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Genetic constraints from paleomagnetic dating for the Aliva zinc–lead deposit, Picos de Europa Unit, northern Spain

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Abstract

Aliva has been the most productive Zn–Pb mine in the Picos de Europa Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) district of Spain’s Cantabrian Zone. The mineralisation is hosted in a Variscan thrust sheet by strata of the Late Carboniferous (~309 ± 3 Ma) Picos de Europa limestone–shale formation. Paleomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses of 194 specimens from 23 sites show that the sphalerite–galena–dolomite ore carries a stable characteristic remanent magnetisation (ChRM) in magnetite–titanomagnetite with minor pyrrhotite. Uncorrected for bedding tilt, the ChRM’s direction is declination (D) = 347.2°, inclination (I) = 61.8° (N = 20 sites, k = 75.4, α 95 = 4.3°). A negative paleomagnetic fold test shows that the MVT mineralisation is in one or more carbonate olistoliths of the Picos de Europa Formation in shales of the overlying Late Carboniferous Lebeña Formation and that the ChRM entirely postdates Variscan orogenic deformation. No plausible tilt correction of the ChRM’s paleopole supports a previously proposed late Variscan (Permian–Triassic) age for the genesis of the MVT mineralisation at Aliva. The paleopole does support an age of 112 ± 8 Ma for the hydrothermal dolomitisation and MVT mineralisation event with a subsequent increase in bedding tilt by ~10° NNE during the Oligocene–Miocene Pyrenean (Alpine) Orogeny. The 112 ± 8 Ma Aptian–Albian age ties ore genesis to the 35° ± 2 counterclockwise rotation of the Iberian peninsula relative to stable Europe and strongly favours an origin in the rift’s flank associated with rift hydrothermal activity.

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Acknowledgments

Amanda Grossi and Kyle Prestanski are thanked gratefully for their careful preparation and measurement of the specimens. We thank our Reviewers, D.F. Sangster, D. Pastor-Galán and “anonymous” and the Associate Editor, R. Romer, and especially the Editor, G. Beaudoin, for their careful reviews and helpful advice for improving this paper. We also thank the Picos de Europa National Park Authority for permission to collect rock samples in the park and to access the mine site. Funding for this research was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grant No. 7834-05 to D.T.A.S.) and by the DGI-MINECO project GCL-2011-245-46.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, N9B3P4, Canada

    David T. A. Symons

  2. Centro de Astrobiologia, CSIC-INTA, Crta. Ajalvir Km. 4, 28850, Torrejon de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    Fernando Tornos

  3. Section of Earth and Environmental Systems, University of Toyama, 3190 Gofuku, Toyama-shi, Toyama, 930-8555, Japan

    Kazuo Kawasaki

  4. Department de Mineralogia y Petrologia, Universidad del Pais Vasco, Apdo. 644, 48080, Bilbao, Spain

    Francisco Velasco

  5. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Rio Rosas 23, 28003, Madrid, Spain

    Idoia Rosales

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  1. David T. A. Symons
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  2. Fernando Tornos
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Correspondence to David T. A. Symons.

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Editorial handling: G. Beaudoin and R.L. Romer

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Symons, D.T.A., Tornos, F., Kawasaki, K. et al. Genetic constraints from paleomagnetic dating for the Aliva zinc–lead deposit, Picos de Europa Unit, northern Spain. Miner Deposita 50, 953–966 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-015-0579-y

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