Sandstone-hosted lead-zinc mineral deposits and their relation to the tectonic mobilization of the baltic shield during the Caledonian orogeny : a reinterpretation

• Sandstone-hosted lead-zinc impregnation deposits in Scandinavia occur in Vendian to Cambrian and, locally, Ordovician sandstones that rest unconformably on the deeply eroded Baltic Shield. The sandstones are overthrust by the Caledonian nappes or form part of the lowermost Caledonian thrust units. Sandstone-hosted lead-zinc deposits, that occur along the present erosional front of the Caledonides, contain galena and sphalerite cementing fractures and pore space. The deposits formed by fluid-mixing processes in the sandstones. Early ore genetic models considered the ore-hosting sandstones, because of the positive correlation between ore grade and palaeo-permeability, as main aquifer for the metalliferous fluids that were interpreted to be either ground-waters or hot basinal brines driven out from geosynclinal sediments during the Caledonian orogeny. It is suggested here that the distribution of sandstone-hosted lead-zinc deposits is controlled by Caledonian reactivated basement structures, as the ores overlay faults and lithologic discontinuities in the basement. The geographic distribution of the Scandinavian sandstone-hosted lead-zinc deposits coincides with areas that show both extensive thrust sheets of the Lower Allochthon unit at the front and basement culminations in the interior of the Caledonian orogen. These areas are characterized by deeper thrusting levels and probably more intense reactivation of basement faults, which made the basement more susceptible to large-scale fluid migration. Metalliferous fluids emerging from Caledonian reactivated basement faults mixed with fluids in the sedimentary cover, which resulted in metal precipitation. The lead-zinc deposits in sandstones that formed by these processes occur selectively in the lowermost permeable cover.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Geokemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Geochemistry (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Applied Geology

Tillämpad geologi

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