McArthur River Pb/Zn/Ag Deposit: Organic Geochemistry and Ore Genesis Data

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) data from the McArthur River ore deposit, submitted by Chen et al., suggests a hydrothermal petroleum origin distinct from conventional oil. The data indicates a temperature gradient between 250-400°C for ore-forming fluids, revising previous estimates and implying a deeper metal source. This dataset, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network, provides evidence for ore formation in a marine diagenetic environment.

Use Cases

• Modeling temperature gradients of hydrothermal systems based on PAH isomer distributions.
• Investigating the source of sulfur in ore deposits based on the high-temperature transport of hydrogen sulfide.
• Studying paleobiology and microbiology in ancient hydrothermal systems based on the repository of paleobiological information.
• Refining exploration models for sediment-hosted deposits based on implications for deeper metal sources and fluid volumes.

Strengths

• Data provides strong evidence for a specific ore formation environment (marine diagenetic) based on multiple geochemical, geological, and mineralogical lines of evidence.
• The deposit is described as an exquisitely preserved example, suggesting high data integrity for its type.
• Findings on fluid temperatures (250-400°C) have significant implications for revising exploration models.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is presented in HTML format, which may require extraction and transformation for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Likely contains geochemical measurements from ore and mudstone samples.

Time Range

Paleoproterozoic era

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 17:59:38.908331; freshness should be verified.

Geography

McArthur River deposit, northern Australia