Evolution of fluid phases associated with lithium pegmatites from SE Ireland

Abstract

Abstract Fluid inclusions in quartz from internally zoned barren and spodumene-bearing pegmatites associated with the Leinster granite of SE Ireland represent a variety of early and late hydrothermal fluids responsible for the development of pegmatites. Microthermometry and optical examination reveal two main populations of inclusions. The first (Type 1) comprises low-moderate salinity brines which homogenized at temperatures up to about 400 °C. The second (Type 2) appear to postdate the first population and are characteristically more saline and homogenized at temperatures mostly below 250 °C. Isochores for model type 1 inclusion fluids indicate that a late-magmatic/early-hydrothermal fluid developed from the Leinster granite at 675 °C. and 2.5 kbar and cooled isobarically into the spodumene stability field where complete crystallization of the pegmatites took place. Later, more saline, type 2 fluids of unknown origin may have contributed to the alteration of spodumene to muscovite and albite with the accompanying release of lithium from the lattice of spodumene.