Br/Cl ratios and O, H, C, and B isotopic constraints on the origin of saline waters from eastern Canada |
| |
| Authors: | MI Leybourne WD Goodfellow |
| |
| Institution: | a GNS Science, P.O. Box 30-368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
b Mineral Resources Division, Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ont., Canada K1A 0E8 |
| |
| Abstract: | Saline groundwaters were recovered from undisturbed (Restigouche deposit) and active (Brunswick #12 mine) Zn-Pb volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in the Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC), northern New Brunswick, Canada. These groundwaters, along with fresh to brackish meteoric ground and surface waters from the BMC, have been analyzed to determine their major, trace element and stable isotopic (O, H, C, and B) compositions. Saline groundwaters (total dissolved solids = 22-45 g/L) are characterized by relatively high Na/Ca ratios compared to brines from the Canadian Shield and low Na/Clmolar and δ11B isotopic compositions (−2.5‰ to 11.1‰) compared to seawater. Although saline waters from the Canadian Shield commonly have oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions that plot to the left of the global meteoric water line, those from the BMC fall close to the water line. Fracture and vein carbonate minerals at the Restigouche deposit have restricted carbon isotopic compositions of around −5‰ to −6‰. The carbon isotopic compositions of the saline waters at the Restigouche deposit (+12‰ δ13CDIC) are the result of fractionation of dissolved inorganic carbon by methanogenesis. We suggest that, unlike previous models for shield brines, the composition of saline waters in the BMC is best explained by prolonged water-rock reaction, with no requirement of precursor seawater. We suggest that elevated Br/Cl ratios of saline waters compared to seawater may be explained by differential uptake of Br and Cl during groundwater evolution through water-rock reaction. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
