Volume 31 Issue 5
Oct.  2025
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HAN R S，ZHANG Y，LUO J，et al.，2025. Plunge law and mechanical mechanisms of fault-controlled ore bodies (clusters) in hydrothermal deposits[J]. Journal of Geomechanics，31（5）：886−897 doi: 10.12090/j.issn.1006-6616.2025121
Citation: HAN R S，ZHANG Y，LUO J，et al.，2025. Plunge law and mechanical mechanisms of fault-controlled ore bodies (clusters) in hydrothermal deposits[J]. Journal of Geomechanics，31（5）：886−897 doi: 10.12090/j.issn.1006-6616.2025121
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Plunge law and mechanical mechanisms of fault-controlled ore bodies (clusters) in hydrothermal deposits

doi: 10.12090/j.issn.1006-6616.2025121
  • 1.

    Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, Yunnan, China

  • 2.

    Southwest Geological Survey, Nonferrous Metals Minerals Geological Survey Center, Kunming 650093, Yunnan, China

  • 3.

    Yunnan Chihong Zn & Ge Co., Ltd., Qujing 655099, Yunnan, China

Funds:  This research is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42172086 and 42472127), the Project of the Yunnan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Mineral Resources Prediction and Assessment (2011), and the Project of the Yunnan Kunming University of Science and Technology Innovation Team (2012).
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  • Author Bio:

    韩润生，昆明理工大学二级教授、博士生导师，享受国务院特殊津贴，入选“新世纪百千万人才工程”国家级人选、教育部新世纪优秀人才、云岭学者等。现任云南省矿产资源预测评价工程研究中心主任、云南省地质过程与矿产资源创新团队首席教授。长期从事成矿动力学与隐伏矿预测、矿床学方向的教学与研究工作。主持国家重点研发计划课题、国家自然科学基金（重点）项目、科技支撑计划课题、国家危机矿山专项及教育部、财政部、省级和校企科技合作项目50余项；以第一或第二作者出版专著5部；在Scientific Report、Ore Geology Reviews、《地学前缘》《地质学报》等中外刊物发表学术论文200余篇；获发明专利授权22件；获省部级特等奖1项（R1）、一等奖6项（4R1、2R2)、二等奖5项（2R1、1R2、2R6），并获得中国产学研合作创新奖及第三届“黄汲清青年地质科学技术奖”等。兼任国际大地构造与成矿委员会委员、中国地球物理学会构造物理化学委员会副主任、中国岩石矿物地球化学学会理事、应用地球化学委员会副主任、矿床地球化学委员会委员、中国有色地质学术委员会副主任等

  • Corresponding author: 张艳，昆明理工大学教授、博士生导师，兼任中国有色金属学会地质专业委员会副秘书长，入选“云南省兴滇英才支持计划”产业创新、青年人才项目，现任云南省矿产资源预测评价工程研究中心副主任。主要从事隐伏矿预测与矿床学的教学与科研工作。主持深地国家重大专项子课题、国家自然科学基金（面上、青年）项目、博士后面上一等资助项目共4项，以及省重大专项课题、产学研合作重点项目等10余项。科研成果获云南省科技进步特等奖1项（R6），其它省部级科技奖励4项、地厅级奖励2项，获国家发明专利授权10项。以第一作者或通信作者发表高水平论文50余篇，作为第二作者出版78万字学术专著1部。曾获全国大学青年教师地质课程教学比赛一等奖、昆明理工大学首届课程思政教学比赛特等奖。
  • Received: 2025-09-02
  • Revised: 2025-10-22
  • Accepted: 2025-10-22
    • Available Online: 2025-10-22
  • Published: 2025-10-28
    Abstract
  •   Objective  Hydrothermal mineral deposits provide a representative example of tectonic–fluid coupled metallogenic systems, and the lateral plunge law of ore bodies or ore body clusters constitutes their three-dimensional expression in geological space, yet the determination of pitching direction and pitching angle has long been one of the most difficult problems in prospecting prediction.  Methods  This study aims to address the major challenges in understanding plunge law and mechanical mechanisms, namely the difficulty of identifying ore body pitching under multiphase tectonic superposition, the lack of clarity in the control mechanisms of ore body cluster pitching, and the insufficiency of empirical studies on deep ore body pitching models. Based on Theory and Methods of Orefield Geomechanics, breakthroughs were achieved in multiphase structural recognition and the identification of control mechanisms, allowing systematic summarization of plunge law associated with compressional–shear, extensional–shear or transtensional, ductile shear zone or brittle shear belt, and composite structural controls, together with detailed analysis of their mechanical mechanisms and the proposal of practical methods for determining pitching.  Results  The results indicate that in hydrothermal deposits, ore body pitching is strictly controlled by the mechanical properties, kinematic behavior, and spatial configuration of the dominant ore-controlling structures during mineralization: the pitching direction of ore bodies or clusters is consistent with the movement of the hanging wall of the controlling fault, while the pitching angle is governed by the fault dip, the proportion of shear components, the undulatory amplitude of fault planes, and the orientation of the regional principal stresses. Ore bodies controlled by transpressional or transtensional faults exhibit more pronounced pitching than those associated with simple compressional–shear or extensional–shear structures; for single ore bodies or vein clusters, pitching direction may coincide with that of the cluster in transpressional or compressional–shear systems, or conversely oppose it in transtensional or extensional–shear systems; where ductile shear zones control mineralization, pitching is parallel to stretching lineations, while brittle shear belts produce pitching that follows extension–compression directions; in composite structural systems, the determination of pitching requires careful analysis of inherited, superimposed, or transformed tectonic elements to establish the effective mode of control. Mechanically, the pitching direction corresponds to the orientation of maximum permeability of metallogenic fluids within the ore-controlling stress field: in compressional–shear or transpressional faults, pitching is constrained by the sense of shear displacement; in transtensional faults, it is determined by the orientation of dominant fluid channels; and in ductile shear zones, it follows the X-axis of the strain ellipsoid.  Conclusion  These findings confirm that the mechanics and kinematics of ore-controlling structures are the primary factors dictating the occurrence of pitching in ore bodies and clusters, but they also highlight that the regularities differ between structural hierarchies, with the behavior of ore body clusters not entirely identical to that of single ore bodies, and that the observed patterns reflect the combined action of the metallogenic stress field, fluid dynamics, and the physical properties of host rocks. On this basis, several methods are recognized as effective for inferring the pitching of concealed ore bodies, including structural analysis of mineralizing faults, tracing zoning trends of mineralization and alteration, projection of ore column centroids, and three-dimensional spatial analysis of exploration engineering data, while the integration of structural geochemical and geophysical anomaly analyses can significantly enhance the reliability of pitching prediction in deep concealed settings, thereby opening new avenues for deep ore prospecting and achieving high efficiency in exploration. [Significance] The significance of this study lies not only in its practical applications—guiding deep and peripheral prospecting, improving mineral resource evaluation in exploration areas, optimizing the deployment of exploration projects, and enabling more accurate estimation of reserves—but also in its theoretical contributions, particularly in advancing the understanding of the metallogenic dynamics of hydrothermal deposits by linking structural mechanics, stress fields, fluid migration, and rock physical properties in a unified framework for explaining ore body pitching.

     

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