Abstract
The 360 Ma subaerial felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the Harvey Group form a belt about 15 km long and 3 km wide in southwestern New Brunswick (Canada) that has been correlated with parts of the Mount Pleasant caldera complex, the site of a significant polymetallic (tin, tungsten, molybdenum, indium and bismuth) deposit. The Harvey volcanic rocks are highly fractionated peraluminous within-plate F-rich rhyolites, which host uranium mineralization. The rocks were modified by late-magmatic and post-magmatic processes. A comparison of the composition of whole rocks and melt inclusions in the quartz phenocrysts shows that some trace elements, including U, were affected by the post-magmatic processes. Their flat REE patterns accompanied by distinct negative Eu anomalies are typical of highly evolved F-rich leucogranites and rhyolites. Nd isotopic ratios (ɛNd(360) = +0.6 to −1.0) are similar to those of the felsic rocks of the Mount Pleasant complex. The Harvey rhyolites were generated by extensive fractional crystallization of andesites of the Mount Pleasant caldera. The melt evolved at the apex of the magma chamber where volatile elements become concentrated. The Harvey rhyolite (with melt inclusions containing ~20 ppm U) had the potential to develop a significant U mineralization. The erupted glassy rhyolite is a favorable U source rock amendable to leaching by post-magmatic hydrothermal and meteoric water. The high Th/U ratios in the Harvey volcanic rocks compared to the low ratios in the U-rich melt inclusions is indicative of such a process.
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge funding for this project through the grants of the New Brunswick Department of Energy and Mines, Geological Surveys Branch and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery grants to J.D. and J.H). Constructive reviews by two anonymous referees improved the manuscript. We thank Malcom McLeod for the initiation of this project and numerous constructive discussions, Randy Corney for technical assistance and Andrew MacRae for taking a field photo.
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Communicated by Timothy L. Grove.
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Appendix 1
Whole-rock analyses of the Cherry Hill rocks (XLS 43 kb)
Appendix 2
Histogram of U-Pb zircon ages determined by laser ablation ICP-MS from the rhyolite sample of the Cherry Hill Formation showing bi-modal distribution of ages (TIFF 485 kb)
Appendix 3
Average compositions of melt inclusions in quartz phenocrysts (from Gray et al., 2011 and Payette and Martin, 1986b) (XLS 32 kb)
Appendix 4
Analytical methods for melt inclusions (Gray et al., 2011) (DOCX 15 kb)
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Dostal, J., van Hengstum, T.R., Shellnutt, J.G. et al. Petrogenetic evolution of Late Paleozoic rhyolites of the Harvey Group, southwestern New Brunswick (Canada) hosting uranium mineralization. Contrib Mineral Petrol 171, 59 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-016-1270-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-016-1270-8