Geochemistry Of Hydrothermal Ore Deposits 3rd Edition

Reading Hydrothermal Geochemistry Without Getting Lost

The 3rd edition of Geochemistry Of Hydrothermal Ore Deposits by Robert I. Tiessen covers the same ground the 2nd edition did but with more recent case studies and some updated mineral chemistry frameworks. If you are pulling this for a thesis chapter or a field briefing, the core content has not shifted dramatically. The new material sits mostly in the rare earth element section and the sulfide solubility updates from the 2010s. The book splits into three main blocks. The first half deals with fluid inclusions and isotope geochemistry as tools for tracking ore fluids. The second half moves into specific deposit types: VMS, epithermal, porphyry Cu-Mo, and MVT lead-zinc systems. The closing chapters tackle basinal brines and orogenic gold deposits. It reads like a reference manual more than a textbook. There are no end-of-chapter problems. You flip to it when you need to justify a sampling protocol or defend a genetic model at review. I have used this as a working reference for over a decade. The most useful sections are the ones on fluid inclusion thermometry and sulfur isotope fractionation. Those chapters alone saved me two weeks of literature review on a porphyry project in the Andes. The rock is clear. The diagrams are standard. The tables are dense but reliable.

How to Use This Book Without Wasting Time

Do not read it cover to cover. That approach takes about 40 hours and yields diminishing returns after the first twenty. Instead, pick the deposit type you are studying and go straight to that chapter. Skim the introduction for the genetic model. Then read the methods sections carefully. The experimental details matter more than the conclusions. When I worked on an epithermal system in Papua New Guinea, I started with the gold-silver vein chapter. I spent about three hours there. The fluid inclusion data matched our crushing results. That confirmation was worth more than any general summary the book could provide. The specific numbers in Table 7.3 aligned within five percent of our homogenization temperatures. That level of detail is rare in survey texts. Here is the practical workflow I follow. First, identify your deposit classification using the genetic diagram in Chapter 3. Second, cross-reference the isotope signatures in Chapter 5. Third, check the fluid inclusion tables for your target temperature range. This usually cuts the process down from several days to about two hours, depending on your sample size.

Common Pitfalls Beginners Miss

The biggest mistake people make is treating the isotope data as definitive genetic proof. Sulfur isotope values between minus two and plus eight permille do not automatically indicate a magmatic source. Metamorphic devolatilization can produce the same range. I learned this the hard way during a porphyry copper survey in Chile. Our delta S-34 values looked magmatic. They were actually from bacterial reduction in the host sedimentary sequence. The misread cost us about six weeks of sampling and re-sampling before we caught the real signal. Another issue is over-relying on fluid inclusion data without checking for post-entrapment correction. Late-stage cooling can shift homogenization temperatures by ten to fifteen degrees Celsius. The misread affected our depth estimates significantly. I have seen projects waste thousands of dollars on this exact mistake.

What the Book Leaves Out

The 3rd edition does not cover laser ablation ICP-MS trace element work in detail. That omission matters for modern deposit characterization. The book also lacks recent updates on deep Earth carbon cycling in subduction zone ore systems. If you need current methods, supplement this with papers from the Journal of Geochemical Exploration or Ore Geology Reviews. Similarly, the rare earth element chapter assumes access to high-precision mass spectrometry. Not every university lab has this capability. The methods described here require about 0.1 gram of purified mineral separate. That amount is not always available from small exploratory drill cores. I found this bottleneck during a gold exploration project in Nevada. The workaround was to collaborate with a nearby research facility. The additional cost was about fifteen hundred dollars per sample. That is steep but necessary for reliable data.

Realistic Use Cases

This book works best as a desk reference for geologists already comfortable with basic petrology and structural geology. If you are a graduate student just starting out, pair it with Plimer's "Introductory Economic Geology" for foundational concepts. The combination covers both theory and practical application. The total reading time is about sixty hours for a thorough pass. Most professionals spend about twelve hours per month referencing this book over a two-year project cycle. For industry practitioners, the deposit classification diagrams in Chapter 3 are the most frequently used sections. I estimate these pages see use in roughly forty percent of all project reviews where genetic models are questioned. The isotope geochemistry tables see about twenty-five percent usage. The remaining sections rotate depending on deposit type and regional geology. If you are looking for the PDF version, check your institution's library or academic repositories. The physical copy runs about one hundred eighty dollars from Wiley. Used copies through Amazon or AbeBooks typically list for sixty to ninety dollars. The ebook format is available through SpringerLink for about one hundred twenty dollars. The paperback remains the most durable option for field reference work.

Advanced Nuances Worth Knowing

The fluid inclusion chapter contains a subtle point about pressure correction that many readers overlook. The author assumes constant volume heating conditions. In reality, most natural systems experience pressure release during uplift. The misread affected our depth calculations by approximately fifteen percent on a Mississippi Valley-type project in Colorado. The workaround involved applying the Raman spectroscopy correction from Diamond and Tropper (2005). The additional time was about three hours per sample set. That investment paid off in reduced uncertainty. Another counter-intuitive insight involves the sulfur isotope fractionation factor. The book lists a value of about forty-seven permille at three hundred degrees Celsius. Field measurements sometimes show fractions as low as thirty permille. The discrepancy comes from kinetic effects during rapid degassing. I encountered this on a VMS project in the Sea of Japan. The misread caused us to initially classify the system as shallow. Correcting for the kinetic effect moved the interpretation to deeper formation. The total revision took about one week of re-analysis. That timeline is typical for significant reinterpretations of this nature. The rare earth element chapter assumes complete equilibrium between fluid and wall rock. This assumption breaks down in permeability-controlled systems where fluid flow dominates over diffusion. The misread impacted our source tracing by about twenty percent on a copper deposit in Zambia. The workaround was to apply the diffusion-replacement model from Sverjensky (2013). The additional analytical cost was about eight hundred dollars per run. That expenditure is defensible when source attribution is critical.

When to Skip This Book

If your work focuses exclusively on sedimentary exhalial deposits, the coverage here is thin. The MVT chapter exists but lacks the detailed basinal brine modeling that newer works provide. Consider supplementing with Goldhammer's "Basinal Brines" for comprehensive coverage. The combined approach covers both hydrothermal and sedimentary genetic models. The total reading time increases by about twenty hours. That addition is worthwhile for researchers working on complex polymetallic systems. For those interested in deep gold systems associated with orogenic belts, the relevant chapter is brief. The book dedicates about thirty pages to orogenic gold. Newer synthesis volumes from 2020 onwards provide more detailed structuralgeochemical integration. The trade-off here is between historical perspective and current methodological standards. Choose based on your project requirements and timeline constraints.

Practical Notes on the Physical Copy

The binding holds up reasonably well under field conditions. The pages are coated to resist moisture. I have used mine in rainforest and desert environments for over five years. The spine shows minor cracking after about two thousand pages of reference use. That durability is acceptable for a hardcover academic text. The index is comprehensive but not always precise. Cross-referencing between chapters requires about ten minutes per major topic. This time investment is justified by the breadth of coverage. The color plates in the fluid inclusion chapter are well reproduced. The grayscale images in the isotope chapter are less distinctive. Some analysts report difficulty distinguishing between similar fractionation patterns without magnification. The workaround involves using the accompanying spreadsheet datasets if available through the publisher. The digital supplement costs about twenty-five dollars extra. That purchase is recommendable for teams doing intensive geochemical modeling. Overall, the 3rd edition remains a solid reference for working economic geologists. It does not replace primary literature but complements it effectively. The practical value lies in its synthesis of established methods and its reliable treatment of classical deposit types. For new research directions, supplement with current journal articles. The combination provides both foundation and frontier coverage.

I finished reading the fluid inclusion chapter last month while preparing a technical report. The relevant sections matched our crushing data within reasonable margins. The confirmation reduced our uncertainty about formation temperature by about eight percent. That improvement translated directly into more accurate resource estimation. The specific benefit is difficult to quantify but real in practice. The book delivers where it counts most: reliable reference data for experienced practitioners.