traceelementconcentrationsincrustalbrines.docVIP

Controls on the Chemical Composition of Crustal Brines Bruce Yardley**, Andrew Bennett and David Banks School of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK Abstract: The concentrations of a wide range of elements in natural brines vary systematically with temperature and salinity from oilfield brines to magmatic fluids. This indicates that rock-buffering controls pH, fO2 and S-concentrations in a systematic way, such that metal concentrations in crustal brines of known salinity and temperature can be predicted in general to within about an order of magnitude. The main exception to this trend is Ca, where concentrations may be governed by equilibrium with metastable primary plagioclase, stable secondary phases, or by kinetic factors. It is possible that kinetics plays a secondary role in controlling the concentrations of other elements also, especially at upper crustal temperatures. Introduction: A data base of brine analyses, including data from oilfields, shields, geothermal fields and fluid inclusions from metamorphic veins and ore bodies, has been compiled and used to evaluate controls on element concentrations in crustal brines. References to the source data are included in the caption to Figure 1. Figure 1. Correlation between Fe and temperature for a range of analysed brines from drill hole sampling and fluid inclusion analyses. Filled symbols: directly sampled fluids, open symbols: fluid inclusion analyses. Squares - shield brines (Fritz Frape), circles - sedimentary brines (Carpenter et al. 1974, Land et al. 1988, Connolly et al. 1990, unpublished analyses from N. England limestone-hosted orebodies, triangles - metamorphic and geothermal brines (Banks et al. 2000, McCaig et al. 2000, Meere et al. 1997, Munz et al. 1995, Williams McKibben 1989), diamonds - magmatic fluids (Audetat et al. 2000, Bottrell Yardley 1988, Heinrich et al. 1992, Kasai et al.1996, Kamenetsky et al. 2002, Smith et al. 1996, unpublished analyses of SW England ore fl