Porphyry copper deposits: strike–slip faulting and throttling cupolas

Abstract

Porphyry copper deposits sometimes form during the solidification of stocks of relatively oxidized magma of intermediate composition. Most workers have assumed ore-forming systems have special chemical attributes, but none has been found that is useful to guide exploration efforts. Stocks can form where strike–slip movements generate pull-apart pathways into which intrusions can rise from batholithic magma chambers. Upwelling of buoyant, bubble-bearing magma along the sides of a stock brings magmatic fluid to shallow depths where large bubbles can separate and pool under the cupola separating solidified igneous rock from mobile magma. Where rapid seismogenic movement on the bounding strike–slip fault ruptures the solidified, but hot and ductile carapace, downward propagating extension fractures can drain an accumulation of magmatic fluid. Decompression and cooling of fluid that jets upward into extension fractures causes mineral precipitation. Where strike–slip movements cause pull-aparts to dilate with sufficient recurrences – from decades to perhaps a century or so, throttling of the fluid accumulation acts as a safety valve that prevents explosive detonation of the system. Concurrently, the upward infiltration of magmatic fluid from the cupola is strongly focused into the pull-apart and generates the characteristic concentric alteration zones that guide exploration drilling. We conclude that porphyry copper ore deposits form where strike–slip movements are concurrent with the early stages of deep-seated bubbling (≳6 km) along the walls of a rapidly cooling stock of magma. Supergiant deposits form where the bubbling front extends into the top of a parent batholith.