Yh. Yan et al., Genesis of dioctahedral phyllosilicates during hydrothermal alteration of volcanic rocks: II. The Broadlands-Ohaaki hydrothermal system, New Zealand, CLAY CLAY M, 49(2), 2001, pp. 141-155
The clay mineral textures, assemblages, formation mechanisms, and controlli
ng geological parameters relating to alteration of silicic volcanic rocks b
y hydrothermal solutions, in core samples from the Broadlands-Ohaaki hydrot
hermal system, New Zealand, were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD)
, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission and analytical elect
ron microscopy (TEM/AEM). Mineralogical and textural relations of this acti
ve hydrothermal system, for which temperatures and fluid relations are well
known, are equivalent to those in the Golden Cross hydrothermal gold depos
it as described in Part 1.
XRD data show a sequence of clay minerals from smectite to a range of inter
stratified I-S to mica with increasing depth and temperature, on average. T
EM observations are in general agreement with XRD data, especially with res
pect to relative proportions of illite (I)- and smectite (S)- like layers.
TEM data also show that: (1) Smectite packets contain no discrete illite-li
ke layers in samples identified as (Reich-weite, R = 0) I-S by XRD. They co
exist with separate packets of (R = 1) I-S. (2) A continuous range in IS oc
curs from (R = 1) I-S with increasing proportion of illite-like layers, but
at high illite-like layer contents there is a gap between I-S and illite.
(3) 1M and 2M, polytypes of mica coexist in separate packets, but the rare
1M polytype has a larger Mg-VI content.
The data imply that clay minerals formed by dissolution and neocrystallizat
ion directly from volcanic phases, although multiple reaction events can no
t be ruled out. Such "episodic" alteration produces a sequence of clay mine
rals identical to those of prograde diagenesis of pelitic sediments. This r
esult implies that the presence of a continuous sequence is not definitive
proof of continuous sequences of transformation as a function of time and c
ontinuous burial. Reaction progress of the clay-mineral sequence is in gene
ral accord with the known temperature gradient, but with significant and co
mmon exceptions. High porosity and permeability, both inherent in rock text
ure and local structure, an inferred to foster local reaction progress, as
consistent with metastability of phases and the Ostwald step rule.