Epeirophoresis, and origin of ore deposits

Abstract

Findings of recent years indicate that a new geotectonic position of some ore deposits, and their relation to continental drift may be suggested. Drift heralding instruction of tin-bearing granites, intercratonal Ni-Cu-bearing layered intrusions, carbonatites associated with rift structures of frozen drift movements, porphyry copper and molybdenum deposits of the Tethyan and Pacific provinces associated with the middle stage of development of Cordilleran orogens, heterogeneous multistage telethermal ore deposits, and post-collision Sb-Hg deposits are briefly discussed. A new concept of the regenerated ore deposits, spatially associated with the zone of absorption of crust material in the junctions of lithosphere plates, is suggested. Disintegration and agglomeration of metallogenic provinces seem to play an important role in the recognition of regional metallogeny. Older concepts of the metallogenic cycle are reviewed and a new concept of the metallogenic cycle, based on plate tectonics and general principles of the plate tectonics, associated with definite type of the paternal magma, characterized filo- and ontogenetically, also by diagnostic minerals and trace elements, are grouped according to seven geotectonic zones of lithospheric plates. A chart plotting ideas of the classification, depth of formation of ore deposits and their geotectonic position in epeirophoresis, and connection with their paternal magma, is shown.