EVIDENCE OF AN EARLY ALTERATION PROCESS DRIVEN BY MAGMATIC FLUID IN MURUROA VOLCANO

Evidence for a deuteric alteration process induced by a magmatic fluid has been found in the feeder zone of the Mururoa volcano (French Polynesia). Within the dikes, where basaltic glass does not show any evidence of pervasive alteration, vesicles are filled with dioctahedral smectites and calcite, while olivine phenocrysts are replaced by dioctahedral smectites, ankerite and calcite. The C-13 signature of carbonates, the carbon and H2O content of the whole rocks and their impoverishment in deuterium are compatible with the presence of magmatic CO2 during the crystallization of intruding lavas and exclude contamination by seawater. Mass balance calculations on selected thin sections photographs of partly filled up vesicles and replaced olivine crystals, constrain, assuming a closed system interaction, the chemical composition of the initial fluid and the respective amounts of the initial solid phases involved in the alteration process. Thermodynamic modelings using the EQ3/6 software package correctly predict the mineralogic, chemical and isotopic exchanges accompanying alteration, thus validating the closed system assumption. The model which allows prediction of the influence of CO2 on the alteration products, shows that, above a 0.25 CO2 mole fraction in the initial fluid, the alteration is entirely controlled by the chemical composition of the initial solid phases. The presence of CO2 implies the precipitation of dioctahedral smectites and carbonates instead of the magnesian smectites commonly observed in CO2-free systems. The Mururoa feeder zone shows alterations features typical of a closed system interaction between the basaltic rock and a magmatic fluid in which seawater did not take part.