• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 1994

The Deogbong napseok clay deposit which is composed mainly of dickite and pyrophyllite has been formed by hydrothermal alteration of the Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks consisting of andesitic tuff and andesite. The mineralogy of the napseok ores and the hydrothermal alteration processes have been studied in order to know the nature of the interaction between minerals and fluids for the formation of the deposit. Chemical distribution shows that alkali elements and silica were mobile but alumina was relatively immobile during the hydrothermal processes. It is evident that enrichment of alumina and leaching of silica from the host rock led to the formation of the napseok ore, whereas the enrichment of silica in the outer zone of the deposit gave rise to the silica zone. A large amount of microcrystalline quartz closely associated with dickite and pyrophyllite suggests the increasing activity of silica. Thus Si which was released away from the argillic zone by the increasing activity of silica. Thus Si which was released away from the argillic zone by the increasing activity of silica solubility moved out precipitating in the margin of the deposit to form the silica zone. Variation in dickite crystallinity implies the local change in the stability of the system. Thermodynamic calculation shows that the invariant point of pyrophyllite-dickite (kaolinite)-diaspore-quartz assemblages at 500 bars in the system $Al_{2}O_{3}-SiO_{2}-H_{2}O$ is about 300 $^{\circ}C$. Based on the mineral assemblages and the experimental data reported, it is estimated that the main episode of hydrothermal alteration occurred at least above 270 to 300 $^{\circ}C$ and $X_{CO_2}$ <0.025. Mineral occurrence and chemical variation indicate that the activity of Al is high in the upper part of the deposit, whereas the activity of Si is high in the lower part and the margin of the deposit. The nonequilibrium phase relations observed in the Deogbong deposit might be due to local change in intensive thermodynamic variables and fluid transport properties that resulted in the formation of nonequilibrium phases b of several stages.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.107-118
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• 2019

Two assertions about the process the formation of the high-purity limestone in the Taebaeksan Basin, categorized into syngenetic and epigenetic origin, are verified on the basis of its oxygen-carbon stable isotopic characteristics. The carbonate rocks sampled from the selective six high-purity limestone mines and several outcrops in the Daegi formation are featured by various colors such as the gray, light gray and dark gray. They show a wide range of oxygen stable isotope ratios (4.5 ~ 21.6 ‰), but a narrow range of carbon stable isotope ratios (-1.1 ~ 0.8 ‰, except for vein calcite), which means that they had not experienced strong hydrothermal alteration. In addition, there is no difference in the range of the oxygen stable isotope ratios by mine and color, and it is similar to the range from surrounding outcrop samples. These results indicate that the effect of the hydrothermal alteration were negligible in the generation of high-purity limestone in deposit scale. Whereas, the carbonate rocks can be divided texturally into two groups on the basis of an oxygen isotope ratio; the massive-textured or well-layered samples (>15 ‰), and the layer-disturbed (or layer-destructed) and showing over two colors in one sample (<15 ‰). In the multi-colored samples, the bright parts are characterized by the very low oxygen stable isotope ratios, compared to the dark parts, implying the increase in brightness of the carbonate rocks could be induced by the interaction between hydrothermal fluid and rock. However, these can be applied in a small scale such as one sample and are not suitable for interpretation of the generation of high-purity limestone as a deposit scale. In particular, the high oxygen isotope ratios from the recrystallized white limestone suggest that hydrothermal fluids are also rarely involved during recrystallization process. In addition, the occurrences of the high-purity limestone orebody strongly support the high-purity limestone in the area are syngenetic rather than epigenetic; the high-purity limestone layers in the area show continuous and almost horizontal shapes, and is intercalated between dolomite layers. Consequently, the overall reinterpretation based on the sequential stratigraphy over the Taebaeksan basin would play an important role to find additional reserves of the high-purity limestone.