100th Anniversary Special Paper: Secular Changes in Global Tectonic Processes and Their Influence on the Temporal Distribution of Gold-Bearing Mineral Deposits

Abstract

Mineral deposit types commonly have a distinctive temporal distribution with peaks at specific periods of Earth history. Deposits of less redox-sensitive metals, such as gold, show long-term temporal patterns that relate to first-order changes in an evolving Earth, as a result of progressively declining heat production and attendant changes in global tectonic processes. Despite abundant evidence for plate tectonics in the early Precambrian, it is evident that plume events were more abundant in a hotter Earth.Episodic growth of juvenile continental crust appears to have been related to short-lived (<100 m.y.) catastrophic mantle-plume events and formation of supercontinents, whereas shielding mantle-plume events correlated with their breakup. Different mineral deposit types are associated with this cycle of supercontinent formation and breakup. Broadly synchronous with juvenile continental crust formation was the development of subcontinental lithospheric mantle, which evolved due to progressively declining heat flow and decreasing plume activity. Archean subcontinental lithospheric mantle has a distinct mineralogical composition and is buoyant, whereas later lithosphere was progressively more dense. Changes in the buoyancy of both oceanic lithosphere and subcontinental lithospheric mantle led to evolution of tectonic scenarios in which buoyant, roughly equidimensional, early Precambrian cratons were rimmed by Proterozoic or Phanerozoic linear elongate belts of neutral to negative buoyancy.Orogenic gold deposits, which formed over at least 3.4 b.y., had the highest preservation potential of any gold deposit type. The pattern of formation and preservation, from episodic to more cyclic, broadly mirrors that of crustal growth. Early Precambrian (mostly ca. 2.7 and 2.0-1.8 Ga) deposits, protected from uplift and erosion in the centers of buoyant cratons, are rare between ca. 1.7 Ga and 600 Ma due to the change to more modernstyle plate tectonic processes, with nonpreservation of deposits of this age due to uplift and erosion of more vulnerable orogenic belts. Volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) deposits were accreted into the convergent margin terranes in which orogenic gold deposits were forming. Their temporal distribution, from strongly episodic to more cyclic peaks, also supports a model of selective preservation.The first appearance of iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits at ~2.55 Ga closely follows development of early Precambrian subcontinental lithosphere mantle. Their genesis involved melting of metasomatized subcontinental lithosphere mantle, so they could not form until such metasomatized mantle evolved below cratons with buoyant lithosphere. Giant Precambrian paleoplacer gold deposits probably formed by effective fluvial sorting under extreme climatic conditions but were largely preserved due to early buoyant subcontinental lithospheric mantle below hosting foreland basins. Unequivocal intrusion-related gold deposits are related to complex felsic intrusions with a mixed mantle-crustal signature, which...

Genesis of the Xishadegai Mo deposit in Inner Mongolia, North China: Constraints from geology, geochronology, fluid inclusion, and isotopic compositions

“…Mineral deposits and associated magmas are generally effective indicators of geodynamic settings and their time–space distribution is used to trace the tectonic evolution (Dill, ; Groves & Bierlein, ; Groves, Condie, Goldfarb, Hronsky, & Vielreicher, ; Groves & Santosh, ; Wang, Chen, et al, ). The results obtained in this study and those from previous studies on the major magmatic hydrothermal Mo‐(Cu/Au) deposits and related intrusions of the CAOB, including Re‐Os and U–Pb age data representing timing of mineralization and magmatism, are compiled in Figure .…”

“…Phanerozoic Mo deposits generally formed in five periods: Late Cambrian to Early Ordovician, Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous, Middle to Late Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (Figure b; Chen, Cheng, Li, & Yang, ; Chen, Zhang, et al, ; Zeng et al, , ; Zhang et al, , ). They are intimately related to multiple magmatic episodes during the evolution and to the interaction of the Siberian, NCC, Paleo‐Asian Ocean, Paleo‐Pacific Ocean, Mongol‐Okhotsk Ocean, and Pacific Ocean from the Late Cambrian to the Cretaceous (Groves et al, ; Hao et al, ; Seltmann & Porter, ; Seltmann, Porter, & Pirajno, ; Wang, Xu, Meng, Cao, & Gao, ; Zeng et al, ; Zhang, Gu, Liu, et al, ).…”

Two periods of mineralization in Xiaoxinancha Au–Cu deposit, NE China: evidences from the geology and geochronology

“…The mineral distribution is intimately related to the evolution of the Earth, particularly to its progressive cooling and geodynamic evolution from plume‐influenced tectonics to modern plate tectonics (Groves et al ., ; Kerrich et al ., ). Mineral deposit types are generally sensitive indicators of geodynamic environments and other environmental factors (Sillitoe, ; Groves and Bierlein, ; Groves et al ., ; Dill, ).…”

Genesis and mineralization age of the quartz‐vein‐type scheelite deposits in Eastern Yanbian, Northeast China: Constraints on the regional tectonic setting

“…The distribution of the economically viable mineral‐deposit (ore) systems is intimately related to the evolution of the Earth, particularly to its progressive cooling and geodynamic evolution from plume‐influenced tectonics to modern plate tectonics (Groves, Condie, et al, ; Groves, Vielreicher, et al, ; Kerrich, Goldfarb, & Richards, ). Certain mineral‐deposit types are therefore diagnostic of specific tectonic settings and can be used to constrain the geodynamic evolution of an area (Groves & Bierlein, ).…”