Petrographic Variation of the Topopah Spring Tuff Matrix within and Between Cored Drill Holes, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

摘要

Our study extends the petrographic zonation of the devitrified rhyolitic tuff matrix of the Topopah Spring Member of the Paintbrush Tuff observed in USW G-4 to four other cored holes in the Yucca Mountain area of the Nevada Test Site: UE-25a No. 1, USW G-1, USW G-2, and USW GU-3. The four petrographic zones occur above the basal vitrophyre and in ascending order are the lower nonlithophysal (ln); the lower lithophysal (ll); the middle nonlithophysal (mn); and the upper lithophysal (ul). Drill hole USW G-2, about two miles north of the Yucca Mountain Exploratory Block, differs significantly from the other four cored holes within or near the block; it has essentially one thick microlitic zone, largely lithophysal, above the vitrophyre. Textural attributes (from coarsest to finest) are phenocrysts, lithics, granophyre, amygdules, spherulites, and cryptocrystalline groundmass. Among individual phenocrysts, only quartz shows significant decrease upward. The four petrographic zones agree fairly well with those defined by contacts placed by USGS geologists and, with minor reservations, can be correlated between the four cored holes in the vicinity of the exploration block. The ln zone is characterized by dense welding, upwardly decreasing cryptocrystallinity, common lithics, and quartz phenocrysts. The ll zone is largely spherulitic with 1 to 13% granophyre generally increasing upward and shard texture becoming less distinct upward. The mn zone is similar to the ln zone except for the moderate welding and fewer quartz and lithic fragments present in the mn zone. The ul and ll zones are similar in microscopic texture, but the ul has more amygdules with tridymite rather than cristobalite and can generally be recognized by its ''Swiss cheese'' appearance in core or hand specimens. A series of discriminatory statistical analyses were made with the thin section modal data to test variation in textural type and quartz phenocrysts.