ABSTRACT The geometry of the Middle Jurassic Yerington Batholith has been reconstructed by removing the effects of Ceno-zoic normal faulting, which has exposed a cross section of the batholith from less than 1 to more than 6 kilometers paleodepth. The batholith is a composite pluton approximately 15 kilometers in diameter and extends at least 6 and possibly 8 to 9 kilometers in vertical dimension. Total volume of the batholith exceeds 1,000 cubic kilometers. It was emplaced into a Triassic-Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rock sequence by bulk assimilation and ductile deformation of wallrocks. The roof is at approximately 1 kilometer depth and is formed by cogenetic volcanic sequences. The upper mineralized portion of the batholith and its roof are preserved because the batholith has dropped down more than 2.5 kilometers along steeply dipping faults. Porphyry copper and copper skarn mineralization are spatially and temporally associated with emplacement of granite porphyry dikes that are cogenetic with and grade downward into the Luhr Hill Granite. This youngest phase of the batholith is estimated to be about 65 cubic kilometers in volume and was emplaced into the center of the batholith, largely at depths of 5 to 9 (?) kilometers. The Luhr Hill Granite has low copper content (10 ppm) and copper-zinc ratio (0.25) relative to the early and voluminous McLeod Hill Quartz Monzodiorite phase of the batholith (60 ppm copper and copper-zinc ratio of 1). Zinc decreases with differentiation and increasing silica content in the batholith and thus behaves compatibly, whereas copper content does not vary significantly with differentiation except for its sharp decrease in the Luhr Hill Granite. Whole rock chemical variations are consistent with low contents of copper (less than 150 ppm) and significant contents of zinc (about 350-800 ppm) in biotite, one of the early crystallizing and fractionating phases. Application of the theoretical model of Cline and Bodnar (1991) for crystallization of granite at 2 kilobars pressure indicates that hypersaline magmatic ore fluids would have separated late during crystallization and extracted most copper but less than 25 percent of zinc from the magma; zinc would have been sequestered in earlier-crystallized biotite. The fluids from the Luhr Hill Granite apparently migrated from 5 to 9 kilometers depth upward into granite cupolas at 4 to 5 kilometers depth, where they caused hydrofracturing leading to emplacement of granite porphyry dikes along which fluids continued to move upward and outward from the cupolas. The dominance of copper sulfide and lack of zinc sulfide in the Yerington District is consistent with mineralization caused by magmatic ore fluids rich in copper and sulfur but poor in zinc. Metal zoning from inner porphyry copper with or without molybdenum to intermediate skarn copper to outer replacement/skarn copper-iron and vein copper-gold is generally consistent with declining temperature of magmatic hydrothermal fluids, but magnetite-rich iron-replacement ores poor in sulfide may be derived in part from non-magmatic fluids that stripped iron during sodic-calcic alteration of the batholith. Exploration criteria for porphyry copper deposits following the Yerington model should focus on shallowly’ emplaced batholiths with a late and relatively deep granite phase depleted in copper and having a low copper-zinc ratio.

THE PURPOSE of this one-day tour is to examine time-space relationships of hydrothermal alteration features and associated porphyry Cu(Mo) and Cu-Fe-Au mineralization, and the relationship of these hydrothermal features to the magmatic history of the Yerington batholith. The batholith exposures we will examine represent an intermediate between the Birch Creek and Buena Vista end members. At Yerington, mag-matic brines were essential to formation of porphyry Cu(Mo) deposits, but at the same time a huge hydrothermal system driven by the batholithic heat was dominated by sedimentary brines and produced Fe oxide-Cu-Au ores distal to the porphyry centers. It will be advantageous to read the papers in this guidebook by Dilles and Proffett (1995) and Dilles et al. (2000) that provide summaries of the magmatic and hy-drothermal histories, respectively, of the Yerington batholith. The descriptions and maps below are lengthy because of the complexity of the exposures and large size of the intrusion-related hydrothermal system. This tour can be accomplished in a leisurely fashion in two days, but can be done in one. There are two short hikes and nine roadside stops.

THE CONTACT between the Yerington batholith and metased-imentary and metavolcanic rocks east of Ludwig, Nevada, is exposed over 3.5 km of paleodepth (Fig. 1 ) due to 90° of westward rotation during Basin-and-Range faulting ( Proffett, 1977 ; Geissman et al., 1982 ). Here we have the opportunity to study the effects of depth, distance, and time in the generation of metamorphic rocks and skarns. As we walk over the terrain, keep reminding yourself that “original up” is to the west. The main emphasis of the trip will be to examine the structural and lithologic controls on the formation of calc-sil-icate hornfels, skarn, and related ores, the mineralogy of these rocks, and their temporal relation to quartz monzodior-ite and granite porphyry intrusions of the Yerington batholith. This examination will yield a conceptual framework for understanding skarn-forming processes and will generate ideas useful in mineral exploration. Some background material on terminology and phase equilibria is given in the first section of the chapter, preceding the description of individual stops. The actual trip log gives descriptions of outcrops for each stop, followed by background material, interpretation, and application where appropriate. An overall summary and conclusions is beyond the scope of this chapter. Many of the conclusions presented below rely on the parallel studies of igneous and hyrothermal events associated with emplacement of the Yerington batholith ( Proffett, 1977 ; Proffett and Dilles, 1984 ; Dilles, 1987 ; Dilles and Einaudi, 1992 ; Dilles et al., 1992 ; Dilles and Proffett, 1995 ), summaries in this Fieldtrip Guidebook ( Dilles et al., 2000 , etc.), as well as studies by others on skarn deposits around the world (cited individually in text).

Metamorphosed Triassic and Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks have been mapped, described, and measured in the Singatse, Buckskin, and northern Wassuk Ranges near Yerington, west-central Nevada. Herein, we establish new formation names for these rocks and correlate them regionally with other Triassic-Jurassic rocks, in part by use of fossil and radiometric ages. From oldest to youngest, rocks in the Singatse Range consist of a Middle Triassic or older volcanic sequence (McConnell Canyon volcanics), an Upper Triassic sequence of interbedded fine-grained clastic sedimentary rocks, carbonate rocks, tuffaceous sedimentary rocks, and tuffs (Malachite Mine Formation and tuff of Western Nevada Mine), a thick Upper Triassic limestone (Mason Valley Limestone), an uppermost Triassic and Lower Jurassic siltstone sequence (Gardnerville Formation), an Early and/or Middle Jurassic limestone-gypsum-quartzite sequence (Ludwig Mine Formation), and Middle Jurassic volcanic rocks. The sequence is exposed in septa between two Middle Jurassic batholiths and was folded and metamorphosed during emplacement of the batholiths. The Middle Jurassic volcanic rocks are best exposed in the Buckskin Range to the west, where they consist of a lower andesitic sequence (Artesia Lake volcanics) and an upper sequence of more felsic, porphyritic rocks (Fulstone Spring volcanics). The Triassic and Early Jurassic rocks are also exposed in the Wassuk Range to the east and include a thick section of andesitic and silicic volcanics, which may be in part equivalent to the McConnell Canyon volcanics, the lower part of which is intruded by the possibly cogenetic Middle Triassic Wassuk diorite and associated quartz monzonite and quartz porphyry. The McConnell Canyon volcanics apparently formed as part of an Early to early Late Triassic continental-margin volcanic arc that extended from the Mojave Desert area to northern California and Nevada. Volcanism waned in Late Triassic time, and the volcanic rocks were covered by interbedded volcaniclastic, clastic sedimentary, and carbonate rocks that include the Malachite Mine Formation and tuff of Western Nevada Mine. Late Triassic carbonate sequences, such as the Mason Valley Limestone, succeed the interbedded rocks, but this appears to have taken place earlier to the north, whereas volcanism persisted for a longer time to the south. Fine-grained siliciclastic sedi ments, with minor carbonate and local volcanic-derived strata, were deposited above the more massive carbonates in a wide area during latest Triassic and Early Jurassic deposition of the Gardnerville Formation and correlative rocks. The Ludwig Mine Formation is part of a sequence of quartz-rich sandstone, evaporates, and carbonates that is widespread in western Nevada and lies on top of and ties together diverse older rock sequences of quite different character. In addition to the arc volcanic, carbonate, and clastic sequence of Yerington and surrounding regions, these older rock sequences include thick, lithologically different, basinal turbidite-mudstone sequences of similar Late Triassic to Early Jurassic age to the north, strata of the shelf terrane to the northeast and east, and probably also rocks of the North American continental platform and parts of the Sierra Nevada. The Artesia Lake and Fulstone volcanics comprise a Middle Jurassic volcanic center related to the Yerington batholith and to nearby igneous centers that is part of a volcanic arc that extended from north of the Yerington district southward through the Mojave Desert and Arizona.

Abstract The Yerington district, Nevada, hosts at least four porphyry copper deposits and several small Fe oxide-copper-gold lodes within a middle Jurassic batholith and its volcanic cover. The contact aureole of the batholith contains early garnet-pyroxene hornfels and endoskarn, later copper-bearing andradite skarn deposits, and latest-stage large Fe oxide-copper-gold replacement deposits. The Jurassic host rocks have been faulted and tilted 60° to 90° W by Cenozoic normal faulting ( Proffett, 1977 ) so that the modern exposures represent cross sections of a complex paleohydrothermal system from the volcanic environment to about 7 km depth. This paper summarizes field, petrologic, and geochemical data that support the origin of hydrothermal wall-rock alteration and ore deposition due to two different types of fluids. Magmatic brines were derived from the crystallization of the youngest equigranular intrusion of the Yerington batholith, the Luhr Hill granite. Brines separated from the granite and were emplaced upward together with granite porphyry dikes to produce copper-iron sulfdes and associated K silicate alteration in the porphyry copper deposits and copper skarns. In the upper part of the hydrothermal system, magmatic fluids are an important source of acids and sulfur that produced sericitic and advanced argillic alteration. A second type of ore fluid is brine derived from formation waters trapped in the Triassic-Jurassic sedimentary section intruded by the batholith. These fluids were heated by the batholith and circulated through its crystalline parts. Hornfels and endoskarn were produced along the contact of an early intrusion. Following intrusion of the porphyry dikes, sedimentary brines circulated up to 3 km into the batholith and upon heating produced sodic-calcic alteration there. Ascent of these brines, particularly after the waning of magmatic fluid input, may have caused shallow-level chlorite-dominated alteration in igneous host rocks and Fe oxide-Cu-Au lodes and replacement deposits in the batholith and its contact aureole, respectively.

Abstract The Buckskin Range lies approximately 4 km west of the Yerington porphyry copper district and hosts the Artesia Lake and Fulstone Spring volcanic sequences that structurally overlie the Yerington batholith. Hy-drothermal alteration minerals characteristic of advanced argillic, sericitic, and marginal porphyry copper-type alteration assemblages have been detected via infrared spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, petrography, micro-probe analysis, and hand-lens based-field mapping in the central Buckskin Range. It is postulated that high-level alteration in the Artesia Lake Volcanics may be contemporaneous with the main event of sericitic alteration and pyrite deposition in the deeper porphyry copper environment. The presence of sericitic alteration underlying or overprinting hypogene advanced argillic assemblages may imply that fluids responsible for porphyry copper mineralization have ascended to epithermal depths. The spatial relationships of hydrothermal alteration in the Buckskin Range suggest an evolution of low-pH, sulfide-bearing fluids to nearly neutral, oxide-rich hydrothermal fluids. Sulfide-rich, feldspar-destructive advanced argillic and sericitic alteration is crosscut and overlain by feldspar-stable, oxide-rich sericite-hematite-chlorite alteration. Sericite-hematite-chlorite alteration is abruptly overlain by potassium-added, feldspar-stable calcite-chlorite-hematite alteration, produced by late sodic-calcic or potassium-enriched fluids possibly derived from sedimentary or evaporitic brines.