ТЬе intention of this book is to provide а detai!ed synthesis of the enormous body of research which has Ьееп published оп carbonate sediments and rocks. Such rocks аге worthy of attention for severa! reasons. ТЬеу аге vo!umetrically а most signifcant part of the geo!ogica! record and possess тисЬ of the fossil гес-ord of !ife оп this p!anet. Most importantly they contain at !east 40% of the wor!d's known hydroсагЬоп reserves. ТЬеу a!so р!ау host to base meta! deposits and groundwater resources, and аге raw materia!s for the construction and chemica! industries. No other rock type is as economically important.

A very large part of our understanding of carbonate sediments and rocks is derived from studies made with the microscope. Field work lays bare the gross relationships, but is apt to be hampered by the failure of many limestones to reveal themselves clearly in the hand specimen-a serious handicap in so complex a group of rocks. Geochemical and X-ray studies, though profoundly influential, suffer not only from the length of time between question and answer, but, above all, from their inability to take cognizance of the complex fabrics which are of such critical importance in this group of multicomponent rocks. The immediacy of the microscopical approach has sustained this method as the major research tool throughout the rapid expansion of carbonate studies since World War 11: the newer and more discerning classifications depend on it. The development of refined staining techniques, of replication, including the shadowing of acetate peels, combined with the use of the transmission and scanningelectron microscopes, have shown, along with the subtle methods of cathodoluminescence, that the microscope has a rich future <...>

Настоящая работа была закончена еще в 1924 г. В течение четырех лет я не мог, по различным соображениям технического характера, опубликовать ее. Такая задержка меня весьма радует, так как за это время я имел возможность обменяться коллекциями и письмами с профессором университета в Лилле P. Pruvost и тем самым подвергнул двойному контролю свои определения: с одной стороны, сравнив непосредственно свои образцы с французскими, с другой стороны—профессор P. Pruvost, просмотрев посланную ему коллекцию, указал на полное тождество донецких образцов с французскими и английскими. Другое обстоятельство, весьма благоприятное для моей работы, было то, что в течение четырех лет, постоянно работая в Донецком бассейне, я мог подвергать контролю те выводы, какие были мною сделаны в главах II и III. Такой контроль дал возможность, с одной стороны, подтвердить выводы и исправить мелкие недочеты и неправильные определения в тех толщах, которые подвергались наблюдению, с другой стороны—позволил расширить эти наблюдения на более обильном материале и, наконец, с третьей стороны—при таких наблюдениях часто удавалось разрешать некоторые неясные вопросы в геологии бассейна.

Gold mineralization at Carlin is clearly younger than hydrocarbon maturation (pre-Cretaceous) and felsic dike intrusion (Cretaceous), and older than deep oxidation (late Tertiary). Within the episode of gold mineralization, the main gold ore (MGO) stage and late gold ore (LGO) stage are distinguished paragenetically, wi-th a variety of vein and mineralization types in each. MGO stage fluids contained 5 to 10 mole percent COa, appreciable H2S, and 3 ± 1 wt percent NaCl equiv. At least portions of MGO stage mineralization were characterized by two-phase boiling (COa exsolution) at 215° ± 30°C and 800 ± 400 bars. In contrast, LGO stage fluids were gas poor with salinities <1.5 wt percent NaCl equiv and record only nonboiling conditions. MGO stage fluids had 518Oh2o values of 5 to 9 per mil, whereas LGO stage fluids resembled unevolved meteoric water with 518Oh2o values < —3 per mil.

From the MGO stage to the LGO stage, calcite 5180 values shifted from near whole-rock values of 12 ± 3 per mil to around 0 ± 1 per mil as LGO stage fluids flooded the system. Jasperoids also record a large range (9-22%o) in 518Oh2o values. These data indicate the involvement of two very different fluids in ore deposition. Because MGO and LGO stage features are closely associated spatially with each other and with Au, As, Sb, Hg, and other ore elements, both fluids are believed to have both been present during most stages of ore deposition.

At pressures of 80 to 85 percent lithostatic, depths of 3.8 ± 1.9 km are required to accommodate the 800 ± 400 bars of pressure recorded in MGO stage fluid inclusions. Carlin, therefore, is not an epi-thermal or hot spring deposit. Carbon dioxide in gas-rich MGO stage fluids may have originated either directly from buried intrusions or their contact aureoles, or from low-grade regional metamorphism at depth. The water may have been originally meteoric, and Au may be magmatic or derived from leaching of deep metamorphic or sedimentary rocks. Ore deposition appears to have occurred in zones of throttling at a pressure seal between normally pressured and overpressured regimes, where fluids experienced a change from near-lithostatic to hydrostatic conditions. Such pressure seals are common in deep sedimentary basins and may be a key to highly localized gold deposition. Mixing of two fluids and interaction with host rocks along thin permeable bioclastic horizons are believed to have been the major factors in depositing ore.