Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:47:26.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

22 - Hydrothermal fluids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

Craig M. Bethke
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Get access

Summary

Hydrothermal fluids, hot groundwaters that circulate within the Earth's crust, play central roles in many geological processes, including the genesis of a broad variety of ore deposits, the chemical alteration of rocks and sediments, and the origin of hot springs and geothermal fields. Many studies have been devoted to modeling how hydrothermal fluids react chemically as they encounter wall rocks, cool, boil, and mix with other fluids. Such modeling proliferated in part because hydrothermal fluids are highly reactive and because the reaction products are commonly well preserved, readily studied, and likely to be of economic interest. Further impetus was provided by the development of reliable modeling software in the 1970s, a period of concern over the availability of strategic and critical minerals and of heightened interest in economic geology and the exploitation of geothermal energy.

As a result, many of the earliest and most imaginative applications of geochemical modeling, beginning with Helgeson's (1970) simulation of ore deposition in hydrothermal veins and the alteration of nearby country rock, have addressed the reaction of hydrothermal fluids. For example, Reed (1977) considered the origin of a precious metal district; Garven and Freeze (1984), Sverjensky (1984, 1987), and Anderson and Garven (1987) studied the role of sedimentary brines in forming Mississippi Valley-type and other ore deposits; Wolery (1978), Janecky and Seyfried (1984), Bowers et al. (1985), and Janecky and Shanks (1988) simulated hydrothermal interactions along the midocean ridges; and Drummond and Ohmoto (1985) and Spycher and Reed (1988) modeled how fluid boiling is related to ore deposition.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Hydrothermal fluids
  • Craig M. Bethke, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book: Geochemical and Biogeochemical Reaction Modeling
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619670.025
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Hydrothermal fluids
  • Craig M. Bethke, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book: Geochemical and Biogeochemical Reaction Modeling
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619670.025
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Hydrothermal fluids
  • Craig M. Bethke, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book: Geochemical and Biogeochemical Reaction Modeling
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619670.025
Available formats
×