Fluid focusing and back-reactions in the uplifted shoulder of the Rhine rift system: a clay mineral study along the Schauenburg Fault zone (Heidelberg, Germany)

A retrograde sequence of fluid-controlled, low-temperature mineral reactions has been preserved along an east-west striking, dextral-oblique-slip fault in the uplifted Rhine Graben shoulder. This fault (the Schauenburg Fault, near Heidelberg), juxtaposes Permian rhyolite against Carboniferous (Variscan) granite and shows syn- or post-rift displacement of the north–south trending, eastern boundary fault of the rift basin. Both mineral texture and rock fabric indicate that the fault forms a site of high rock permeability and fluid flow, and records the exhumation and fluid-rock history of the rift shoulder since the Mesozoic. The reaction sequence and mineral compositions of the clay minerals within the cataclasite, and adjacent granite and rhyolite lithologies, document progressively decreasing fluid temperatures, with back-reactions of pure 2M₁ illite to 1M_d (R3) illite-smectite, and eventually smectite and kaolinite assemblages. Compositional variations are attributed to Tertiary to Recent fluid flushing of the fault zone associated with rift flank uplift, and with progressive dilution of the electrolyte-rich, acidic to neutral hydrothermal brines by down-flowing electrolyte-poor, meteoric waters.