The effect of fluid salinity on infiltration-driven contact metamorphism of carbonate rocks

Abstract

Calculated phase equilibria involving minerals and H2O–CO2–NaCl fluid lead to predictions of how infiltration of rock by H2O–NaCl fluids with XNaCl in the range 0–0.3 (0–58 wt% NaCl) drives the reactions calcite + quartz = wollastonite + CO2 and dolomite = periclase + calcite + CO2. Calculations focus on metamorphism in four aureoles that together are representative of the normal P–T conditions and processes of infiltration-driven contact metamorphic reactions. The effect of salinity on the spatial extent of oxygen isotope alteration was also computed. The time-integrated input fluid flux (q°) that displaces the mineral reaction front an increment of distance along the flow path always increases with increasing XNaCl. For input fluids with salinity up to approximately five times that of seawater (XNaCl ≤ 0.05), values of q° required to explain the spatial extent of decarbonation reaction are no more than 1.1–1.5 times that computed assuming the input fluid was pure H2O. For more saline fluids, values of q° may be up to 1.4–7.9 times that for pure H2O. Except for reaction in the presence of halite and vapor (V), infiltration of H2O–NaCl fluids expands the region of oxygen isotope alteration relative to the size of the region of mineral reaction. The expansion is significant only for saline fluids with XNaCl ≥ ~0.1. Immiscible fluid phase separation and differential loss of the liquid (L) or V phase from the mineral reaction site increases the amount of reactive fluid required to advance the mineral reaction front compared to conditions under which equilibration of minerals and fluid is attained with no loss of L or V. Decarbonation reactions driven by infiltration of fluids with even modest seawater-like salinity can explain the occurrence of salt-saturated fluid and solid halide inclusions in contact metamorphosed carbonate rocks.