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Gold mobility in subduction zone, the slab perspective

Arc environments are Au-endowed and it has been long hypothesized that Au mobilization during slab dehydration could affect mantle composition and arc Au-fertility. Here, we determine Au-mobility during prograde high pressure-low temperature metamorphism of both metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks from the islands of Santorini, Ios, Naxos and Syros (Greece). These have sustained peak metamorphism from greenschist to upper-blueschist/eclogite facies, allowing determination of large-scale Au-mobility within the subduction zone. Gold is significantly mobilized by fluids at the blueschist-eclogite facies. Mélange zones at the slab-mantle interface provide a unique opportunity to understand the fate of Au in the mantle. In these zones Au shows heterogeneous concentration but is not enriched, implying only partial retention in the mélange and efficient Au mobilization across slab-mantle interface. Furthermore, mélange zones contribute to the slab component inherent to arc magmatism and their intrinsically complex lithology as well as heterogenous Au concentration appears to play a role on arc magmatism Au-fertility.

Details

Author
Clifford* Patten1, Alexandre Peillod2, Simon Hector2, Barbara Kleine3, Aratz Beranoaguirre4, Antonin Bilau2, Kirsten Drüppel2, Jesse Walters5, Iain Pitcairn6, Uwe Ring6, Alasdair Skelton6, Jochen Kolb2
Institutionen
1Institute of Mineralogy and Petrography, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria; 2Chair for Economic Geology and Geochemistry, Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany; 3GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Department of Geography and Geosciences, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany; 4Institut für Geowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany; 5Department of Earth Sciences-NAWI Graz Geocenter, University of Graz, Graz, Austrian; 6Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Veranstaltung
Geo4Göttingen 2025
Datum
2025
DOI
10.48380/v9nf-b947

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