Age, petrochemistry, and origin of a REE-rich mineralization in the Longs Peak-St. Vrain batholith, near Jamestown, Colorado (U.S.A.)
Abstract
An unusual rare earth element (REE) mineralization occurs at a locality known as the “Rusty Gold” within the anorogenic 1.4 Ga Longs Peak-St. Vrain monzo- to syenogranite Silver Plume-type intrusion near Jamestown, Colorado (U.S.A.). Irregular-shaped centimeter- to decimeter-sized mineralized pods and veins consist of zoned mineral assemblages dominated by fluorbritholite-(Ce) in a gray-colored core up to 10 cm thick, with monazite-(Ce), fluorite, and minor quartz, uraninite, and sulfides. The core zone is surrounded by a black, typically millimeter-thick allanite-(Ce) rim, with minor monazite-(Ce) in the inner part of that rim. Bastnäsite-(Ce), törnebohmite-(Ce), and cerite-(Ce) appear in a thin intermediate zone between core and rim, often just a few hundreds of micrometers wide. Electron microprobe analyses show that the overall REE content increases from rim to core with a disproportionate increase of heavy REE (∑HREE increases 10-fold from 0.2 to 2.1%) compared to light REE (∑LREE increases twofold from 21.3 to 44.3%). The fluorbritholite-(Ce) contains minor U, Th, Fe, Mn, and Sr (total 0.10 apfu), with Al, Mg, Na, K, Ti, Pb, S, and Cl below instrument detection limits. Cerite-(Ce) is a minor constituent of the thin zone between the inner rim and the core. The cerite-(Ce) is Fe-rich with low Ca, and minor Al, Mg, and Mn, whereas törnebohmite-(Ce) is Al-rich and Ca-poor. Monazite-(Ce) and uraninite U-Th-Pb microprobe ages yield 1.420(25) and 1.442(8) Ga, respectively, confirming a co-genetic relationship with the host ca. 1.42(3) Ga Longs Peak-St. Vrain granite. We suggest the origin of the REE mineralization is a F-rich and lanthanide-rich, either late-magmatic hydrothermal fluid or residual melt, derived from the granite. This late-stage liquid, when becoming progressively enriched in REE as it crystallized, could explain the observed concentric mineralogical and geochemical zoning.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Reaching new boundaries for in-situ U-Th geochronology
- Normal to inverse transition in martian spinel: Understanding the interplay between chromium, vanadium, and iron valence state partitioning through a crystal-chemical lens
- Accuracy of timescales retrieved from diffusion modeling in olivine: A 3D perspective
- Phosphoran olivine overgrowths: Implications for multiple impacts to the Main Group pallasite parent body
- Diffusion of phosphorus in olivine and molten basalt
- Oceanic lavas sampling the high-3He/4He mantle reservoir: Primitive, depleted, or re-enriched?
- U-Th baddeleyite geochronology and its significance to date the emplacement of silica undersaturated magmas
- Polycrystallinity of green rust minerals and their synthetic analogs: Implications for particle formation and reactivity in complex systems
- Fe pre-enrichment: A new method to counteract iron loss in experiments on basaltic melts
- Fe-Mg diffusion in spinel: New experimental data and a point defect model
- Age, petrochemistry, and origin of a REE-rich mineralization in the Longs Peak-St. Vrain batholith, near Jamestown, Colorado (U.S.A.)
- Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a tool for in situ mapping and textural interpretation of lithium in pegmatite minerals
- Evidence for Nb2+ and Ta3+ in silicate melts under highly reducing conditions: A XANES study
- Elastic softening of leucite and the lack of polar domain boundaries
- New thermobarometers for martian igneous rocks, and some implications for secular cooling on Mars
- An updated calibration of the plagioclase-liquid hygrometer-thermometer applicable to basalts through rhyolites
- Water effects on the anharmonic properties of forsterite
- Synthesis and structure of a stuffed derivative of α-quartz, Mg0.5AlSiO4
- Equation of state and elasticity of the 3.65 Å phase: Implications for the X-discontinuity
- Ca-Zn solid solutions in C2/c pyroxenes: Synthesis, crystal structure, and implications for Zn geochemistry
- Aluminum environments in synthetic Ca-Tschermak clinopyroxene (CaAlAlSiO6) from Rietveld refinement, 27Al NMR, and first-principles calculations
- Trioctahedral Fe-rich micas: Relationships between magnetic behavior and crystal chemistry
- High-pressure compressibility and phase stability of Mn-dolomite (kutnohorite)
- Composition dependence of spin transition in (Mg,Fe)SiO3 bridgmanite
- Oriented multiphase needles in garnet from ultrahigh-temperature granulites, Connecticut, U.S.A.
- Solubility and solution mechanisms of chlorine and fluorine in aluminosilicate melts at high pressure and high temperature
- Volatiles in magmas related to the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption: Experiments vs. natural findings
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- P-V-T equation of state and high-pressure behavior of CaCO3 aragonite
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