TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION FEATURE OF THE EPITHERMAL GOLD DEPOSITS IN TETHYAN TECTON IC DOMAIN, SOUTHWESTERN CHINA

The epithermal gold deposits in Tethyan Tectonic Domain,Southwestern China,can be divided into 3 types which can be subdivided into 7 sub-types.They are:Ⅰ.volcanic-subvolcanic hydrothermal type,including (Ⅰ₁)gold deposits related to volcanic rock and (Ⅰ₂) gold deposits related to subvolcanic rock;Ⅱ.ground thermal brine type,including (Ⅱ₁) gold deposits hosted in fine-grained clastic sedimentary rock,(Ⅱ₂) gold deposits hosted in carbonate rock,(Ⅱ₃) gold deposits hosted in volcanogenic clastic rock,and (Ⅱ₄) gold deposits hosted in carbonacious,silicious and argillaceous rock;and Ⅲ.vocanic hot-spring type,i.e,the gold deposits occured in the hot-spring system The temporal and spatial distribution regularity of the epithermal gold deposits in the tectonic domain are as follow:1)The gold deposits which occured in the tectonic unit with long active history are generally in great number and large scale Structurally,the deep-seated fault controlls the concentrated area of gold mineralization;the second order faults,the gold fields and gold deposits;and the cataclastic zones,the distribution of the ore bodies.2)The Triassic system in the area is dominant stratum that hosts gold deposits,and then Cambrian and Permian systems.And 3)gold mineralization mainly took place in Yanshanian and Himalayan epoches Based on the discussion mentioned above,the Tethyan Tectonic Domain in Southwestern China is divided into 6 metallogenic provinces and 21 metallogenic belts,each of which and whose prospecting potentiality are discussed in detail.