SGA Lecture – Gold mobility in subduction zones, the slab perspective

SGA STUDENT CHAPTER ERLANGEN
- Lecture Series - Mineral Deposits -

The SGA Student Chapter Erlangen is delighted to welcome

Dr. Clifford Patten
(Innsbruck University),

who will present a lecture entitled:

“Gold mobility in subduction zones, the slab perspective”

on Monday, June 29th 2026 at 17:00
Room: Übungsraum Geologie (01.124) - GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Schlossgarten 5, Erlangen.

As always, we provide a Zoom Link for those who cannot join the talk in person: https://fau.zoom-x.de/j/65789332377.

Abstract:
Arc environments are locally gold-endowed and it has been long hypothesized that gold mobilization during slab dehydration could affect mantle composition and arc Au-fertility. Here, we determine gold mobility during prograde high pressure-low temperature metamorphism of both metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks from the islands of Santorini, Ios, Naxos and Syros (Greece). These rocks experienced peak greenschist to upper-blueschist/eclogite facies metamorphism, allowing determination of large-scale gold mobility within a subduction zone. Our data shows that gold is significantly mobilized by fluids at the blueschist-eclogite facies transition. In the associated mélange zones at the slab-mantle interface gold shows heterogeneous concentration but is not enriched, implying only partial retention of gold in the mélange and its mobilization across the slab-mantle interface. Furthermore, the intrinsically complex lithologies and heterogenous gold concentrations of these mélange zones contribute to the slab component inherent to arc magmatism, and can affect magmatism gold-fertility.

Bio:
Dr. Clifford Patten completed his M.Sc. at the University du Québec á Chicoutimi of the topic of sulfide droplets in MORB glass and chalcophile element partition coefficients. After that he finished his PhD at Stockholm University on the mobility of Au and associated element during the hydrothermal alteration of the oceanic crust. Dr. Clifford Patten worked as a post-doc at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He is an ore geologist with focus on large-scale metal mobility in diverse tectonic environments such as the oceanic crust, subduction zone, passive margin and orogeny. An important part of his research is to investigate the metal source zones of ore deposits. Currently he works as an assistant professor at Innsbruck University.