Syndepositional Deformation Features In High-Relief Carbonate Platforms: Long-Lived Conduits for Diagenetic Fluids

Abstract

Syndepositional faults and fractures are known to affect early fluid flow in carbonate platforms. Less clear is whether they are active fluid conduits throughout the entire history of the platform strata. Syndeformational fractures in Permian (late Guadalupian) carbonates exposed in Dark Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, U.S.A., address this question. Transmitted-light and cathodoluminescent petrography, stable-isotope and fluid-inclusion analyses, and clumped-isotope thermometry show that there were multiple episodes of fracturing, dissolution, cementation, and replacement in the fractures. Dolomite cement or dolomitized marine cements line the walls of some fractures and indicate the syndepositional reflux of evaporated Permian seawaters through the fractures. Fine- to medium-crystalline, luminescently zoned calcite may overlie the dolomite and marine cements, line fracture walls where those phases are absent, or cement karst breccia on fracture walls. The δ18O values of this calcite (−8.8 to −14.0‰ VPDB) and clumped-isotope temperatures (16° to 32°C) indicate precipitation from meteoric fluids (δ18OSMOW of −6.2 to −10.5‰) associated with episodic sea-level lowstands during the development of high-frequency depositional sequences. The early calcites can themselves be fractured, rotated, and recemented, indicating recurrent deformation and meteoric influx. Evaporite cements were once the dominant pore-filling phase in the fractures, forming both before and after the e…