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Evidence for a regional-scale fluid loss event during mid-crustal metamorphism

Nature volume 349, pages 151–154 (1991)Cite this article

Abstract

HOW fluid is released from the deep crust during metamorphism remains controversial. Whereas some authors advocate large-scale fluid fluxes due to convective circulation of metamorphic fluid1, others consider that only one-way flow is possible2,3. Furthermore, some flow models imply that fluid moves across, and largely independently of, sedimentary layering1,2, whereas many fluid-based studies find evidence for focusing of flow by particular lithologies2,4–7. Here we report a study of metamorphic fluid flow on a regional, rather than an outcrop scale, using a combination of field geology, petrology and theoretical and isotope geochemistry. We identify metasomatic lithologies at the top of a dolomitic marble unit, which must have drawn in water over a kilometre scale from adjacent pelitic formations; we suggest that this flow was part of a single, major fluid loss event near the metamorphic peak. Fluid followed the metasomatic layers to structural highs where it broke out into adjacent schists to form skarns. This fluid loss may have changed the rheology of the rock involved and terminated regional folding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Bruce Yardley, Simon H. Bottrell & R. A. Cliff

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  1. Bruce Yardley
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  2. Simon H. Bottrell
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  3. R. A. Cliff
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Yardley, B., Bottrell, S. & Cliff, R. Evidence for a regional-scale fluid loss event during mid-crustal metamorphism. Nature 349, 151–154 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/349151a0

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