Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Evolution of mineralizing brines in the east Tennessee Mississippi Valley-type ore field

Journal Article · · Geology; (USA)

The east Tennessee Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) ore field contains barite-fluorite and sphalterite deposits in a continuous paleoaquifer consisting of breccia zones in the Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician Knox Group. Paragenetic observations and fluid inclusion compositions in these deposits indicate that the Knox paleoaquifer was invaded first by Ca-rich brines (Ca:Na about 1) that deposited fluorite and barite, and later by Na-Ca brines (Ca:Na = 0.1 to 0.5) that deposited sphalerite. Geologic relation sindicate that these brines were derived from the southeast, in the area of the Middle Ordovician Servier foreland shale basin, and that imposed by fluorite solubility indicate further that all original connate water in the Sevier basin was required to deposit the estimated flourite reserves of the ore field.Thus, the later, sphalerite-depositing brines represent recycled meteoric water from the Sevier basin or connate brines from underlying (Cambrian) shales.

OSTI ID:
7000855
Journal Information:
Geology; (USA), Journal Name: Geology; (USA) Vol. 17:4; ISSN GLGYB; ISSN 0091-7613
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Genesis of Mississippi Valley-Type deposits of the southernmost Appalachians: The black shale connection
Conference · Sun Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1993 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) · OSTI ID:6368759

Formation of East Tennessee, Knox Mississippi Valley-Type (MVT) deposits by hydrothermal-thermochemical sulfate reduction/replacement interstratal evaporite karstification
Conference · Sun Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1993 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) · OSTI ID:5075048

Na-Cl-Br systematics of fluid inclusions from Mississippi Valley-type deposits, Appalachian Basin: Constraints on solute origin and migration paths
Journal Article · Sun Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1995 · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · OSTI ID:530430