Genesis of the plutonic-hydrothermal system around quaternary granite in the kakkonda geothermal system, Japan

Abstract

The Kakkonda plutonic-hydrothermal system has as its heat source the Quaternary Kakkonda granite. The Kakkonda granite has a thick (∼1.3 km) contact-metamorphic zone, known mainly from the geothermal survey well WD-1a (total depth: 3729 m) drilled by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The Kakkonda granite is a stock several tens of square kilometers in area with an upper contact about 1.5–3 km deep. It is a composite pluton varying from tonalite to granite. The early-stage granitic rocks are slightly metamorphosed to biotite grade by late-stage granitic rocks. K-Ar ages of separated minerals from the granitic rocks in both stages show the same cooling ages of 0.24–0.11 Ma for hornblende, 0.21–0.02 Ma for biotite, and 0.14–0.01 Ma for potassium feldspar. These are the youngest ages for granite in the world. The K-Ar ages become almost zero at ∼580°C for biotite and potassium feldspar, and at ∼350°C for illite. The Kakkonda granite intruded into a regional stress field in which the minimum principal stress was ENE–WSW and nearly horizontal. The regional stress field coincides with that of a previously recognized F2 fracture system before ∼0.4–0.3 Ma. Both stages of the Kakkonda granite and the contact aureole are fractured by recent tectonism, resulting in a zone of hydrothermal convection from about 2.5–3.1 km depth up to the surface. The boundary between the zone of hydrothermal convection and the underlying zone of heat conduction occurs ∼250–550 m below the upper contact of the Kakkonda granite, and has a temperature of ∼380–400°C.