Burial metamorphism of a Cretaceous volcanic sequence west from Santiago, Chile

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.