Journal article
The role of exhumation in metamorphic dehydration and fluid production
J Vry, R Powell, KM Golden, K Petersen
Nature Geoscience | Published : 2010
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo699
Abstract
When mountain belts form, crustal rocks undergo metamorphism, resulting in the breakdown of volatile-bearing minerals and the release of water-rich fluids. As these fluids move towards the Earths surface, they can cause generation of ore deposits, enhance deformation of the crust and change rock composition. Generation of such fluids has long been considered to occur dominantly during heating associated with burial of rocks. In contrast, the exhumation of rocks that follows heating has not been expected to generate large amounts of fluid. Here we use mineral-equilibria modelling to show that the erosion-induced exhumation of greywacke a common rock type in mountain-forming regions generates ..
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Awarded by University of Melbourne
Funding Acknowledgements
This project owes its start to results from the South Island GeopHysical Transect (SIGHT) programme (with financial support from NSF programmes EAR-9418530, EAR-98530 and EAR-9725883 and the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology). The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the following sources: J.V., Victoria University (grants 23065, 25773, 23117) and The University of Melbourne; R. P., the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant DP0451770; K. M. G., the US National Science Foundation (NSF) (grants DAS-0222171, DMS-0537015); and K. P., NSF grant DMS-0537015 and the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programme through VIGRE grant DMS-0091675. Supplementary Fig. S1 was kindly provided by S. Cox, GNS Science, Dunedin. The manuscript has been improved based on thoughtful reviews by A. Tomkins.