Geology, alteration and lithogeochemistry of the hood deposits, Nunavut, Canada

• Main Author: Mills, Hannah Klara
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2014
• Subjects: Nunavut; Canada
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/6325/; https://research.library.mun.ca/6325/1/Mills_Hannah_Klara_022014_MSc.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/6325/3/Mills_Hannah_Klara_022014_MSc.pdf

This study concerns the Hood volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits that are hosted by the ~2.68 Ga Amooga Booga volcanic belt in the northwestern Slave Craton, Nunavut, Canada. The deposits comprise a cluster of bimodal-mafic VMS Cu-Zn- Pb lenses and mineral occurrences. On the basis of crustally contaminated felsic and mafic rocks, the volcanism is interpreted to have occurred in a tectonic environment comparable to a modern continental marginal back-arc basin. Geochemical study of the Hood volcanic rocks indicates controls on felsic petrogenesis such as fractionation temperature and interaction with the sialic basement have important implications for mineral prospectivity. Evidence for subseafloor replacement style mineralization includes remnant host rock clasts within mineralized intervals and alteration in both the footwall and the hanging wall to mineralization. Vectors to mineralization at the Hood deposits include Na₂O loss, Fe₂O₃, MgO and base metal gains and high principal component 1 scores proximal to mineralization