Basement influence on Mississippi Valley-type mineralization in East Tennessee
Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) zinc and barite-fluorite deposits in East Tennessee occur within peritidal Cambro-Ordovician carbonates deposited marginal to the Appalachian Basin. The source of the mineralizing fluids for these deposits is ambiguous; current speculation indicates that it may have been the Ordovician shales of the Appalachian basin that occur to the east of the basin-margin carbonates. Lithofacies and isopach patterns for the Cambrian Conasauga Group, which underlies the basin-margin carbonates, suggest that the source of the mineralizing fluids may have been shales within the Conasauga Group. A second-order subbasin occurs at the southern margin of the intrashelf basin. The spatial association of the MVT mineralization and the subbasin suggests a possible genetic link between them. We propose that (1) Cambrian shales within the subbasin and the intrashelf basins are the source of mineralizing fluids, (2) such fluids were produced by dewatering of the shales during subsidence and/or tectonic activity during the Ordovician, and (3) faults on the margins of the subbasin, which controlled the shape of the subbasin, provided pathways that funneled mineralizing fluids derived from shales in the subbasin and the intrashelf basin upward into overlying carbonate host rocks. 25 refs., 3 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); East Tennessee State Univ., Johnson City (USA). Dept. of Geography and Geology
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 6101066
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8509258-1; ON: DE86007571
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Genesis of Mississippi Valley-Type deposits of the southernmost Appalachians: The black shale connection
Evolution of Cambrian-Ordovician carbonate shelf, United States Appalachians
Related Subjects
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
BARITE
BARIUM COMPOUNDS
BARIUM SULFATES
CAMBRIAN PERIOD
FEDERAL REGION IV
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
ORDOVICIAN PERIOD
ORES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PALEOZOIC ERA
PETROGENESIS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SULFATE MINERALS
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TENNESSEE
USA
ZINC ORES