Stable Isotope Composition of Alteration Fluids in Low-Grade Lower Palaeozoic Rocks, English Lake District

L. J. Thomas, R. S. Harmon and G. J. H. Oliver
Department of Geology, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9ST, UK
Department of Geological Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
Department of Geology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9ST, UK

Abstract: A combination of hydrogen and oxygen isotope analyses and fluid inclusion studies has defined the composition of fluids involved in the metamorphism of Lower Palaeozoic rocks in the English Lake District. Three fluid fields have been defined from secondary phases: 1, syn-burial metamorphic D-enriched fluids from epidote and chlorite at a temperature between 250 and 350°C; D-depleted fluid measured from groundmass and quartz inclusions; 3, a mixed magmatic-meteoric fluid with an intermediate H-isotopic composition estimated from W/R granite data and calculated from illite.

Keywords: metamorphism • stable isotopes • Palaeozoic rocks • Lake District • England

Mineralogical Magazine; June 1985 v. 49; no. 352; p. 425-434; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1985.049.352.13
© 1985, The Mineralogical Society
Mineralogical Society (www.minersoc.org)