Modeling Hydrothermal Mineralization: Fractal or Multifrcatal Models?
Abstract
Hydrothermal mineralization occurs when the natural geo-processes involve the interaction of ore material-carrying hydrothermal fluids with rocks in the earth's crust in a specific geological environment. Mineralization can cause element concentration enrichment or depletion in the country rocks. Local enrichment may form ore body that can be mined for profit at the current economic and technological conditions. To understand the spatial distribution of element concentration enrichment or depletion caused by mineralization in a mineral district is essential for mineral exploration and mineral prediction. Grade-tonnage model and mineral deposits size distribution model are common models used for characterizing mineral deposits. This paper proposes a non-linear mineralization model on the basis of a modified classical igneous differentiation mineralization model to describe the generation of multifractal distribution of element concentration in the country rocks as well as grade-tonnage fractal/multifractal distribution of ore deposits that have been often observed in hydrothermal mineralization. This work may also lead to a singularity model to explain the common properties of mineralization and mineralization-associated geochemical anomaly diversity and the generalized self-similarity of the anomalies. The model has been applied to a case study of mineral deposits prediction and mineral resource assessment in the Abitibi district, northern Ontario, Canada.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUSMNG21A..04C
- Keywords:
-
- 3220 Nonlinear dynamics;
- 3250 Fractals and multifractals;
- 3665 Mineral occurrences and deposits;
- 3670 Minor and trace element composition