What does hydrothermal alteration mean?

Hydrothermal alteration is defined as any alteration of rocks or minerals by the reaction of hydrothermal fluid with preexisting solid phases.

What is alteration zoning?

Wallrock alteration Alteration zoning generally represents a chemical and mineralogical transition or buffer zone from fresh rock outside to the vein environment inside the ore body.

What is albite alteration?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Propylitic alteration is the chemical alteration of a rock, caused by iron and magnesium bearing hydrothermal fluids, altering biotite or amphibole within the rock groundmass.

What is sodic calcic alteration?

Large volumes of sodic-calcic (Na-Ca) alteration are spatially and genetically associated with iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) systems, commonly focused along major faults and on the flanks of intrusions that frequently lack porphyry textures, quartz veins, and potassic alteration, with compelling evidence for an …

What are the types of alteration?

Types of alterations

• Potassic alteration.
• Phyllic (sericitic) alteration.
• Propylitic alteration.
• Argillic alteration.
• Silicification.
• Carbonatization.
• Greisenization.
• Hematitization.

How does hydrothermal alteration occur?

Hydrothermal alteration occurs in geothermal systems and involves the replacement of the primary mineral assemblage by alteration minerals. Changes in temperature, pressure, and chemistry of the system usually induce extensive alteration of the host rock.

What is alteration in geology?

Mineral alteration refers to the various natural processes that alter a mineral’s chemical composition or crystallography. In some circumstances, a mineral alters while maintaining its outer form known as a pseudomorph. Mineral alteration is distinctly different than the rock alteration process metamorphism.

What is Deuteric alteration?

Deuteric alteration is a low-temperature magmatic alteration related to the solidification of a melt. The term “deuteric” is restricted to reactions involving changes in primary mineral phases during the process of magmatic crystallization. The agent of deuterism is the volatile material dissolved in the magma.

Is sericite a mineral?

Sericite is a common alteration mineral of orthoclase or plagioclase feldspars in areas that have been subjected to hydrothermal alteration typically associated with copper, tin, or other hydrothermal ore deposits.

What is Argillic geology?

: of or relating to clay or clay minerals : argillaceous argillic alteration.

What are the two types of alteration?

We consider two types of alterations: those that do not alter the growth or death rate of the cell (neutral or “passenger” changes), and those that confer a fitness advantage to the cell.