Mineralogy, Petrology, and Oxygen Isotopic Geochemistry of the Clough Formation, Black Mountain, Western New Hampshire, U.S.A.

The rocks of the Clough Formation, Black Mountain, New Hampshire,were regionally metamorphosed at 5.5 (±0.5) kb and 495°± 10 °C during the Acadian orogeny. Mineral assemblagesattained chemical equilibrium during metamorphism on the scaleof single sedimentary beds up to 1 m thick. An aqueous, intergranular,metamorphic fluid was probably present; however, the concentrationsof the species H₂O, H₂, and O₂ as well as the abundance of ¹⁸Oin the fluid varied from bed to bed. Neither isobaric nor polybaricosmotic equilibrium of H2 was attained between sedimentary beds.Fluid composition was controlled in each bed by the inherentbuffer capacity of the solid phases. Despite the effects ofprogressive dehydration during metamorphism, the buffer capacitiesof the mineral assemblages were sufficiently great that vestigesof premetamorphic heterogeneity of volatile components havebeen preserved.