Thermal Metamorphism by Combustion of Organic Matter: Isotopic and Petrological Evidence

Abstract

New evidence is presented in support of the previously suggested hypothesis that combustion of organic matter in a Cretaceous bituminous sedimentary sequence supplied the heat for the high-temperature, low-pressure metamorphism of the Mottled Zone in Israel. Such a model is compatible with stable isotope data on carbonates from the Mottled Zone which are strongly enriched in $$C^{12}$$ and $$O^{16}$$.