Fluid generation, vein formation and the degree of fluid-rock interaction during decompression of high-pressure terranes: the Schistes Lustrés, Alpine Corsica, France

Abstract

Centimetre- to decimetre-wide quartz+calcite veins in schistes lustres from Alpine Corsica were formed during exhumation at 30–40 Ma following blueschist facies metamorphism. The δ18O and δ13C values of the veins overlap those of the host schistes lustres, and the δ18O values of the veins are much higher than those of other rocks on Corsica. These data suggest that the vein-forming fluids were derived from the schistes lustres. Fluids were probably generated by reactions that broke down carpholite, lawsonite, chlorite and white mica at 300–350 °C during decompression between c. 1400 and 800 MPa. However, the δ18O values of the veins are locally several per mil higher than expected given those of their host rocks. The magnitude of oxygen isotope disequilibrium between the veins and the host rock is inversely proportional to the δ18O value of the host rock. Additionally, calcite in some schists is in isotopic equilibrium with calcite in adjacent veins, but not with the silicate fraction of the schists. Locally, the schists are calcite bearing only within 1–20 cm of the veins. The vein-forming fluids may have been preferentially derived from calcite-bearing, high-δ18O rocks that are common within the schistes lustres and that locally contain abundant (>15%) veins. If the fluids were unable to completely isotopically equilibrate with the rocks, due to relatively rapid flow at moderate temperatures or being confined to fractures, they could form veins with higher δ18O values than those of the surrounding rocks. Alteration of the host rocks was probably inhibited by isolation of the fluid in ‘quartz-armoured’ veins. Overall, the veins represent a metre- to hectometre-scale fluid-flow system confined to within the schistes lustres unit, with little input from external sources. This fluid-flow system is one of several that operated in the western Alps during exhumation following high-pressure metamorphism.