Water-Containing Defects in Variously Deformed Milky-White Vein Quartz of the Larino Deposit (South Urals)

Abstract

Abstract —The methods of Infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopy, as well as gas chromatography, were used to assess the distribution, content and composition of water-containing defects in variously deformed milky-white vein quartz of the Larino deposit. Weakly deformed quartz and quartz with intensive polygonization and recrystallization, in which water is present in molecular form, in fractures, channels, intergranular space, as well as in the composition of fluid inclusions, are analyzed. The content of water-containing defects, according to IR spectroscopy and gas chromatography, decreases in a series from weakly deformed primary granular coarse-grained quartz to blocked and recrystallized. The obtained results indicate the release of water during recrystallization, along the newly formed grain boundaries by diffusion and further homogenization to achieve an equilibrium state. Gas content also depends on the degree of deformation changes in samples and decreases from large coarse-grained differences to intensely deformed quartz with a high content of recrystallized grains.