Temporal relations of volcanism and hydrothermal systems in two areas of the Jemez volcanic field, New Mexico

Two hydrothermal alteration events (8.07 Ma, one sample; 6.51-5.60 Ma, six samples) related to the waning stages of late Miocene volcanism (≥13 to ≤5.8 Ma) are recognized at the Cochiti district (southeast Jemez Mountains). Most of the K/Ar dates (0.83 ±0.11-0.66 ±0.21 Ma, four samples) in the hydrothermally altered, caldera-fill rocks of core hole VC-2A at Sulphur Springs, Valles caldera, indicate post-Valles caldera hydrothermal alteration. A sample from acid-altered landslide debris of postcaldera tuffs from the upper 13 m of the core hole was too young to be dated by the K/Ar method and is possibly associated with current hot-spring activity and the youngest pulses of volcanism.

Oxygen-isotope data from illite/smectite clays in the Cochiti district are zonally distributed and range from -2.15‰ to +7.97‰ (SMOW), depending upon temperature, extent of rock-fluid interaction, and composition. The samples from VC-2A get lighter with depth (-0.20‰ to +1.62‰). The K/Ar and oxygen-isotope data provide strong evidence that the epithermal quartz-vein-hosted gold-silver mineralization at Cochiti and the sub-ore grade molybdenite at VC-2A were deposited in the late Miocene (5.99-5.60 Ma) and mid-Quaternary (∼0.66 Ma), respectively, by hydrothermal fluids composed primarily of meteoric water.