McArthur River Pb/Zn/Ag Deposit Organic Geochemistry Data

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon distributions in the McArthur River ore deposit suggest ore-forming temperatures of 250-400°C, revising previous estimates. This dataset from the Australian Ocean Data Network provides evidence for a marine diagenetic environment of ore formation. The results, last updated in 2026, have implications for exploration models and the paleobiology of ancient hydrothermal systems.

Use Cases

• Modeling ore formation temperatures based on PAH isomer distributions.
• Investigating the source of sulfur in sediment-hosted base metal deposits based on high-temperature fluid transport evidence.
• Correlating organic geochemical signatures with geological and mineralogical data to understand diagenetic environments.
• Studying the paleobiology and microbiology of ancient hydrothermal systems using the deposit as a biological repository.

Strengths

• Data provides strong evidence for a marine diagenetic ore-forming environment.
• PAH compound distributions are compared to hydrothermally-generated petroleum from the Guaymas Basin.
• The dataset represents an exquisitely preserved example of a sediment-hosted base metal deposit.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified despite a last updated date of 2026-06-04.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Time Range

Paleoproterozoic era

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 06:03:51.253663

Geography

McArthur River, Northern Australia