A petrological and fluid inclusion study of calc-silicate–charnockite associations from southern Kerala, India: implications for CO₂ influx

Abstract

Recent discovery of wollastonite-bearing calc-silicate assemblages adjacent to gneiss–charnockite horizons in the supracrustal terrain of the Kerala Khondalite Belt, southern India, provides an opportunity to evaluate the carbonic fluid infiltration model proposed for charnockite formation. Petrological and fluid inclusion studies across these horizons in three representative localities are presented in this study. The calc-silicate assemblages define peak metamorphic conditions of ∼800°C at 5 kbar and define a low a_CO2. Adjacent charnockite assemblages developed through dehydration involving the breakdown of garnet, biotite and quartz to produce orthopyroxene under low a_H2O conditions. Retrograde reactions preserved in the calc-silicate rocks, such as scapolite–quartz symplectites, and the partial breakdown of wollastonite previously has been attributed to a near isothermal decompression during which infiltration of CO₂-rich fluids occurred. Fluid inclusion studies indicate that the earliest generation of fluids preserved in the calc-silicate assemblages are aqueous (with salinity ∼8 wt% NaCl equivalent), consistent with mineral phase equilibria defining low a_CO2. The estimation of NaCl content in brines coexisting with scapolite, based on the Cl content of the scapolite, indicates the presence of up to 20 wt % NaCl during the formation of scapolite consistent with the saline primary fluid inclusions. Primary carbonic inclusions occur within the retrogressed calcite+quartz assemblage after wollastonite, and are considered to represent the post-peak metamorphic carbonic fluid infiltration event, synchronous with the development of charnockites in the adjacent gneisses. These inclusions have identical characteristics to those in the charnockites. We envisage that the Kerala Khondalite Belt fluid regime was largely internally buffered during the prograde path, and that CO₂ infiltration post-dated peak metamorphism. Influx of CO₂ was mostly structurally controlled, and occurred along a near-isothermal uplift path. Graphite-bearing pegmatitic dykes with abundant CO₂-rich inclusions in these localities attest to the transfer of carbonic fluids through magmatic conduits.