Dissolved volatile concentrations in an ore-forming magma

Infrared spectroscopic measurements of glass inclusions within quartz phenocrysts from the Plinian fallout of the 22 Ma tuff of Pine Grove show that the trapped silicate melt contained high concentrations of H2O and CO2. Intrusive porphyries from the Pine Grove system are nearly identical in age, composition, and mineralogy to the tephra, and some contain high-grade Mo mineralization. Assuming that the porphyry magmas originally contained similar abundances of volatile components as the erupted rocks, they would have been saturated with fluid at pressures far greater than those at which the porphyries were emplaced and mineralized. The data are consistent with formation of Climax-type Mo porphyry deposits by prolonged fluid flux from a large volume of relatively Mo-poor (1-5 ppm) magma. -from Author