Mercury ores from the New Idria Mining District, California: Geochemical and stable isotope studies

Computer Science

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

The mercury ores of the New Idria Mining District are composed of metacinnabar and cinnabar with minor amounts of stibnite and iron disulfides. Metacinnabar from the main ore zone at the New Idria Mine contains Fe as a major impurity (0.96 to 2.80 wt.%), whereas that from the CO veins contains both Se (0.30 to 6.15 wt.%) and Fe (0.13 to 1.18 wt.%) in solid solution. The impurity content varies within the same specimen and within individual crystals as well and demonstrates lack of chemical equilibrium. Impurities tend to concentrate at the interfaces between metacinnabar and cinnabar in partly transformed crystals, thus increasing the barrier to nucleation of cinnabar and retarding or prohibiting any further transition of metacinnabar. Most of the pyrite and marcasite crystallized earlier than cinnabar and in rare cases contain nuclei of framboidal pyrite. Pyrite and marcasite crystallized as discrete phases and the latter does not show evidence of transition to pyrite. Dolomite shows normal marine carbonate 18 O (24.6 to 29.7 ) and 13 C (-1.7 to 2.5 ) values. Quartz displays 18 O ranging from 18.5 to 21.5 , distinctly lower than the associated dolomites, suggesting that the two minerals may have formed at two different stages. The range of 34 S values for metacinnabar (0.0 to 3.2 ) overlaps with that of cinnabar (1.3 to 4.4 ). The 34 S for pyrite ranges from 3.1 to 13.0 ; pyrite with framboidal nuclei shows the highest 34 S values. The sulfur isotope data also suggest the lack of isotopic equilibrium. The source of C in the ore-forming fluids was marine carbonates leached from the Franciscan sediments. The source of S is uncertain because of lack of knowledge of the isotopic composition of total sulfur. It is likely that mixed sources of sulfur leached from sulfides in the host rocks and magmatic sulfur are involved.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Mercury ores from the New Idria Mining District, California: Geochemical and stable isotope studies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Mercury ores from the New Idria Mining District, California: Geochemical and stable isotope studies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Mercury ores from the New Idria Mining District, California: Geochemical and stable isotope studies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1817558

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.