Alkaline Rocks and Carbonatites of the World

Setup during HiTech AlkCarb: an online database of alkaline rock and carbonatite occurrences

Cerro Aguachile

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Occurrence number: 
108-00-002
Country: 
Mexico
Region: 
Coahuila
Location: 
Longitude: -102.58, Latitude: 29.25
Carbonatite: 
No

This is the most easterly of four sodic intrusive complexes (Nos 2-5) aligned east-west and extending over 70 km (Daugherty, 1966). They lie only a short distance south of La Cueva (No. 1) and east of the Terlingua-Big Bend area of Texas (U.S. No. 105). Each intrusion apparently has a core surrounded by one or more rings, and three of the intrusions display magmatic doming, cauldron subsidence and ring dyke formation. Aegirine, nepheline and analcime-bearing syenites are prominent in four of the intrusions. Levinson (1962, p. 68) describes the central plug at Aguachile as consisting of a quartz microsyenite containing riebeckite and McAnulty et al. (1963) refer to the presence of dykes and irregular intrusions of teschenite.

Economic: 
A ring dyke of rhyolite porphyry at Aguachile occupies a fault zone and adjacent brecciated limestones are the site of significant Be-rich fluorite deposits (McAnulty et al., 1963, p. 738).
References: 

DAUGHERTY, F.W. 1966. Aligned intrusive complexes in northern Coahuila, Mexico. (abstract). Special Paper, Geological Society of America, 87: 41-2.
Daugherty, F.W., personal communication, 1984.
LEVINSON, A.A. 1962. Beryllium-fluorine mineralization at Aguachile Mountain, Coahuila, Mexico. American Mineralogist, 47: 67-74.
MCANULTY, W.N., SEWELL, C.R., ATKINSON, D.R. and RASBERRY, J.M. 1963. Aguachile beryllium-bearing fluorspar district, Coahuila, Mexico. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 74: 735-44

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