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Located in the Matagami mining district of the Abitibi greenstone belt, Quebec, the Bell River Complex is a >5-km-thick tholeiitic layered gabbro and/or anorthosite body (2724.6 +2.5/−1.9 MaU-Pb), which likely acted as the heat source that drove hydrothermal convection and volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) hydrothermal mineralization in the area. Abundant fractures and veins crosscutting the western lobe of the Bell River Complex formed over a range of temperatures from 250° to 700°C. The 250° to 400°C assemblage, quartz-epidote ± sericite ± chlorite ± plagioclase, is the most widespread and occurs as orthogonal, anastomosing, and random vein sets. Vein densities average between 15 and 25 veins per m2, locally reaching as high as 40 to 60 veins per m2. These veins, typically 1 to 3 mm wide, are interpreted to represent thermal cracking associated with hydrothermal fluid mineralization in the district. Furthermore, they crosscut earlier higher temperature pyroxene-plagioclase (>600°C) and magnetite-rich (300°–600°C) veins (1–10 mm wide; densities commonly ~0–5 veins per m2). Detailed field measurements of quartz-epidote vein geometries coupled with permeability tensor theory have produced a first-order approximation of the maximum model permeability structure (veins unfilled) of the hydrothermal cracking zone. Representative district-wide values indicate maximum model bulk permeabilities of 10−10 to 10−8 m2 for the hydrothermal cracking zone; similar to permeabilities calculated for the fractured sheeted dike complexes of the Semail and Troodos Ophiolites. However, a high-flow zone located within the central parts of the hydrothermal cracking zone is characterized by a maximum model permeability of 10−7 m2. Locally ( |
