Effects of fluid production on fluid flow during regional and contact metamorphism

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Numerical and analytical models of fluid flow that account for fluid production during prograde regional and contact metamorphism show that expulsion of metamorphic fluids dominates the convective flux when crustal permeabilities are less than 0.1–100 μD, depending primarily on the rate of fluid production. When this is the case, fluid circulation is limited or prevented, fluid pressures are elevated above hydrostatic values, and flow throughout most of the model is up and away from the region of maximum fluid production. Fluid circulation is predicted to occur where permeability is high, in dry rocks, or after rates of fluid production decrease as peak temperatures are reached. Large changes in the pattern of flow and influx of externally derived fluids may thus occur in metamorphic terranes when dehydration wanes or ceases and cooling begins. Inclusion of an impermeable horizon in the models further inhibits fluid circulation. Earlier, shallow hydrothermal models and interpretations based on the Rayleigh number may be inappropriate for characterizing fluid flow during prograde metamorphism at depth because they do not account for fluid production.