P-T conditions of quartz-calcite boudins and vein formation within a low-angle detachment fault in Tinos Island (Aegean Sea): a fluid-inclusion study

Fluid inclusions were investigated in successive generations of quartz-calcite boudins and veins in the vicinity of, and within, the low-angle detachment fault (of Early Miocene age) exposed on Tinos Island (Cyclades, Greece). Abundant boudins, veins, tension gashes and mineral segregations were formed during various stages of ductile and brittle shear along the detachment indicating fluid flow at various crustal levels, assisted motion and slip along the detachment. Three generations of fluid inclusions were identified: (1) syn-deformation aqueous inclusions; (2) local- late-deformation H₂O-CO₂ inclusions; (3) post-slip deformation, partly decrepitated aqueous and H₂O-CO₂ inclusions. The conditions of inclusion trapping correspond to the greenschist facies, at temperatures between 300 and 450°C and pressures in the range of 1.5–4.0 kb. A gradient of pressure of about 0.5 kb from the fault zone to the rocks of upper and lower plates is suggested. The results indicate that the syn-deformation fluid was NaCl-KCl-sulfate-dominated with a salinity of about 5 wt% NaCl equiv. Downward infiltration of meteoric water is a suitable source for this fluid. During the late stage of fault activity, in the brittle field, fluid was of H₂O-CO₂ composition. Very rapid exhumation of the entire section (unrelated to motion on the investigated fault) is marked by numerous decrepitation clusters of the fluid inclusions.