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Metaevaporites PDF
Metaevaporites PDF
Abstract. Literature on metasedimentary rocks indicates that evaporitic basins, and between' Kupferschiefer'-type copper con-
former evaporites have been assumed where brines are present centrations and sequences grading to evaporites. This is a wide
as fluid inclusions or minerals such as scapolite, tourmaline and and difficult field of investigation in which much work is still
lazurite, which are considered as evidence of equilibria with to be done.
brines. Very few works take into account the chemical composi- Evaporites, i.e. mainly halite and anhydrite/gypsum, are rare-
tion of rocks, because chemical data on evaporite-bearing sedi- ly observed in metamorphic series. Halokinetic processes, as
mentary series are scarce. well as the drastic rise in NaC1 solubility in water with increased
This paper is a contribution to a geochemical approach: temperature, can easily account for the disappearance of halite
172 analyses of major and trace elements are given on argillites, as soon as metamorphism occurs, i.e. at 200 ~ 300~ C. Thick
dolomitic marls and mixed sulphate rocks from some large eva- anhydrite beds are often observed in epizonal areas (examples
poritic series, mainly from the Triassic of France, the Devonian quoted in Jarousse 1978) whereas such rocks are only described
of the Canning Basin and the Proterozoic of the Amadeus Basin in very restricted areas and generally as small occurrences in
in Australia. Compared with rocks from common platform se- deeper metamorphic zones (Brown and Engel 1956 ; Noizet 1969 ;
ries, these samples clearly exhibit specific chemical features: high Nash 1972; Serdyuchenko 1975; Kulke 1976a; Leake etal.
Mg contents, high Mg/Ca ratios except for Ca-sulphate-rich 1979). The scarcity of anhydrite is not clearly explained. Its
rocks and relatively low iron contents caused by the widespread density is very close to that of carbonates, and its solubility
occurrence of Mg-rich clay minerals. Though sulphate-bearing in water decreases when the temperature increases. Blount and
rocks often show low Mg/Ca ratios, their chemical composition Dickson (l 969) studied the anhydrite solubility in H20 + NaC1,
clearly indicates Mg-rich clay fractions. K content is high while temperatures ranging from 100~176 C and pressures from 1
Na is low, except in a few halite-bearing rocks. Argillites are to 1,000 bars. Accepting some extrapolation, one could expect
characterized by high Li and F contents, and high Li/Mg and a decrease in solubility of anhydrite in 2 3 tool NaC1 solutions
B/A1 ratios, while major amounts of Sr are recorded in sulphate- under a 50~ C kin- 1 thermal gradient during diagenesis and in
bearing rocks. very low-grade metamorphism, and thereafter an increasing solu-
Application to metamorphic series is discussed with some bility, such that anhydrite would be approximately as soluble
illustrative examples. Though chemical changes during metamor- at low-medium grade transition (Winkler 1974) as it is in surface
phism are probably frequent in series of evaporitic origin, some conditions. These results may contribute to explain the stability
relations between A1, Fe, Mg, Ca are often maintained. Under of anhydrite in low-grade conditions; they can, however, hardly
nearly isochemical conditions, the resulting metasediments exhib- provide us with a guide to understanding its scarcity in deeper
it abundant phlogopite through a large part of the metamorphic metamorphic zones where anhydrite solubility is still very low
column, owing to high Mg, K and F contents. Such rocks are, and porosity of the rocks is strongly reduced. The main controls
for instance, well developed in the Zambian Copperbelt, Central ofanhydrite stability are likely to befco2,fo2 andfs2 in equilibria
Africa. Although further investigations are needed both on non- involving carbonates or silicates. Observations showing large
metamorphic and metamorphic evaporite sequences, the effi- replacements of sulphates by carbonates (dolomite or calcite)
ciency of this approach for identifying an evaporitic origin is are described by Speed and Clayton (1975), Walker et al. (1977)
well established. and Mc Clay and Carlie (1978) in rocks having undergone a
very low-grade metamorphism. Thermochemical calculations
support this possibility and indicate that reactions between anhy-
drite, quartz and sheet silicates may occur over a wide range
of P, T conditions for normal values offco2, fo2 and fs2. Thus,
Introduction reactions in mixed sulphate rocks can be expected to be similar
Recognizing an initial evaporitic character in metamorphosed to those in mixed carbonate rocks. However, they have not
series is interesting from different points of view. Accurate paleo- yet been studied because of the complexity of the involved pa-
geographic and geotectonic reconstructions are involved, as well rameters.
as metallogenetic considerations. Relationships do exist between Accordingly, the search for an evaporitic origin in metamor-
some P b - Z n - B a - F strata-bound ore deposits and borders of phic series is mainly based on indirect approaches. Previous
studies emphasized the occurrence of Na-, C1-, SO4-, F-, B-
Reprint requests to." B. Moine bearing minerals such as scapolites (Hietanen 1967; Serdyuchen-
0010-7999/81/0076/0401/$02.40
402
1976a; Hogarth and Griffin 1978) as indicators of aqueous solu- SPR.1 LV.1
)CKS
Sediments
SANDSTONE
Investigated Material ARGILITE *
CARBONATE
The study mainly deals with the Triassic from France and the Devonian
from the Canning Basin in Australia; a few samples from the Upper MARL
the Aquitaine Basin. The investigated boreholes were selected in various SULPHATE
depositional areas of both basins. In the Paris Basin, the Triassic
HAL{TE
deposits are relatively thin, no more than a few hundreds metres.
They belong to the 'German-type', at the bottom the Buntsandstein BASIC SILL
mainly made up of sandstones, then the Muschelkalk formation, in- AYS
cluding dolomites, shales and anhydrite and finally a more marked ILLITE
evaporitic character spreading out in the uppermost Keuper formation
with prevailing argillaceous rocks, including gypsum/anhydrite and ILLITE - SMECTITE
halite developments (CL 1 borehole, Fig. 1). In the Aquitaine Basin, I CHLORITE
the Triassic succession is roughly the same, though the sediments
are much thicker than in the Paris Basin, i.e. around 2,000 m, Keuper CORI~ENSITE
alone reaching as much as 1,000 m. This feature, as well as the occur- KAOLINITE
rence of basic volcanic sheets and lenses ('ophites'), is related to the
CORE SAMPLES
proximity of a mobile belt. The paleogeographic reconstruction (Ste- CUTTINGS SAMPLES
vaux and Winnock 1974) shows variations from the centre of the
depositional areas containing widespread evaporites (e.g. borehole SPR Fig. 1. Some examples of the investigated boreholes (see text for loca-
1, Fig. 1), toward the margins (and buried ridges) where terrigenous tion) showing lithology, composition of the clay fraction and situation
deposits are largely dominant with abundant carbonate rocks (e.g. of the studied samples
borehole LV 1). Similar paleogeographic variation occurs also in the
Paris Basin.
In the Canning Basin, only one borehole has been studied, in cussed on rocks having high clay contents, since the clay minerals
which a thick (about 2,500 m) sequence, attributed to the Devonian, bear highly abundant chemical information expected to have been
includes, from the bottom to the top, carbonates and halite, calcitic preserved during metamorphism.
and dolomitic shales, and sandstones topped by dolomite and anhy- Study of the mineral composition by X-ray diffractometry led
drite. Analyses were performed on the shaly member of this series to the selection of a further set of 172 out of the original 300 samples,
(Fig. 1). on which the following analyses were done:
From the available core (and sometimes cuttings) samples, a prima- The following analyses were done:
ry macroscopic study allowed us to select 300 samples representing 1. Quantitative determintion of SiO2, A1203, total iron as F%O3,
various ]ithotogic intervals. Nevertheless, this selection has been fo- MgO, CaO, MnO, Na20, K20, TiO2, ignition loss and some trace