Study of Alteration Occurrence Around the South Boein-Zahra Pluton

The study area is a portion of Urmia-Bazman Magmatic Belt in the Central Iran Structural Zone that located in the south of Boein-Zahra city (Qazvin province). In this area, volcanic and pyroclastic rocks incised by a plutonic body and around and within this pluton, a large extensive alteration occurred. In this study, Landsat 7 data (ETM+) employed and general alteration trend in the area was mapped by conventional methods of Color Composite (RGB), Band Rationing and specially Principal Components Analysis (PCA). All of the three methods are found to be effective for obtaining generalized information about the alteration of the image area. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and especially Selective Principal Components Analysis (Crosta technique) found to be the best effective method in delineating the borders of clay and iron oxide altered areas. In the high altered wall rocks, mineralogical analysis results (XRD method) indicated two forms of vertical and horizontal zoning. In this case, in vertical zoning in order from down to up, advanced argillic, alunitic and silicified zones and in horizontal zoning from fault surface toward wallrocks, advanced argillic and propylitic zones were distinguished. The mineralogical composition of zones and form of zoning indicates that this type of alteration is “acid sulfate”. The study of fluid inclusion of quartz crystals in silicic veins, indicated that liquid and vapor phases (LV) are present and study of them resulted in calculation of salinity percentages between 16.8 to 19.2 (NaCl wt%) and homogenization temperatures between 204oC to 280oC.