Breccia dikes in the Azuara impact structure

Breccia dikes in Liassic limestones south of Belchite.

Breccia-dike generations: The younger dike partly runs within the

older one. Whitish Muschelkalk dike within Keuper dike in Carniolas
host rock (also see Ernstson & Fiebag 1992). Monforte de Moyuela;
coin diameter 23 mm. - Dikes-within-dikes are known also from the
Vredefort impact structure.

Large breccia dike composed of Mesozoic (?Keuper) and ?Lower

Tertiary material cutting through Paleozoic siltstones. Near Santuario
Virgen de Herrera.
Extended breccia-dike system in Dogger limestones. The sharp-cut
emplacement of the dikes excludes any karstification processes. -
Barranco de Bocafóz, near Almonacid de la Cuba.

Polymict breccia dike cutting through Malmian limestones. The dike

can be traced in the field over nearly 300 m. Three dike generations
can be differentiated. Many components are themselves breccias.
Azuara impact structure; north of Muniesa.
Breccia dikes cutting through brecciated (mortar texture) Muschelkalk
limestone. Azuara impact structure; Monforte de Moyuela. Coin
diameter 23 mm.

Breccia dikes in Malmian limestone. Note the sharp-edged splinters

within the dike (arrows) incompatible with any karst phenomena.
Fuendetodos; Azuara impact structure. Photo-cap diameter 50 mm.

Breccia dikes in Liassic limestone. Match-box length 40 mm. Blesa,

Azuara impact structure.
System of breccia dikes and breccia pockets (dark) in light Malmian
limestones. The origin of the dark material is unknown. Small quarry
between Muniesa and Ventas de Muniesa. Hammer length 42 cm.

Crossing breccia dikes (dike generations) in Malmian limestone. The

first emplaced dike (N – S trending) is cut by the younger dike
showing ribbon texture probably originating from chemical
interactions between dike material and the host rock. Azuara impact
structure; near Ventas de Muniesa, Corral de Cámaras. Match-box
length 40 mm.

Typical breccia pockets in rocks from the Azuara impact structure.

Liassic limestone, near Belchite

Malmian limestone, near Ventas de Muniesa and Muschelkalk
limestone, near Olalla.

Breccia pipe injected from below into Palaeozoic schists. Note the
ring-wall of uplifted country rock. Azuara impact structure; near Santa
Cruz de Nogueras. Coin diameter 23 mm.

Azuara impact structure, near Nogueras: Photomicrograph of

microscopic breccia dike with bifurcation; plane parallel light and
crossed nicols. Sandstone fragment from a shocked polymict dike
breccia. Note that the thin dike cuts through several quartz grains
(arrows). - The field is 2.5 mm high.
Impact dike breccias from the Azuara and Charlevoix impact
structures. Left: Azuara polymict dike breccia; near Santa Cruz de
Nogueras. Note the grading of the components and the distinct flow
texture. Right: Comparable texture in a dike breccia from the
Charlevoix impact structure (sample supplied by J.Rondot). Similar
breccias have been described to occur also in the Sierra Madera
impact structure (Wilshire et al. 1972).

Breccia textures
The Central Wales ore deposits are hosted by fault-fracture systems in which small to moderate
normal and dextral wrench-movements may be demonstrated. Most of the fractures trend
ENE with a minor suite trending NW-SE.

The fact that many breccia samples show radial growth of minerals about clasts led to the
realisation that brecciation and mineral precipitation must have been virtually simultaneous.
These are not classic fault-breccias but "hydraulic breccias" and their mode of formation
was eloquently explained by the late W. J. Phillips in 1972.

Phillips demonstrated that hydrothermal fluids are capable of causing fracture propagation
by hydraulic means. Anyone who has used a trolley-jack will know that half a pint of
hydraulic fluid, under compression, can lift an object weighing two or more tons off the
ground. Compressed fluid is a force to be reckoned with!

In Phillips' scenario, the pressure on a hydrothermal fluid occupying a fracture (exerted by

the fissure walls) would encourage fracture tip propagation (in addition to the regional
tensile stresses that would create the initial conditions for fracture development). In other
words, the highly-compressed fluids at the fracture-tip would jack the walls apart! In each
episode of fracture propagation upwards. the pressurised fluids would rush into the open
space newly created. This would cause a sudden depressurising of the fluid: this change
would cause the wallrocks, under considerable lithostatic and pore-water pressures, to
explode outwards into the newly-formed relatively low-pressure zone. The process is not
dissimilar to the rockbursts which are an ever-present hazard in the world's deeper mines.

The exploded rock-fragments would have a seeding effect in the depressurised

hydrothermal fluid, so that minerals would nucleate on the clasts and the cementation
process would commence. In some lodes, multiple episodes of brecciation have occurred,
in which previously-formed mineral assemblages have been rebrecciated and cemented by
later assemblages.

Some of the later assemblages depict a transition from this violent process to more
passive, open-fissure filling. The images below are some representative samples.

Reference:

Phillips, W.J. (1972) Hydraulic fracturing and mineralisation. Journal of the Geological
Society of London, 128, 337-359.
 Early (A1) breccia: part of a cut and polished
slab from the Darren mine, Central Wales, actual
size.

Clasts of pale greenish-grey mudstone

(belonging to the Cwmsymlog Formation) are
cemented by a matrix of tough milky quartz, with
bands of fine-grained galena, chalcopyrite and
tetrahedrite. A1 breccias are commonly matrix-
supported. They occasionally contain vugs lined
with prismatic waterclear quartz crystals.

Late (A2) breccia: part of a cut and polished slab

from Penycefn mine, Central Wales, half actual
size.

Clasts of grey mudstone (belonging to the Borth

Mudstones Formation) are closely-spaced and
cemented by a matrix of clear quartz, sphalerite
and galena. Vugs in A2 breccias are common
and are lined with noticeably squat quartz
crystals.

Late (A2) vein sample from Pandy mine, Central

Wales, half actual size.

Here we have two features: firstly a thin vein

containing brecciated rock clasts (below) and
secondly open fissure-fill (above) in which
mineralising fluids have precipitated quartz on
open vein walls during repeated openings. Each
new fracture opening has added a new vein. The
vein-rock interface is delineated by a thin dark
grey parting: some shattering of an older vein
has resulted in the partings being disrupted as
in the diagonal dark line on the R.

Open fissure-fill is a strong feature of the later (A2) assemblages.

SOME DEFINITIONS OF COMMON TERMS
USED IN DESCRIBING MINERAL DEPOSITS

BULK ROCK TERMS

Ore

a mineral or minerals that can be mined and extracted from a rock at a

profit.

Gangue

Those minerals which occur with the ore minerals but which have no
value, such as quartz, calcite or pyrite.

EVALUATION TERMS
Mineralization / Mineralisation

A general term which usually refers to ore minerals but which often may
refer to other metallic minerals such as pyrite.

Waste

Rock which is not ore. Usually referred to that rock which has to be
removed during the normal course of mining in order to get at the ore.

Grade

The concentration of each ore metal in a rock sample, usually given as

weight percent. If concentrations are extremely low, as with Au, Ag, Pt and
others, the concentration may be given in grams per tonne (g/t). The
average grade of an ore deposit is calculated, often employing very
sophisticated statistical procedures, as an average of the grades of a very
large number of samples collected from throughout the deposit.

Cut-off

The cut-off grade is the arbitrarily defined lowest grade which will be
mined from an ore ore deposit, and usually defines the boundary of the
deposit. For example, if the average grade of a porphyry deposit is 0.5%
Cu, the cut-off might be 0.2% Cu. any rock with a grade below 0.2% Cu
would be waste.

Reserves
 The amount of ore in a given deposit, usually quoted as the number of
tonnes available at a specific average grade.

DEPOSIT TERMS
Host rock

The rock within which the ore deposit occurs.

Country rock

The rock which surrounds the ore deposit. Also referred to as wall rock ,
in particular that rock on either side of a vein.

Hydrothermal

Hot fluids, usually mainly water, sometimes acidic which may carry
metals andother compounds in solution to the site of ore deposition or
wall rock alteration.

Alteration

A change in the mineralogy of the country rock as a result of a chemical

reaction with hydrothermal solutions. For example, mafic minerals such
as hornblende or biotite may alter to chlorite and feldspars may alter to
clay. An alteration zone describes rocks which have been altered to a
specific group of secondary or alteration minerals, usually around the
perimeter of a mineral deposit.

Vein

A tabular deposit usually formed by deposition of ore and gangue

minerals in open spaces within a fault or other structural environment.

Replacement

A chemical process whereby hydrothermal fluids, passing through

permeable rocks, react with the rocks to dissolve original minerals and
relace them with oreand/or other gangue minerals.

Massive sulphide

A stratiform (see below), usually lens-shaped mineral deposit consisting

of at least 60% sulphide minerals.

Skarn

A replacement of limestone (calcium carbonate) or other carbonate-rich

rocks adjacent to an intrusive contact by calc-silicate minerals usually
through the addition of Si and other elements.
Epigenetic

Mineralization which has been deposited later than its immediate host
rocks, for example a vein. The ore is younger than the host rocks.

Syngenetic

Mineralization which has been deposited simultaneously with its host

rocks, forexample placer deposits. The ore is the same age as the host
rocks.

Gossan

A rusty, surficial weathering zone which is caused by the oxidation of

pyrite to produce secondary iron oxide minerals. Since pyrite is often
associated with ore deposits, gossans can be a guide to ore.

SHAPE OF THE DEPOSIT TERMS

Concordant

Any geologic body, such as an ore deposit, which lies within or parallel to
volcanic or sedimentary bedding and does not cut across the bedding
structures. (Also conformable ).

Discordant

A geologic body, such as a dike or vein, which cuts across primary rock
structures such as bedding.

Stratiform

A mineral deposit which occurs as a specific stratigraphic (or

sedimentary) bed.

Stratabound

A mineral deposit which occurs within a specific stratigraphic bed or

horizon, but which does not comprise the entire bed.

STRUCTURAL TERMS
Footwall

The lower contact of an inclined vein, or the wall rock which lies on the
lower side of a dipping vein.

Hangingwall

The upper contact of an inclined vein.

Fault
 A planar feature or fracture zone along which displacement has occurred.

Shear zone

A planar zone of weakness, similar to a fault, but consisting of several

parallel displacement zones usually over a greater width than a single
fault.

Lode, shoot

All refer to mineralized zones within a fault or shear zone or a vein fissure,
stringer structure.

Breccia

Angular fragments of rock produced by movement along a fault or

explosive igneous activity. The material which surrounds the fragments
and cements them together is called matrix and might be vein minerals,
igneous material or very fine rock fragments.

Stockwork

A large number of small, closely spaced veins, often with many different
orientations, is referred to as a stockwork and sometimes as a stringer
zone.

Chimney

Also referred to as a pipe , this is a vertically oriented, cylindrical body,

often a breccia, of vein or replacement mineralization.

Manto

This is a horizontally oriented chimney-like structure, usually of

replacement mineralization.

TEXTURAL TERMS
Banding

Banding may represent small scale sedimentary layering in a syngenetic

deposit such as a massive sulphide or repeated pulses of mineralization
in a vein.

Crustiform banding

When minerals grow within a vein, they often grow inwards from the vein
wall. Several layers of different types of minerals, representing different
pulses of often aligned symmetrically away from the center of the vein.
Comb structure

When minerals crystallize inwards from opposite walls of a vein, they

often meet in the center to form an interdigitating pattern of crystals,
usually quartz, which has an appearance similar to a rooster's comb.

Vug

This is an open space or cavity, usually within a vein.

Cockscomb

This is a crustiform banding when it surrounds breccia fragments.