ALBERT

Notes: All the Mesozoic and Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the Central Andes (from southern Ecuador to central Chile), except Recent ones, have been affected by episodes of regional metamorphism, without change in texture and structure. The metamorphism, which ranges from low zeolite to greenschist facies, can be classified as burial metamorphism because there is an overall increase in metamorphic grade with stratigraphic depth in the individual volcanic sequences separated by regional unconformities. Some sequences display metamorphic patterns transitional to ocean-floor and to geothermal field types, reflecting variations along and across the Andes in tectonic setting and thermal gradients.Volcanism was closely followed by metamorphism during each cycle characterizing the geological history of the Central Andes. The episodic nature of the metamorphism has led to breaks in metamorphic grade at regional unconformities and repetition of facies series, where strata of higher grade may even overlie those of lower grade. The existence of permeability-controlled distribution patterns of secondary minerals within individual flows shows that gradients of chemical activity, rate of reaction and Pfluid were acting, in addition to temperature and P,tot overall gradients, during the regional metamorphism. The alteration is accompanied by chemical changes and disturbances of the K-Ar and Rb-Sr isotope systems. Similarities between Mesozoic facies series in the western and eastern flanks of the Andes are consistent with a mechanism of ensialic spreading-subsidence.

Notes: Abstract The Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary volcanic sequences in the Chilean Andes are affected by burial metamorphism. For example, in central Chile (between 32°30’and 35°S), the Abanico Formation, a folded upper Cretaceous to Palaeogene unit composed of basic lavas, tuffs and ash flows of intermediate composition and volcaniclastic sandstones, is characterized by heulandite- to laumontite-bearing zeolite facies assemblages in its upper part passing with depth to prehnite–pumpellyite facies assemblages.However, at c. 33°30'S in the Abanico Hill area, located just east of a graben at Santiago (the longitudinal Central Valley), the alteration pattern is unrelated to stratigraphic depth. It is characterized by a lateral increase in grade defined by assemblages with yugawaralite (reported for the first time in the Andes) laumontite, then wairakite ± epidote, and finally with abundant epidote successively closer to the graben boundary. This pattern was formed in a palaeogeothermal system with a high-T and a very low-P gradient. Geothermal alteration has also been inferred from the border zone of a Neogene caldera in the Abanico Hill area, and from the western fault boundary of the graben.These expressions of geothermal alteration, together with the occurrence of caldera structures, the huge volume of ignimbrites and numerous epithermal precious metal deposits of late Cretaceous and Tertiary age in central and northern Chile, suggest that fossil geothermal systems of this age are probably common features in the Chilean Andes.

Notes: Abstract This report is a petrographic study of alteration phenomena in an area of 100 km2 in the Coastal Range west of Santiago. The stratified sequence of the area is of Cretaceous age and belongs to the western monoclinal limb of the Andean Geosyncline. Two structural units are present, separated by an angular unconformity. The older is about 9,000 m thick, and the younger 300 m thick. The rock types are mostly altered andesitic flows and flow breccias, and keratophyric ignimbrites and lavas, with alternating marine, brackish-water and terrestrial interbeds. Stratified rocks are cut locally by acid and basic apophyses and dikes, probably feeders of their volcanic host rocks. Discordant Cretaceous granitic plutons intrude the older unit. Throughout the whole stratigraphic section there are alteration minerals, which selectively replace the primary minerals, or fill amygdules and open fractures, or form a cement in flows, dikes and sedimentary interbeds. Patterns of alteration are regular and persistent; they correlate on a large scale with stratigraphic level and on a smaller scale with position within each individual flow and situation within amygdules. The stratigraphically controlled pattern is as follows: $$\begin{gathered} 1.{\text{ Younger unit}}{\text{.}} \hfill \\ {\text{ }}\left. \begin{gathered} {\text{Lower portion: 30m: albite}}---{\text{pistacite}}---{\text{actinolite}}---{\text{chlorite}}---{\text{ }} \hfill \\ {\text{calcite}}---{\text{sphene}}---{\text{quartz}} \hfill \\ \end{gathered} \right\}{\text{greenschist facies}} \hfill \\ {\text{2}}{\text{. Older unit}}{\text{.}} \hfill \\ {\text{ }}\left. \begin{gathered} {\text{a) 0}}---{\text{1,280 m : albite}}---{\text{pumpellyite}}---{\text{prehnite}}---{\text{calcite}}---{\text{chlorite}}---{\text{ }} \hfill \\ {\text{ laumontite}} \hfill \\ {\text{b) 1,280}}---{\text{4,850 m: albite}}---{\text{adularia}}---{\text{calcite}}---{\text{prehnite}}---{\text{pumpellyite}}--- \hfill \\ {\text{pistacite}}---{\text{white mica}}---{\text{quartz}} \hfill \\ {\text{c) 4,850}}---{\text{8,110 m: albite}}---{\text{pistacite}}---{\text{quartz}}---{\text{chlorite}}---{\text{calcite}}--- \hfill \\ {\text{white mica}}---{\text{sphene}}---{\text{adularia prehnite}}---{\text{pumpellyite}} \hfill \\ \end{gathered} \right\}{\text{prehnite}}---{\text{pumpellyite facies}} \hfill \\ {\text{ d) 8,110}}---{\text{9,060 m: albite}}---{\text{pistacite}}---{\text{actinolite}}---{\text{sphene}}---{\text{calcite \} greenschist facies}} \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$ The pattern of alteration in the older unit is comparable to that described for burial metamorphosed sequences in New Zealand and Australia. Reappearence of the greenschist facies at a higher level in the younger unit poses a problem for which several explanations are possible. The smaller scale pattern of alteration shows a persistent tendency —not without exception — for the “grade” of the alteration assemblage (as correlated with depth on the large scale) to increase: from the base of the flow (non-amygdaloidal part) upward (amygdaloidal part), and from the rim of each amygdule inward. Also recognizable on the scale of a single flow is a tendency for upward increase in: a) extent of alteration (the basal zone may be fresh andesite), and b) weight percent of Na2O, K2O (with complementary depletion in CaO), and of Fe2O3/FeO. Preliminary observations indicate that this alteration pattern persists for at least 400 km north of the area here described in rocks of similar lithology and age. It is unrelated to local granitic plutons.