ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Petrology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1620818
This article is part of the Research TopicStructural Processes, Petrogenesis, Mineralization, and Geochronology in the Earth’s CrustView all 9 articles
Geological Interpretation of Aeromagnetic Data in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River Metallogenic Belt, China: Implications for Iron Oxide-Apatite (IOA) and Skarn Iron Deposit Exploration
Provisionally accepted
- 1China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Natural Resources, Beijing, China
- 2School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Metallogenic Belt (also referred to as the YMB) exhibit widely distributed Mesozoic iron oxide-apatite (IOA) deposits and skarn iron-copper deposits, boasting large quantities of iron ores. The discovery of high-grade iron ores in many of these deposits indicates great potential for mineral exploration. However, iron mineralization in the YMB remains poorly understood due to several key issues involving the types of mineral deposits, factors governing the distribution of different mineral deposit types, and metallogenic prospects of new deposits. Research on these issues is hindered due to the widely distributed alluvium . This study aims to evaluate potential ironcopper metallogenic favorable zones in the middle-lower Yangtze River region by integrating aeromagnetic data, employing reduction-to-pole (RTP), upward continuation, and Curie point isothermal surface calculation methods, and utilizing robust principal component analysis (RPCA) based on the inexact augmented Lagrangian method (IALM).This study analyzed the structures that govern the ironcopper deposits using the latest aeromagnetic and gravity data from the YMB. In addition, this study mapped potential iron deposits in the YMB using a new fast discrimination method based on the IALM-RPCA algorithm. Consequently, potential mineralization information related to the ore-bearing magma system was extracted from three IOA and skarn ore clusters within the YMB, and this magma system proves closely related to the existing iron deposits.
Keywords: Aeromagnetic anomaly, Curie isothermal surface, Yangtze, Iron deposit, RPCA algorithm
Received: 30 Apr 2025; Accepted: 18 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ge, Yang, Fan, He, Gao, Li, Qiu, Fan and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tengfei Ge, 564465031@qq.com
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