(super 18) O/ (super 16) O evidence for contrasting hydrothermal regimes involving magmatic and meteoric-hydrothermal waters at the Valhalla metamorphic core complex, British Columbia

Modeling of published oxygen isotope analyses of 115 whole-rock, quartz, and feldspar samples from the Valhalla metamorphic core complex provides evidence for three distinct stages of hydrothermal activity affecting the detachment faults and upper plate. (1) Lithostatically pressured aqueous fluids having delta (super 18) O approximately 10 per mil were expelled from the lower plate and moved upward into the upper plate through an oblique-sinistral transfer zone between the southern terminus of the Columbia River detachment fault and the northern terminus of the Slocan Lake detachment fault. These fluids ascended through fractures and exchanged with Slocan Group shales and graywackes to produce the marked zonation of vein siderite delta (super 18) O (11.4-18.4 per mil) observed in previous studies of the Sandon group of Ag-Pb-Zn lode deposits. (2) Later, as brittle deformation along the Slocan Lake detachment fault became the dominant tectonic process, these magmatic and/or metamorphic fluids intermittently mixed with even larger quantities of downward circulating, hydrostatically pressured meteoric-hydrothermal fluids. In the upper plate Nelson granodiorite adjacent to the Slocan Lake detachment fault, delta (super 18) O values of quartz (8.9-11.9 per mil) and feldspar (-5.0 to +9.6 per mil) define a steep array in delta -delta space (slope = 25), suggesting that synextensional meteoric-hydrothermal activity along the Slocan Lake detachment fault (initial delta (super 18) Owater approximately -15 per mil and T approximately 300 degrees C) was relatively short-lived (approximately 10 (super 6) yr), but very intense, with W/R (sub open-system) = < or =1.05 and fluid flux = 0.1 to 3 m/yr. The delta (super 18) O values of quartz (10.8-12.4 per mil) and feldspar (6.4-10.1 per mil) from lower plate greenschist mylonites indicate that small quantities of the low (super 18) O meteoric-hydrothermal fluids penetrated into the lower plate. The systematic decrease in feldspar delta (super 18) O toward the Slocan Lake detachment fault in both the upper and lower plates shows that these low (super 18) O waters were channeled along the detachment fault. (3) Meteoric-hydrothermal activity along the Valkyr shear zone postdates ductile deformation and was associated with the emplacement of the Coryell plutons in the upper plate. The delta (super 18) O values of quartz (7.6-11.0 per mil) and feldspar (0.0-8.6 per mil) from the Valkyr shear zone define a much shallower array in delta -delta space (slope = 2.3) than those at the Slocan Lake detachment fault, indicating a higher temperature and/or longer lived episode of hydrothermal activity. The geographic distribution of pronounced disequilibrium delta (super 18) O effects in Coryell quartz (5.8-8.2 per mil) and feldspar (-4.4 to +7.4 per mil) indicates that meteoric-hydrothermal activity was most intense along inferred coeval extensional fracture zones that lie beneath Arrow Lake. This modeling suggests that transfer zones that accommodate deformation between detachment faults may be a very attractive exploration setting for lode-type mineral deposits.