100th Anniversary Special Paper: Vapor Transport of Metals and the Formation of Magmatic-Hydrothermal Ore Deposits

In most published hydrothermal ore deposit models, the main agent of metal transport is an aqueous liquid. However, there is increasing evidence from volcanic vapors, geothermal systems (continental and submarine), vapor-rich fluid inclusions, and experimental studies that the vapor phase may be an important and even dom-inant ore fluid in some hydrothermal systems. This paper reviews the evidence for the transport of metals by vapor (which we define as an aqueous fluid of any composition with a density lower than its critical density), clarifies some of the thermodynamic controls that may make such transport possible, and suggests a model for the formation of porphyry and epithermal deposits that involves…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• MU
  McGill University
• ET
  Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada