylitized andesites from the Con Virginia and California mines allow construction of a detailed, three-dimensional image of the isotopic surfaces produced by the convective fluid flows that deposited the famous Big Bonanza orebody. On a set of intersecting maps and sections, the {delta}18O isopleths clearly show the intricate and conformable relationship of the orebody to a deep, ~500 m gyre of meteoric-hydrothermal fluid that circulated along and above the Comstock fault, near the contact of the Davidson Granodiorite. The core of this gyre ({delta}18O = 0 to 3.8{per thousand}) encompasses the bonanza and is almost totally surrounded by rocks having much lower {delta}18O values (–1.0 to –4.4{per thousand}). This deep gyre may represent a convective longitudinal roll superimposed on a large unicellular meteoric-hydrothermal system, producing a complex flow field with both radial and longitudinal components that is consistent with experimentally observed patterns of fluid convection in permeable media.




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