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Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Abstract

The Karaburun deposit, hosted in greenschist facies metamorphic rocks, is a newly discovered giant volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit in Anatolia and provides an exceptional natural laboratory for geophysical monitoring. The main ore body is less affected by metamorphism than the surrounding wall-rocks, where metamorphic and metasomatic processes formed pyritemagnetite- sericite-quartz assemblages that significantly influence geoelectrical properties. In this study, the geometry and extent of mineralization within geologically defined target zones were investigated using direct current resistivity and two-dimensional timedomain induced polarization (2D-TDIP) methods and the results were compared with the geology. A pole–dipole electrode array was employed in the Karaburun area, where a total of 55.5 km2 of 2D-TDIP measurements were conducted along W–E-oriented lines. Zones characterized by high chargeability (>45 mV V–1) and low to moderate resistivity (45–160 Ω·m) values were identified. The cause-andeffect relationships of these anomalies were evaluated by comparing them with the mineralization and drill core data, and the resistivity–IP responses associated with ore characteristics were classified accordingly. The Karaburun mineralization and its wall-rocks exhibit a heterogeneous structure, requiring careful interpretation of quantitative geophysical data, particularly in metamorphic terrains. The geoelectrical characteristics of the deposit differ from conventional expectations. In the metamorphosed pelitic-mafic-type Karaburun mineralization, high chargeability anomalies are primarily associated with phyllite and gossan effects rather than massive sulfide mineralization. Moreover, the presence of low resistivity anomalies within these zones tends to mask the true ore-bearing levels. Black shale precursor phyllites, together with oxidation zones and gossan formations, characteristically display relatively high chargeability coupled with low resistivity responses, whereas the main ore zones do not consistently exhibit high chargeability anomalies. Therefore, the typical high-chargeability/low-resistivity signature expected for VMS deposits does not fully apply to the Karaburun VMS; instead, generally low-resistivity anomalies better delineate this mineralization.

Author ORCID Identifier

KURTULUŞ GÜNAY: 0000-0002-3358-1185

TÜRKER YAS: 0000-0001-6656-5731

BUĞRA ÇAVDAR: 0000-0002-3384-1215

ERTAN PEKŞEN: 0000-0002-3515-1509

DOI

10.55730/1300-0985.2018

Keywords

Karaburun, massive sulfide, metamorphism, geoelectrical signature, time-domain induced polarization

First Page

250

Last Page

281

Publisher

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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