THE USE OF FLUID INCLUSIONS TO CONSTRAIN FAULT ZONE PRESSURE, TEMPERATURE AND KINEMATIC HISTORY - AN EXAMPLE FROM THE ALPI-APUANE, ITALY

The Alpi Apuane is a tectonic window that exposes ductilely deformed greenschist facies metaigneous and metasedimentary rocks beneath relatively unmetamorphosed, brittlely deformed sedimentary rocks of the Tuscan nappe. The brecciated fault zone, the 'window fault', separating the two tectonic units was originally described as a simple thrust fault, but has recently been interpreted to have been reactivated as a later extensional detachment. Although evidence for extensional faulting is seen above and below the window fault, the amount of extensional displacement along this fault is unclear. Fluid inclusions from veins cementing the fault breccia were used to estimate the pressures and temperatures during the last fault movement. Minimum pressure estimates obtained from these inclusions range from 105 to 240 MPa. Pressure-corrected trapping temperatures for these fluids range from about 300 to 345-degrees-C. These pressures and temperatures indicate that the fault was last active at a depth of about 10 km, assuming a geothermal gradient at the time of 31-degrees-C km-1. This rules out complete extensional unroofing of the Alpi Apuane by movement along the window fault. Fluid salinities increase abruptly from the footwall into the fault zone. This pattern suggests that fluids rose from the footwall, entered the fault zone and were channeled within it, leaching salt from the overlying evaporite. The lack of quartz veins above the fault zone indicates that these fluids did not circulate into the overlying Tuscan nappe.