Geodynamic controls on clastic-dominated base metal deposits

Abstract ∼ 4 km of the sedimentary infill close to shore. The narrow asymmetric rift type is characterized by rift migration, a process that successively generates hyper-extended crust through sequential faulting, resulting in one wide and one narrow conjugate margin. Rift migration also leads to (1) a sufficient life span of the migration-side border fault to accommodate a thick submarine package of sediments, including coarse (permeable) continental sediments that can act as source rock; (2) rising asthenosphere beneath the thinned lithosphere and crust, resulting in elevated temperatures in these overlying sediments that are favourable for leaching metals from the source rock; (3) the deposition of organic-rich sediments that form the host rock at shallower burial depths and lower temperatures; and (4) the generation of smaller faults that cut the major basin created by the border fault and provide additional pathways for focused fluid flow from source to host rock. Wide rifts with rift migration can have similarly favourable configurations, but these occur less frequently and less potential source rock is produced, thereby limiting potential metal endowment. In simulations of narrow symmetric rifts, the conditions to form ore deposits are rarely fulfilled. Based on these insights, exploration programmes should prioritize the narrow margins formed in asymmetric rift systems, in particular regions within several tens of kilometres from the paleo-shoreline, where we predict the highest-value deposits to have formed.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Geodynamic controls on clastic-dominated base metal deposits ; volume:15 ; number:8 ; year:2024 ; pages:921-944 ; extent:24 ; Solid earth ; 15, Heft 8 (2024), 921-944 (gesamt 24)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Glerum, Anne C. ; Brune, Sascha ; Magnall, Joseph M. ; Weis, Philipp ; Gleeson, Sarah

Further information

• DOI: 10.5194/se-15-921-2024
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2408080416316.235491856954
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:46 AM CEST