Alteration of Triassic carbonates in the Buda Mountains —a hydrothermal model

Abstract

Large, irregular volumes of altered, friable Triassic dolomite with poorly recognizable depositional fabrics crop out in the Buda Mountains, Hungary. These rock volumes are characterized by powder-like, chalky, soft, whitish gray microporous carbonates, referred to as “pulverized dolomite”. This is interpreted as the result of corrosion of carbonates along microfractures. The pulverized dolomite is commonly associated with silica and clay cementation (“silicification”) and “mineralization” of ironrich minerals, barite, sphalerite, galena, fluorite, calcite, dolomite and others, clearly pointing out hydrothermal Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) conditions. The pulverization, silicification and mineralization are considered to be a diagenetic facies association (PSM facies). Tectonic shear corridors played an important role in the development of PSM facies as carriers of hydrothermal fluids, but the geometry of the altered units is very irregular and cross-cuts different Triassic depositional facies in addition to Eocene limestone and Middle-Upper Miocene sediments. The PSM facies represents the early stages of hydrothermal alteration (i.e. the burial phase) that was later modified by thermal mixing zones. Pulverized dolomite bodies that reached the surface were strongly affected by meteoric fluids; peculiar speleo-concretions were formed by calcite cementation of the powdery dolomite clasts. The altered carbonates show major porosity development whereas the unaltered carbonates present only minor porosity. The size and lithologic contrast of the altered geobodies makes them detectable by geophysical methods of mineral and hydrocarbon exploration.