Subduction fore-arcs, sites of intensive fluid redistribution within the crust and upper mantle, are recognized as the principal habitat for orogenic lode gold deposits (Goldfarb et al., 2001). Epigenetic mineralization of this kind poses questions on the character and setting of the source rocks from which mineralizing fluids were derived. The Late Jurassic Early Cretaceous Mother Lode belt in the Sierran foothills of California is a comparatively well-preserved orogenic lode gold system (c. 2700 tonnes Au production from hard-rock and placer mines) where traces of the hosting fore-arc assemblage are still discernable (Bhlke, 1999). Field evidence and fluid inclusion analyses of this and comparable systems suggest that the low-salinity H2OCO2 fluids responsible for mineralization were near-lithostatically overpressured and at temperatures of c. 250-400 C. CITATION: Sibson, R H, 2019. Subduction seismic style, fluid release, and orogenic gold mineralisation in fore-arc settings, in Proceedings PACRIM 2019, pp 4950 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).