CROSS FORMATIONAL FLOW IN THE PARIS BASIN

Cross formational flow of water has occurred across several hundred metres of Liassic mudstone from the Triassic Chaunoy Formation sandstone to the Middle Jurassic Dogger Formation carbonate in the Paris Basin, France. This has been demonstrated by chemical and isotopic data from rocks and formation waters, sampled on a basin scale, from the Dogger and Chaunoy formations. Present-day and palaeoformation waters in the Dogger record input of exotic water in terms of salinity and carbon and strontium isotopes. The exotic water was highly saline and contained isotopically light carbon and Sr-87-enriched strontium in comparison to the indigenous Dogger Formation water. The source of the exotic water can only have been the Chaunoy Formation. Salinity and isotope data show that present-day Dogger Formation water contains 10-15% invasion Chaunoy water. Modelling strontium isotope ratio and concentration data from mineral cements shows that over the duration of Dogger cementation, Dogger palaeoformation waters were replaced by 1-5% Chaunoy water. Cross formational flow of water must have occurred by convective mass flow, rather than diffusion, in order to preserve the characteristics of water input from the Chaunoy. Flow probably occurred via the major Hercynian fault and fracture systems that run through the centre of the Paris Basin. Upward flow in this setting is most likely in a compressional tectonic regime, the situation during much of the Tertiary in the Paris Basin. Thermodynamic modelling indicates that cross formational flow from the Chaunoy has probably caused carbonate cementation in the Dogger.