Thermobarometry of the Bleikvassli Zn-Pb-(Cu) deposit, Nordland, Norway

Abstract

The Bleikvassli massive sulfide ore deposit is hosted by Proterozoic pelitic, quartzofeldspathic, and amphibolitic rocks of the Uppermost Allochthon of the Scandinavian Caledonides. Staurolite-garnet-biotite and kyanite-staurolite-biotite assemblages indicate that metamorphism reached the kyanite zone of the amphibolite facies. Geothermobarometry was conducted on rocks in and around the deposit using a variety of silicate and sulfide calibrations. Temperature determinations are most reliant on the garnet-biotite exchange reaction, with analyses obtained from 259 garnet rims and adjacent biotite. Results from nine calibrations of the garnet-biotite geothermometer are considered, but compositional limitations of many calibrations involving high Ca and Mn contents in garnet and AlVI and Ti in biotite make many of the coexisting mineral pairs unsuitable. Average temperatures calculated from the two calibrations that most closely address the garnet-biotite compositions observed at Bleikvassli are 584 °C ± 49 °C and 570 °C ± 40 °C. The application of two calibrations of the garnet-staurolite geothermometer on a limited number of samples yields 581 °C ± 2 °C and 589 °C ± 12 °C, assuming aH2O=0.84, based upon calculations of the modal proportions of gaseous species. Pressure determinations are less constrained. Phengite and plagioclase-biotite-garnet-muscovite geobarometers give average pressures of approximately 5.0 kbar and 8.5 ± 1.2 kbar, respectively. Pressures obtained from the sphalerite-hexagonal pyrrhotite-pyrite barometer average 7.7 ± 1.0 kbar. In consideration of these results, the peak metamorphic conditions at the Bleikvassli deposit are estimated to be 580 °C and 8 kbar.