Geoscience Frontiers (Sep 2013)

Structure of the Panzhihua intrusion and its Fe-Ti-V deposit, China

  • Arnaud Pêcher,
  • Nicholas Arndt,
  • Alexander Jean,
  • Arthur Bauville,
  • Clement Ganino,
  • Charlotte Athurion

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2013.02.004
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 5
pp. 571 – 581

Abstract

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The Panzhihua intrusion in southwest China is part of the Emeishan large igneous province and host of a large Fe-Ti-V ore deposit. In previous interpretations it was considered to be a layered, differentiated sill with the ore deposits at its base. New structural and petrological data suggest instead that the intrusion has an open S-shape, with two near-concordant segments joined by a discordant dyke-like segment. During emplacement of the main intrusion, multiple generations of mafic dykes invaded carbonate wall rocks, producing a large contact aureole. In the central segment, magmatic layering is oriented oblique to the walls of the intrusion. This layering cannot have formed by crystal settling or in-situ growth on the floor of the intrusion; instead we propose that it resulted from inward solidification of multiple, individually operating, convection cells. Ore formation was triggered by interaction of magma with carbonate wall rocks.

Keywords