Contrasting Carbon and Oxygen Isotopic Evolution in Metacarbonates from the Kerala Khondalite Belt, Southern India

Abstract

The Kerala Khondalite belt is a Proterozoic metasupracrustal granulite facies terrain in southern India comprising garnet-biotite gneiss, garnet-sillimanite gneiss and orthopyroxene granulites as major rock types. Calc-silicate rocks and marbles, occurring as minor lithologies in the Kerala Khondalite Belt, show different mineral assemblages and reaction histories of which indicate a metamorphic P-T-fluid history dominated by internal fluid buffering during the peak metamorphism, followed by external fluid influx during decompression. The carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of calcite from three representative metacarbonate localities show contrasting evolutionary trends. The Ambasamudram marbles exhibit carbon and oxygen isotope ratios (δ 13C ∼ 0‰ and δ 18O ∼ 20‰) typical of middle to late Proterozoic marine carbonate sediments with minor variation ascribed to the isotopic exchange due to the devolatilization reactions. The δ 13C and δ 18O values of ∼ −9‰ and 11‰, respectively, for calcite from calc-silicate rocks at Nuliyam are considerably low and heterogeneous. The wollastonite formation here, possibly corresponds to an earlier event of fluid infiltration during prograde to peak metamorphism, which resulted in decarbonation and isotope resetting. Further, petrologic evidence supports a model of late carbonic fluid infiltration that has partially affected the calc-silicate rocks, with subsequent isotope resetting, more towards the contact between calc-silicate rock and charnockite. At Korani, only oxygen isotopes have been significantly lowered (δ 18O ∼ 13‰) and the process involved might be a combination of metamorphic devolatilization accompanied by an aqueous fluid influx, supported by petrologic evidence. The stable isotope signatures obtained from the individual localities, thus indicate heterogeneous patterns of fluid evolution history within the same crustal segment.