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Carbonic fluid inclusions in South Indian granulites: evidence for entrapment during charnockite formation

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Abstract

Field evidence and fluid inclusion studies on South Indian incipient charnockites suggest that charnockite formation occurred during a decompressional brittle regime following the ‘peak’ of metamorphism and regional deformation. The most abundant type of inclusions in quartz and garnet grains in these charnockites contain high-density carbonic fluids, although lower-density fluids occur in younger arrays of inclusions. Discrete fluid inclusion generations optically are observed to decrepitate over well-defined temperature intervals, and quantitative measurements of CO2 abundance released from these inclusions by stepped thermal decrepitation show up to a four-fold increase (by volume) in the incipient charnockites relative to the adjacent gneisses from which they are derived. Studies based on optical thermometry, visual decrepitation and stepped-heating inclusion release together indicate that entrapment of carbonic fluids coincided with charnockite formation. We confirm that an influx of carbon dioxide-rich fluids is associated with the amphibolite-granulite transition, as recorded by the incipient charnockites, the remnants of which are commonly preserved as the earliest generation of high-density fluid inclusions.

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  1. M. Santosh

    Present address: Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam, Post Box No. 7250, 695 031, Trivandrum, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, MK7 6AA, Milton Keynes, UK

    M. Santosh, D. H. Jackson & N. B. W. Harris

  2. Department of Geology, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Egham Hill, TW20 0EX, Egham, Surrey, UK

    D. P. Mattey

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  1. M. Santosh
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  2. D. H. Jackson
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  3. N. B. W. Harris
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  4. D. P. Mattey
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Santosh, M., Jackson, D.H., Harris, N.B.W. et al. Carbonic fluid inclusions in South Indian granulites: evidence for entrapment during charnockite formation. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 108, 318–330 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00285940

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00285940

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