Mineralogical study of the La Hueca Cretaceous Iron-Manganese deposit, Michoacán, south-western Mexico

In this work we describe for the first time the mineralogy and very briefly the possible origin of abanded Fe-Mn deposit associated with a Cretaceous volcanosedimentary sequence of the southern Guerreroterrane, near the sulfide massive volcanogenic deposit of La Minita. The deposit is confined withi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rodolfo Corona Esquivel, Fernando Ortega Gutiérrez, Margarita Reyes Salas, Rufino Lozano Santacruz, Miguel Angel Miranda Gasca
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2000
País:México
Institución:Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Repositorio:Redalyc-UNAM
OAI Identifier:oai:redalyc.org:57217206
Acceso en línea:https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=57217206
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ciencias de la Tierra
Mexico
Michoacán
Mineralogy
La Hueca iron
manganese deposit
Descripción
Sumario:In this work we describe for the first time the mineralogy and very briefly the possible origin of abanded Fe-Mn deposit associated with a Cretaceous volcanosedimentary sequence of the southern Guerreroterrane, near the sulfide massive volcanogenic deposit of La Minita. The deposit is confined within a felsictuff unit; about 10 meters thick where sampled for chemical analysis. Using XRF, EDS and XRD techniques,we found besides todorokite, cryptomelane, quartz, romanechite (psilomelane), birnessite, illite-muscovite,cristobalite, chlorite, barite, halloysite, woodruffite, nacrite or kaolinite, and possibly hollandite-ferrian, aswell as an amorphous material and two unknown manganese phases.Although the manganese and iron minerals that characterize the La Hueca site were apparentlysomewhat altered by diagenetic or weathering processes, the combined evidence of finely banded tolaminated structure, the abundant presence of Fe, Mn, Ba, Zn, and Si, and a mineralogy of probable primaryoriginm here represented by hematite, jasper and manganese minerals enriched in zinc and barium, stronglysupport the interpretation that La Hueca is essentially of sedimentary origin, precipitated fromhydrothermally metal-enriched solutions. The deposit is here interpreted as a distal exhalite derived from thesame hydrothermal solutions that formed the barite-sulfides deposits of La Minita.