A stable isotope study of retrograde alteration in SW Connemara,Ireland |
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| Authors: | G R T Jenkin A E Fallick B E Leake |
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| Institution: | (1) Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, G75 OQU Glasgow, Scotland;(2) Department of Geology and Applied Geology, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ Glasgow, Scotland |
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| Abstract: | Dalradian metamorphic rocks, Lower Ordovician meta-igneous rocks (MGS) and Caledonian granites of the Connemara complex in SW Connemara all show intense retrograde alteration. Alteration primarily involves sericitization and saussuritization of plagioclase, the alteration of biotite and hornblende to chlorite and the formation of secondary epidote. The alteration is associated with sealed microcracks in all rocks and planes of secondary fluid inclusions in quartz where it occurs, and was the result of a phase of fluid influx into these rocks. In hand specimen K-feldspar becomes progressively reddened with increasing alteration. Mineralogical alteration in the MGS and Caledonian granites took place at temperatures  275±15°C and in the MGS Pfluid is estimated to be  1.5 kbar during alteration. The °D values of alteration phases are:-18 to-29 (fluid inclusions),-47 to-61 (chlorites) and-11 to-31 (epidotes). Chlorite  18O values are +0.2 to +4.3, while 18O values for quartz-K-feldspar pairs show both positively sloped (MGS) and highly unusual negatively sloped (Caledonian granites) arrays, diverging from the normal magmatic field on a - plot. The stable isotope data show that the fluid that caused retrogression continued to be present in most rocks until temperatures fell to 200–140°C. The retrograde fluid had D -20 to-30 in all lithologies, but the fluid 18O varied both spatially and temporally within the range-4 to +7. The fO2 of the fluid that deposited the epidotes in the MGS varied with its 18O value, with the most 18O-depleted fluid being the most oxidizing. The D values, together with low (<0) 18O values for the retrograde fluid in some lithologies indicate that this fluid was of meteoric origin. This meteoric fluid was probably responsible for the alteration in all lithologies during a single phase of fluid infiltration. The variation in retrograde fluid 18O values is attributed to the effects of variable oxygen isotope shifting of this meteoric fluid by fluid-rock interaction. Infiltration of meteoric fluid into this area was most likely accomplished by convection of pore fluids around the heat anomaly of the Galway granite soon after intrusion at 400 Ma. However convective circulation of meteoric water and mineralogical alteration could possible have occurred considerably later. |
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