Approaches to Dating and Duration of Fluid Flow and Fluid-Rock Interaction
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Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 27, 2021 Introduction: Approaches to dating and duration of fluid flow and fluid-rock interaction JOHN PARNELL School of Geosciences, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 INN, UK A wide diversity of techniques is now available to homogenization temperatures can be extrapo- help constrain the timing and duration of fluid lated to the time of fluid emplacement. The flow events and fluid-rock interactions in sedi- more complex basin modelling can be used to mentary basins. Dating methods in rocks tradi- predict the timing of expulsion and migration tionally focus on the use of minerals that of fluids from compacting rock units. Basin mod- contain radiogenic isotopes (U-Pb, Pb-Pb, elling is beyond the intended scope of this K-Ar, Rb-Sr in particular). I do not intend to volume, and readers are referred to Illiffe & Dup- dwell on this approach as it is covered adequately penbeker (1998) for further details. elsewhere (e.g. Faure 1986), but it is worthwhile emphasizing that certain phases that are com- monly precipitated during diagenesis in sedimen- tary basins are suitable for such techniques (see Isotopic dating of authigenic phases in below). The range of techniques summarized sedimentary basins below were mostly presented in a Queen's Uni- versity Geofluids Group International Seminar A good review of progress in isotopic dating on Dating of Fluid Flow, incorporated within techniques applied to the dating of fluid flow the Geofluids II conference held at Belfast in events is given by Halliday et al. (1991). In sedi- March 1997. mentary basins, two common authigenic mineral There is a limited range of parameters within phases contain large components of potassium rocks or minerals which change with time, and that allow K-Ar or Ar-Ar dating of their preci- which can therefore be used to deduce an age pitation: illite (Hamilton et al. 1989) and potas- of formation for epigenetic mineral phases. The sium feldspar (Girard et al. 1988). Zwingmann processes of radioactive decay yield predictable et al. report K-Ar ages for illite in Permian sand- quantities of daughter products (radiometric stones in northwest Germany that vary, spatially, dating) and particles whose pathways can be from margin to centre of a small basin. The data observed and whose annealling behaviour is pre- are interpreted to represent the timing of an illi- dictable (fission track analysis). In addition we tization front that is a consequence of fluid can measure the effects of movement over the migration, and the variations in age allow calcu- Earth's surface relative to her magnetic field lation of the rate at which this fluid front moved along a well-known polar-wander curve (palaeo- through the basin. The precipitation of illite in magnetism). In some cases we can measure a sandstones has been related to either porewater record of contemporary seawater chemistry geochemistry (Liewig et al. 1987) or to high that can be related to a well established database rates of fluid flow (Hamilton et al. 1992). of changing stable isotope composition. Further- Recent evidence from the North Sea led Darby more, in young rocks we can measure the conse- et al. (1997) to infer that the illite represents quences of other physico-chemical reactions that changes in hydrogeological history, which in are kinetically controlled (electron spin reso- some cases increased solute transport rates (i.e. nance). Less direct approaches are also possible. supply of K) and in others decreased the We can predict the thermal history of rocks to water-rock ratio when overpressuring inhibited varying degrees of sophistication, from simple pore fluid flow rates. Spiitl et aL obtained Ar- burial-depth curves to complex computer-based Ar step-heating ages from authigenic potassium basin subsidence models, and hence use measure- feldspar in Permian carbonates of the Northern ments of palaeotemperature to infer where Calcareous Alps. Two distinct age populations (when) on a time-temperature curve an event may reflect a minimum age of feldspar growth occurred. In terms of fluid flow, this is most in the Jurassic when closure of the Meliata-Hall- applicable to fluid inclusions in minerals, whose statt ocean drove fluid circulation, then reheating PARNELL, J. 1998. Introduction: Approaches to dating and duration of fluid flow and fluid-rock interaction. In: PARNELL, J. (ed.) 1998. Dating and Duration of Fluid Flow and Fluid-Rock Interaction. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 144, 1-8. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 27, 2021 2 JOHN PARNELL in some localities during mid-Cretaceous stack- phases by palaeomagnetic analysis can therefore ing. record the duration of the migration event There is some potential in uranium-rich authi- through a carrier bed, in addition to a timing of genic phases for U-Pb or Pb-Pb dating. The migration (Perroud et al. 1995). The methodol- unique manner in which hydrocarbon fluids ogy is now also applied to the timing of minera- interact with uranium-rich fluids, through radia- lization processes. Elmore et al. identify tion-induced precipitation of uranium-rich solid magnetizations of different age associated with bitumens, means that dating of the solid product haematite and magnetite in a sandstone aquifer gives a date of hydrocarbon migration. A case in the Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma, which study at the margin of the Irish Sea gave a reflect Palaeozoic fluid flow events. Geochemical Pb-Pb date for hydrocarbon migration consis- alteration and remagnetization affects not just tent with other geological evidence (Parnell & the aquifer but also underlying rhyolites. Swainbank 1990), and the technique has subse- Symons et al. use palaeomagnetic data from pyr- quently found commercial use. Chemical age rhotite and galena in the Viburnum Trend Mis- dating of uraninite within uranium-rich hydro- sissippi Valley-type lead-zinc ores to deduce carbons, based on the U/Pb ratio determined both an age for mineralization, which is consis- by electron microprobe (Bowles 1990), can also tent with regional models for fluid flow, and the give apparently meaningful ages (Parnell 1995), duration of the mineralizing event. although this technique is more susceptible to errors due to element migration. Element migra- tion is a major problem in the dating of sediment- Fission track analysis hosted uranium mineralization. An example of the use of stable isotope data in Fission track analysis, which relies on the forma- constraining the timing of fluid flow events is in tion of radiation damage zones by fission measuring the sulphur isotope composition of products of uranium and their subsequent beha- sulphides or sulphates in mineralized zones, and viour, is now widely used in the reconstruction of deducing whether seawater sulphate of a certain burial and uplift histories, both in sedimentary age could have been the source of the sulphur. basins and orogenic belts (e.g. Green et al. Thus, several studies have concluded that some 1989; Miller & Duddy 1989). Combination with instances of mineralization in Palaeozoic rocks vitrinite reflectance data allows thermal history in northern Britain probably involved Permian reconstruction (Bray et al. 1992). The recognition seawater sulphate, and were therefore younger of heating by fluid flow depends upon the analy- than the Carboniferous age often attributed to sis of palaeotemperature profiles (Duddy et al. such mineralization (see e.g. Jassim et al. 1983; 1994), the shape of which may also give informa- Crowley et aL 1997). tion on the duration of heating based upon models for transient temperature effects (Ziagos & Blackwell 1986). Duddy et al. show that Palaeomagnetism dating of fluid flow events by apatite fission track analysis (AFTA) is possible where tem- Studies of palaeomagnetism are no longer just peratures were sufficient to cause vitrinite reflec- oriented towards the dating of rock units and tance values (R0 max) above 0.63%, when most diagenetic reddening or construction of the chlorine-poor apatites are annealled. Even at polar wander path. Since the recognition that lower temperatures, constraints on timing are magnetite may be precipitated within hydro- possible by kinetic analysis of the fission track carbon migration pathways and in the vicinity length distribution. Integration with fluid inclu- of hydrocarbon reservoirs (Elmore et al. 1987), sion studies can help to assess the duration of numerous studies have made use of this to heating by hot fluid required to achieve the attempt to constrain the timing of hydrocarbon measured AFTA and reflectance values. Case migration (e.g. Kilgore & Elmore 1989: Elmore studies which yield anomalous palaeotempera- & Leach 1990). Geochemical processes, some of ture profiles indicate lateral injection of hot which are microbially induced, can precipitate fluids. Similarly, Pagel et aL present data on magnetite and pyrrhotite in the presence of fluid evolution and thermal history at the hydrocarbons, with concomitant breakdown of Ardeche palaeo-margin of the Tethys in southern haematite. Renewed oxidizing conditions may France, integrating fluid inclusion data, fission cause secondary haematite precipitation in track analysis and isotope techniques. Some cases where hydrocarbon migration through a fluids are in thermal disequilibrium with the rock, with associated magnetite/pyrrhotite preci- host rock, implying the injection of fluids from pitation, ceases. Measurement of each of these deep levels. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 27, 2021 INTRODUCTION 3 It has been proposed that radiation damage in deduce precise timing for mineralization and quartz produced from alpha particles could also hydrocarbon emplacement events in the Derby- have dating potential, for example in dating shire Platform. Wayne & MeCaig assess isotopic quartz cementation in sandstones. Owen (1988) techniques for dating of fluid flow in shear zones shows that the magnitude of radiation halos in in the Neouville Massif in the French Pyrenees, quartz should depend upon radiation dosage using both fluid inclusions and mineral separates.