Salinity of oceanic hydrothermal fluids: a fluid inclusion study

Abstract

An extensive microthermometric study of quartz, epidote, plagioclase, anhydrite and sphalerite-hosted fluid inclusions from ophiolitic [Semail (Oman) and Trinity (California) ophiolites] and oceanic (East Pacific Rise hydrothermal vents, Gorringe Bank, ODP Leg 111 Hole 504B) crust has been carried out in order to constrain a model accounting for wide salinity variations measured in the oceanic hydrothermal fluids. Recorded salinities in fluid inclusions vary between 0.3 and 52 wt% NaCl eq. However, more than 60% of the mean (± standard deviation) salinities of the samples are within the range 3.2 ± 0.3wt% NaCl eq (= microthermometric error) and the mean salinity of all fluid inclusions (without the brines) is 4.0 wt% NaCl eq with a standard deviation of 1.6 wt% NaCl eq. Whereas most samples display slightly higher salinities than seawater, several samples exhibit very high salinities (more than two times that of seawater). These high salinities are restricted to the plagiogranites (Semail and Trinity ophiolites) which mark the top of the fossil magma chamber, in the transition zone between the plutonic sequence and the sheeted dyke complex. The fluid inclusion population studied in the plagiogranites is characterized by the occurrence of four major fluid inclusion families: (1) low- to medium-salinity Liquid/Vapor fluid inclusions which homogenize into the liquid phase; (2) low-salinity Liquid/Vapor fluid inclusions with pseudocritical homogenization; (3) low- to medium-salinity Liquid/Vapor fluid inclusions which homogenize into the vapor phase; and (4) high-salinity Liquid/Vapor/Halite fluid inclusions which homogenize into the liquid phase by halite dissolution and exhibit salinities as high as 52 wt% NaCl eq. These fluid inclusion families are interpreted as resulting from phase separation occurring in hydrothermal or magmatic fluids within the transition zone between the hydrothermal system and the magma chamber at temperatures higher than 500°C. Very low salinities (less than half that of seawater) have been found only in one dioritic sample from the Gorringe Bank. Mineralogical and petrological data from the Semail Ophiolite shows the absence of Cl-rich minerals. Furthermore, hydration of the crust, although very important, cannot account for the large salinity variations. Thus the large salinity variations measured are interpreted as resulting from phase separation and generation of brine-rich fluids at the top of the magma chamber. This phase separation and subsequent phase segregation and brine accumulation may result in a double-diffusive convection of the fluids in the hydrothermal system.