Distribution of fluid inclusions in igneous quartz of the Capitan pluton, New Mexico, USA

Abstract

Fluid inclusions in granites have been used extensively in studies of magmatic-hydrothermal processes, but few studies have documented the distribution of secondary fluid inclusions within the nonmineralized main body of an intrusion. Previous work on fluid inclusions in Th-U-REE quartz/ fluorite vein deposits in the Capitan pluton suggests that these veins resulted from high-temperature, high-salinity, magmatic fluids in fractured and brecciated zones in the cooled outer carapace of the pluton. Petrographic examination of phenocryst quartz in forty-four thin sections of granite from the Capitan pluton reveals that these same fluids are found in secondary fluid inclusions. Fluid inclusions with daughter minerals commonly occur in the outer granophyre and aplite zones, but are usually absent in the porphyritic core. Microthermometric data and calculated salinities from fifty-eight fluid inclusions in phenocryst quartz and thirty-one fluid inclusions in miarolitic quartz (both samples taken from the granophyre zone) also correlate fairly well with the data from the Th-U-REE quartz/fluorite vein deposits, and similar types of fluid inclusions are found in all three occurrences of quartz. A major difference, however, is that vapor-rich inclusions, abundant as secondary inclusions in igneous phenocryst quartz, are extremely scarce in the vein quartz. Liquid-vapor homogenization temperatures of high-salinity inclusions in phenocryst quartz range from 204–509°C with an average of 384°C. Halite dissolution temperatures of high salinity inclusions range from 442–583°C with an average of 525°C. Total homogenization temperatures are not as well documented due to decrepitation of many of the high salinity inclusions before total homogenization. Samples of miarolitic quartz appear to contain more low-salinity fluid inclusions than the phenocryst quartz, but high-salinity inclusions are present as well. These observations suggest that the magmatic-hydrothermal fluids responsible for vein mineralization were not only concentrated in the vein systems, but were also widely dispersed within the outer portions of the pluton. Furthermore, the greater abundance of fluid inclusions in the outer textural zones of the pluton suggests that the interior of the pluton had not yet fully crystallized when these fluids exsolved from the magma.