Fluid Inclusions and Rare Earth Elements (REE) analysis in calcite veins: Tectonic - diagenesis interaction in the Rosablanca formation, Mesa de los Santos sector, eastern cordillera, Colombia

Abstract

Studies conducted by means of petrography, cathodoluminescence, SEM, fluid inclusion and REE geochemistry in core samples from the Rosablanca Formation in the Mesa de Los Santos sector, identified two types of material: the host rock classified as Packstones and Grainstones, and veins that texturally expose three types of filling (blocky texture, blocky elongate texture, fibrous texture). Diagenesis is characterized by dissolution, carbonate cement precipitation, compaction, fracturing and fluid circulation through fractures during at least three episodes; these diagenetic processes were contemporaneous with the distensive and compressive tectonic regimes regionally dominant during the Cretaceous, Paleogene and Neogene in the study area. The fluids that generated the different types of texture inside the veins were brines that belonged to the H2O – NaCl – CaCl2 system, with salinities between 0.03 – 12.96 % wt eq NaCl, derived from the Rosablanca Formation that was deposited under oxic conditions, retaining their marine character and implying an autochthonousorigin for the REE present in the veins. The conditions of entrapment for fluid inclusions during the early event were heterogeneous, arising from an immiscible mixture of brines andhydrocarbons, while in the second, they were homogeneous with later post-entrapment processes.later post-entrapment processes.