Hydrothermal alteration in the Valles caldera ring fracture zone and core hole VC-1: evidence for multiple hydrothermal systems

Abstract

Two types of hydrothermal mineral assemblages, kaolinite-alunite and sericite-chlorite were recognized in outcrop and core samples from the Jemez volcanic field, New Mexico. Active and fossil acid-sulfate hydrothermal activity, producing kaolinite-alunite alteration occurs along the caldera ring fracture and within the resurgent dome, whereas alterations of the chlorite-sericite type are mostly confined to subsurface rocks. K/Ar dates on illitic clays (<2 μm, 2-0.25 μm and <0.25 μm) separated from hydrothermally altered samples are used to document hydrothermal episodes in pre-caldera rocks of the Jemez volcanic field. The clay separates are illitic (75–95% illite layers) with K2O contents of 8.24–8.95% in the core samples and 4.22–6.67% in the outcrops. Three episodes of hydrothermal alteration are now recognized in the Jemez Mountains region based on K/Ar age dates of illites. The earliest event (≤17-11 Ma, n=4) occurred within altered and illite-rich (≥90% illite layers) lowermost Paleozoic rocks in core hole VC-1 and may correlate with the inception of volcanism in the Jemez region (≤16.5 Ma). Illitic clays from altered andesite and rhyolite from the topographic rim of the Valles caldera were dated at 8.2 and 6.96 Ma, suggesting that a hydrothermal event related to the waning stages of the Keres Group volcanism (13-5.8 Ma) was responsible for the alteration. These dates overlap minimum ages obtained on slightly altered basalt (8.05 Ma) and andesite lava (7.07 Ma) from the southern and northwestern topographic rim of the Valles caldera, respectively. Ages of 1.21 and 1.34 Ma from illite-rich (≥90% illite layers), hydrothermally altered Paleozoic sandstone at a depth of 479 m in VC-1 suggest hydrothermal activity contemporaneous with the formation of the Toledo (1.45 Ma) and Valles (1.12 Ma) calderas. Ore minerals of sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena, barite, and molybdenite mineralization occur in the lower half of VC-1 and are related to the Toledo and Valles caldera-forming eruptions.