Thermochemical Conditions for the Formation of Archean Lode Gold Mineralization at Atlantic City-South Pass, Wyoming " (1990)
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1990 Thermochemical conditions for the formation of Archean lode gold mineralization at Atlantic City- South Pass, Wyoming Krista I. McGowan Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Geochemistry Commons, and the Geology Commons Recommended Citation McGowan, Krista I., "Thermochemical conditions for the formation of Archean lode gold mineralization at Atlantic City-South Pass, Wyoming " (1990). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 9457. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/9457 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. 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Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Thermochemical conditions for the formation of Archean Iode gold mineralization at Atlantic City-South Pass, Wyoming by Krista I. McGowan A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department: Geological and Atmospheric Sciences Major: Geology Approved: Signature was redacted for privacy. Signature was redacted for privacy. 'or the Major Departm^t Signature was redacted for privacy. For t ege Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1990 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 SECTION I. RARE EARTH ELEMENT STUDIES OF THE ARCHEAN 4 SOUTH PASS SUPRACRUSTAL BELT: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CRUSTAL EVOLUTION OF THE WYOMING PROVINCE ABSTRACT 5 INTRODUCTION 6 REGIONAL GEOLOGY 10 Wyoming Archean Province 10 South Pass Supracrustal Belt 12 TRACE ELEMENT GEOCHEMISTRY 19 DISCUSSION 42 CONCLUSIONS 50 SECTION II. ORIGIN OF ARCHEAN LODE GOLD MINERALIZATION 51 AT ATLANTIC CITY-SOUTH PASS: FLUID IN CLUSION, STABLE ISOTOPE, AND TRACE ELEMENT STUDIES ABSTRACT 52 INTRODUCTION 54 GEOLOGICAL SETTING 58 MINERALIZATION IN THE ATLANTIC CITY-SOUTH PASS DISTRICT 67 Mining History 67 Lode Gold Deposits 68 GEOCHEMISTRY 71 Trace Element Geochemistry 71 Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis 73 Fluid Inclusion Analysis 86 ill DISCUSSION 99 CONCLUSIONS 116 GENERAL SUMMARY 118 REFERENCES 121 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 135 APPENDIX A. SAMPLE PREPARATION AND ANALYTICAL METHODS 136 Fire Assay/Neutron Activation Analysis 136 Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis 136 APPENDIX B. TRACE ELEMENT DATA 139 APPENDIX C. RAW FLUID INCLUSION DATA 146 APPENDIX D. SELECTED MINE DESCRIPTIONS 158 Carlssa 158 Snowbird 158 Smith Gulch 159 Tornado 159 iv LIST OF FIGURES Page SECTION I. Regional geologic setting of the South Pass 7 Supracrustal Belt (modified from Bayley, 1968) General geology of the South Pass Supracrustal 13 Belt (modified from Hausel, 1987) General geology of the Atlantic City-South Pass 16 district (modified from Bayley, 1968) Chondrite-normalized REE plot for tholeiitic 24 Miners Delight Amphibolite Belt (MDAB) samples Chondrite-normalized REE plot for Archean THl 25 and TH2 tholeiites (Condie, 1981), average Roundtop Mountain Greenstone Fm. tholeiite (Condie and Baragar, 1974), and MDAB sample DIP4-1 Chondrite-normalized REE plot for range and ave 27 rage MDAB 2 amphibolites, and average modern calcalkaline and continental rift tholeiites (Condie, 1981) Chondrite-normalized REE plot for MDAB andesites 28 Chondrite-normalized REE plot for range and ave 29 rage MDAB andesite, and average Archean andesite type 2 and modern high-K calcalkaline andesite (Condie, 1981) Chondrite-normalized REE plot for greywackes from 30 the Atlantic City-South Pass district. Chondrite-normalized REE plot for range and ave 31 rage Atlantic City-South Pass greywacke, average Archean shale (McLennan and Taylor, 1984), and post-Archean North American Shale Composite (NASC, Taylor and McLennan, 1985) Chondrite-normalized REE plot for graphitic schists 32 from the Atlantic City-South Pass district Chondrite-normalized REE plot for type 1 Atlantic 33 City-South Pass graphitic schists and the Soudan V slate (Wildeman and Haskin, 1973) Figure 13. Chondrite-normalized REE plot for type 2 Atlantic 34 City-South Pass graphitic schists, AAS (McLennan and Taylor, 1984), and NASC (Taylor and McLennan, 1985) Figure 14. Chondrite-normalized REE plot for type 2 Atlantic 35 City-South Pass graphitic schists, and Onwantin and Ventersdorp graphitic schists (Wildeman and Haskin, 1973) Figure 15. La-Th-Sc ternary plot for Atlantic City-South Pass 37 metasediments Figure 16. Hf-Th-Co ternary plot for Atlantic City-South Pass 38 metasediments Figure 17. Chondrite-normalized REE plot for cherts from the 39 Atlantic City-South Pass district. Figure 18. Chondrite-normalized REE plot for iron formation 40 of the Goldman Meadows Fm. SECTION II. Figure 1. Regional geologic setting of the South Pass 59 Supracrustal Belt (modified from Bayley, 1968) Figure 2. General geology of the South Pass Supracrustal 60 Belt (modified from Hausel, 1987) Figure 3. General geology of the Atlantic City-South Pass 62 district (modified from Bayley, 1968) Figure 4. Chondrite-normalized REE plot for samples from the 74 Gold Dollar mine Figure 5. Histogram of S isotope values 79 Figure 6. Sulfur isotope data for Wyoming Province gold 80 deposits and Archean gold deposits worldwide. Homestake data from Rye and Rye (1974), Jardine data from Brooklns and Brown (1966), worldwide data from Colvine et al. (1988, 1984) and Lambert et al. (1984) Figure 7. Carbon isotope data for the Atlantic City-South 82 Pass district and for worldwide Archean gold deposits. Worldwide and reservoir data from Colvine • vi et al. (1988, 1984) Figure 8. Plot of vs. d^®0 for early and late 83 calcite and Tornado carbonate from the Atlantic City-South Pass district and worldwide Archean gold- related carbonate. Worldwide data from Colvine et al. (1984) and Golding et al. (1987) Figure 9. Plot of d^®0 vs. dD for the Atlantic City-South 85 Pass district and various reference fluids. Data sources: Archean lode gold, Colvine et al. (1984); Mother Lode, Bohlke and Kistler (1986), Weir and Kerrick (1987); Canadian Cordillera, Nesbitt and Muehlenbachs (1989). Curves for equilibration of various water/rock ratios with igneous and sedimentary rocks from the equations of Field and Fifarek (1985) Figure 10. Compositional variability of fluid Inclusion types 89 from the Atlantic City-South Pass district Figure 11. Histograms of freezing data, Types 1 and 2 inclu- 90 s ions Figure 12. Histogram of homogenization data. Types 2 and 3 93 inclusions Figure 13. Histogram of freezing data. Type 3 inclusions 96 Figure 14. P-T conditions for formation of Atlantic City-South 97 Pass lode gold deposits. Solvus for XCO2-O.I6 and XNaCl-0.35 estimated from the data of Bowers and Helgeson (1983). Isochore for bulk fluid calculated using FLINCOR (Brown, 1989) and the equation of Brown and Lamb (1989) Figure 15. f02-pH diagram for 350°C, 3.75 kb, Thermo- 108 dynamic data from Barton (1969), Helgeson (1969), Murray and Cubicotti (1983), Ohmoto (1972), and Shen- berger and Barnes (1989) vii LIST OF TABLES Page SECTION I. Table 1. REE data. Values in ppm except as noted 20 Table 2, REE data for comparison samples. Values in ppm 22 except as noted SECTION II. Table 1. REE data for the Gold Dollar mine 72 Table 2. Stable isotope data for the Atlantic City-South 75 Pass district 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION This dissertation is divided into two secions. The first section deals with rare earth and trace element studies of Archean metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the South Pass Supracrustal Belt, part of the larger Wyoming Province. The South Pass terrane is host to the largest gold mining district in Wyoming, the Sweetwater district, which is one of the few known, mineable Archean lode gold deposits in the United States. In view of the controversy surrounding the origin of Archean lode gold mineralization, better geochemical and tectonic constraints on the setting of mineralization are important to any genetic model. Rare earth element patterns for greywackes, graphitic schists, and cherts all show Eu depletions similar to post- Archean sediments, indicating a provenance which Included Eu-depleted rocks. Similar results have been obtained by other workers for metasediments elsewhere in the Wyoming Province.