Structure of the Los Bronces - Río Blanco - Los Sulfatos Cu-Mo Porphyry System: Integration of Tectonics and Passive Seismic Tomography to Understand One of the World's Largest Cu Deposit
Abstract
This study presents a structural model of the Los Bronces - Río Blanco - Los Sulfatos porphyry system derived from tectonics and district scale passive seismic tomography. This combined model is significant in that it provides information on first order boundary conditions, thus permitting more efficient geological conceptualization, limiting both the imposition of predetermined conceptual models and the use of interpretations with insufficient quantitative backing. The three-dimensional geometry of the intrusive bodies associated with the system's mineralization is recognized using Vp/Vs anomalies, explaining alteration and mineralization zones without evidences of intrusions in surface. Tectonic analysis shows that the structure is governed by Neogene EW-shortening of the Miocene volcanic-clastic basin, characterized in depth by a system of imbricated reverse faults that controlled the uplift of western margin of the Central Andes. This structure formed a system of folds in the Abanico Formation, together with subordinate low strain strike-slip faults in the upper sector of the deposit, in the Farellones Formation. The arrangement of folds geographically controls the shallow three-dimensional layout (vertical and lateral) of subvolcanic bodies and mineralization along NW-SE trends. In surface, subordinated faults and vein-faults shows conjugated NE-SW and NW-SE orientations controlling the discontinuities in the rock mass.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMNS23A1924V
- Keywords:
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- 0920 Gravity methods;
- EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICSDE: 0925 Magnetic and electrical methods;
- EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICSDE: 0935 Seismic methods;
- EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICSDE: 0999 General or miscellaneous;
- EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICS