Page 84 - Handbook of Gold Exploration and Evaluation

Geology of gold ore deposits 65

2.1 Conceptual cross-section of a seafloor hydrothermal system.

Influence of sediment on magma characteristics
Factors that link the assimilation of various sediment types to the melt during the
magma-forming process strongly influence the composition and mineralogy of
the hydrothermal fluids. Wind-blown sediments of all types are deposited at
slow rates over the marine environment. The greatest influence of contamination
by silicic materials is along continental margins where billions of tonnes of

2.2 Schematic representation of principal components of magma genesis, fluid
flow and metallogenesis (after Hedenquist and Lowenstern, 1994).