Genetic relationship of minerals to fluid circulation in the Polish Carpathians – the Bystre Slice case study

Abstract

Fieldwork conducted in the area of the Bystre Slice of the Polish Carpathians has allowed the recognition and mapping of mineral assemblages with respect to a mélange zone. Ore mineralization in the Cretaceous and Paleogene zones of the Bystre Slice, analyzed geochemically, petrographically and mineralogically, includes epigenetic minerals such as realgar, orpiment and cinnabar, here characterized and their parageneses described. Fluid inclusions are distinguished in newly discovered realgar crystals, and microthermometric results allow a mineralogical sequence in the study area to be proposed. The new mineral goyazite, previously not described in the Carpathians, occurs as solid inclusions in the realgar crystals, co-occurring with kaolinite. The mineralization likely relates to a magmatic anomaly present in the NE part of Slovakia in the Western Carpathians south of Dukla in Poland, and a possible sub-surface subvolcanic body that deepens towards the E, the inferred top of which lies at a depth of ~1 km. The mineralization may be connected with dislocations in the rock units.