High pressure and temperatures during the early stages of tungsten deposition at Panasqueira revealed by fluid inclusions in topaz

Abstract

The Variscan vein-type Panasqueira W-Sn(Cu) deposit, one of the main tungsten deposits in Western Europe, has a long and complicated geological history. The first vein infillings, which consist of the quartz-wolframite association as well as the first generation of topaz, underwent significant deformation. As a consequence, most fluid inclusions of the earliest hydrothermal event are deformed and destroyed. Two preserved fluid inclusion assemblages are, however, found in the topaz overgrowth band and are dense aqueous-carbonic inclusions as well as dense CO2 dominated fluid inclusions. The P-T conditions of fluid trapping are constrained by using the intersection between isochores, as well as graphite-water equilibrium data and yield the following trapping conditions: 500 ± 20 °C and 250 ± 20 MPa. These P-T conditions are incompatible with fluid unmixing. Fluid chemistry results from water-graphite equilibrium, probably in metapelites, at two distinct temperatures: around 450–500 °C for the predominant aqueous-carbonic fluid, and higher temperatures of maximal 550 °C for the CO2-rich fluid enriched in N2. These P-T estimates are consistent with deep crustal levels around 8–10 km depth and a high geothermal gradient around c. 60 °C/km−1. The ascending non-magmatic fluids, enriched in volatiles, are essential in the ore genesis.The high thermal gradients may be related either to new magma pulse after the formation of the Panasqueira granite intrusion or to anomalous heat flux produced by the hot fluids ascending from migmatitic levels present at greater depth. This hypothesis necessitates to consider the role of a crustal weakness, which is attested both by the successive intrusions of several granitic magmas at the same place, and the presence of inherited quartz filled structures so-called Seixo-Bravo found only in the Panasqueira area.