Gilles Morvan

Petrology and geochemistry of the central North Fiji Basin spreading centre (Southwest Pacific) between 16°S and 22°S

Abstract The North Fiji Basin (NFB) is a 12 m.y. old back-arc basin that has a complex multi-stage history. The presently active spreading system can be divided into four segments between 16°S and 22°S, which from north to south trend N160, N15 and N-S (the fourth segment is the N-S trending segment located near 174E). The main N-S segment is morphologically similar to other medium-rate oceanic ridges, whereas the other segments have rougher morphologies which have been severely disturbed by a triple junction at 16°45′S and several instability features such as overlapping spreading centres (OSCs) and propagating rifts. The spreading rate seems to diminish from 7.8 cm/yr near 20°S to 4.6 cm/yr near 18°S. Mineralogical, pertological and geochemical data were obtained on 24 new stations located along all the four segments. The petrogenesis of the basalts collected is essentially controlled by low-pressure crystal fractionation of plagioclase±olivine±clinopyroxene (plagioclase>olivine>clinopyroxene) with 52% of the NFB basalts reaching the four-phase cotectic. Locally, some magma mixing occurs, but this is limited to magma batches of closely related composition, as might be expected to occur inside a magma reservoir. The N-S segment, which, since 3 m.y., is the only steady-state segment, is also petrologically and geochemically very comparable to other medium-rate oceanic spreading centres, producing moderately evolved LILE and LREE-depleted N-MORB. In contrast, the three other segments produce basalts of much more variable petrology and geochemistry characterized by LILE and slightly LREE-enriched magmas cf back-arc basin basalt (BABB) affinity (but not as enriched as, for example, the Mariana BABB); MORB is, however, also found on the N160, N15 and 174E segments. Diagrams using Ba, Rb, K/P and (K/Ti)N (Normalized to the chondrites) plotted against latitude clearly show along-strike variations. Beneath the recently formed segments, the mantle source is heterogeneous, and locally has some BABB affinities, whereas beneath the more steady-state N-S segment the magma source is more homogeneous, being generally depleted in LILE and REE as is the case for classical N-MORB mantle sources. Simple evolution from an early stage of BABB production to MORB described in the Lau basin and proposed for the NFB does not seem to occur. Present-day activity still produces large amounts of BABB along the less-stable and more recently created segments, and MORB was produced in the earlier stages of the development of the NFB.

Hydrothermal alteration of the Soultz-sous-Forêts granite (Hot Fractured Rock geothermal exchanger) into a tosudite and illite assemblage

Abstract: The Soultz-sous-Forets granitic basement represents the reservoir of an experimental Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) geothermal exchanger presently tested in the northern Rhine Graben (France), referring now to the concept of Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS). The injected fluids circulate in the natural fracture network of the granite and through its hydrothermally altered matrix. One of these fractured and altered zones, located about 800 m below the granite-sediment boundary, contains tosudite, which is a rather rare mixed-layer chlorite/smectite that crystallized here ahead of a fibrous illite/quartz/calcite paragenesis. Tosudite occurs mainly in the relics of plagioclase grains that were progressively altered by interacting with Li-bearing hydrothermal fluids percolating in the granite fractures. The age of the hydrothermal alteration activity is inferred from K-Ar dating of varied particle sizes of the associated illite: two distinct hydrothermal episodes of illite crystallization could be set at about 63 and 18-Ma or less, without further detectable precipitation, especially during the rifting of the Rhine Graben. Precipitation of fibrous illite in the pore space of the altered granite is expected to have reduced its permeability, as frequently observed in sandstone reservoirs. Clay crystallization may, therefore, represent a significant drawback for engineering the geothermal programme, as the chemical composition of the injected fluids shall be designed to reduce and even prevent illite precipitation and promote tosudite precipitation, when mixing with the natural fluids still present in the granite.

THERMAL DIAGENESIS OF CLAY MINERALS WITHIN VOLCANOGENIC MATERIAL FROM THE TONGA CONVERGENT MARGIN

Abstract Clay minerals are examined in detail in the sediment from the Tonga Trench margin at Site 841 (Leg 135 ODP). The changes in amount and nature of secondary clays with depth provide an alternative explanation for the intensive alteration of volcanogenic material at convergent margins. A characteristic distribution of clay minerals with depth shows four distinct zones unexplainable by simple burial diagenesis processes. These are named the upper, reactive, lower and rhyolitic zones. The reactive zone is intercalated with numerous sills and is characterized by the dominant iron-rich clays such as saponite, corrensite and chlorite associated with analcime. The occurrence of such iron-rich clays, mostly associated with a large amount of analcime, yields chemical and mineralogical evidence for thermal diagenesis. The required heat for the diagenetic process was transferred from recently intruded basaltic andesite sills. In the vicinity of these intrusions, the iron-rich clay minerals may have formed at temperatures up to 200°C. A zoning with respect to clay and zeolite minerals indicates that the influence of the palaeoheat flow decreased with the distance from the intrusion. The formation of interlayered I/S, illite, kaolinite and aluminous chlorite, which are recognized as major secondary minerals within the rhyolitic complex, was mainly controlled by both early diagenesis at moderately elevated temperatures, and since the Eocene by burial diagenesis at low temperatures. The occurrence of a steam zone in an early stage of the intrusion is restricted to Miocene tuffs and has overprinted the early alteration of the volcanogenic material within the tuffs and has changed the originally pristine composition of the pore fluids.