2008 Joint Meeting of The Geological Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies with the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM

Paper No. 7
Presentation Time: 3:15 PM

Fluid Inclusion and Stable Isotope Studies of Carboniferous Limestone-Hosted Zn-Pb Mineralization In NW Ireland


PERSELLIN, Christopher J.1, GREGG, Jay M.1, SHELTON, Kevin L.2 and SOMERVILLE, Ian D.3, (1)Boone Pickens School of Geology, Oklahoma State University, 105 Noble Research Center, Stillwater, OK 74078-3031, (2)Geological Sciences, Univ of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-1380, (3)School of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, UCD Science Centre, Belfield, Dublin, 4, Ireland, chris.persellin@okstate.edu

Sulfide mineralization at the Abbeytown Zn-Pb deposit and minor mineralization at the nearby Twigspark/Trotter's Quarry (T/TQ) prospect is the only significant base metal mineralization known in NW Ireland. Metal sulfide mineralization is hosted in the Lower Carboniferous Ballyshannon Limestone and Dartry Limestone formations, west of the Proterozoic Ox Mountains metamorphic complex.

Petrographic, cathodoluminescence (CL), fluid inclusion microthermometric, and stable isotope analysis of epigenetic, void-filling carbonate cements and ore minerals indicate significantly different paragenetic histories for the two localities. Multiple sulfide events are recognized at the Abbeytown deposit, whereas a single, paragenetically late, mineralizing event is observed at T/TQ. CL microstratigraphies in dolomite can be correlated laterally and stratigraphically within each deposit, but no CL correlation between deposits is evident. Fluid inclusion analysis indicates a warmer, less saline (Th 105 to 207° C, 4.5-15.2 eq. wt. % NaCl) fluid in Abbeytown dolomite cements compared to fluids in T/TQ dolomites (Th 95 to 168° C, 5.4-20.0 eq. wt. % NaCl). Lateral variations in Th are present at Abbeytown Mine, with values from the smaller, western ore body rarely exceeding 160°C. Sphalerite-hosted inclusions are cooler and more saline (Th 109 to 168° C, 10.5-16.5 eq. wt. % NaCl) than those in associated dolomite.

Dolomite cements from Abbeytown display a trend of δ13C values from 3.6 to 2.1‰ and δ18O values of -5.4 to -11.9‰; those from T/TQ vary from δ13C values of 1.6 to 0.1‰ and δ18O values of -9.5 to -12.9‰. Calcites from the two localities display overlapping ranges of δ18O (-7.1 to -13.5‰) and δ13C (3.2 to 0.3‰).

The absence of CL correlation, coupled with differing fluid inclusion and stable isotope values in epigenetic carbonate cements, suggests the presence of two structurally isolated fluid flow systems that were responsible for ore mineralization in this part of NW Ireland.