Pegmatitic granite fluid compositions and thermochronometry in the Seridó Belt, Borborema Province, Brazil: Insights from trace element advection-diffusion-partitioning halos in host schist and gneiss

At the Seridó Belt pegmatitic province, fluid advection from dykes and sills led to trace element diffusion and partitioning in biotite, producing sub metric concentration halos in host mica schist and gneiss. We analyzed trace element concentration vs. distance profiles in the host rock of pegmatitic granite intrusions showing enrichments in Li, F, Cl, Zn, Rb, Nb, Sn, Cs, Ta, U and depletions in Sr and Ba. We estimated fluid temperatures in the range 600 to 700 °C using methods of Ti in biotite, F-OH in biotite-apatite and Tschermak component in biotite-muscovite. We analytically modeled thermal profiles around pegmatitic planar intrusions and found that cooling by thermal flats in the first meters into the host rock is reached in 100 years for a 10 m thick sill. The model constraints sustained heat flow during pegmatitic melt emplacement into a colder host rock. The measured trace element profiles were fitted with solutions of differential equations modeling advection-diffusion-partitioning in porous media under isothermal and cooling conditions. Each trace element profile is equally fitted by values of pegmatitic fluid concentration vs. fluid flux duration plotting as a straight line. We obtained a theorical framework combining pegmatitic fluid trace element composition, fluid flux duration and velocity, rock/fluid trace element partition coefficient, and cooling rate. Using published fluid inclusion trace element composition, we obtained fluid flux duration between tens of years to several centuries for the studied profiles. In the case of low temperature fluid flux at 450 °C the modeled flux duration is increased by less than one order of magnitude. The results allow us to interpret the trace element halos as sub millennial hot isothermal fluid influx from the pegmatites into their host rock. Trace element partitioning from the fluid into host rock falls mostly within the range of 0.01 to 25 and decreases in the order Nb, Cu, Rb, Zn-Li, Cs-Sn. The model constraints fluid advection velocity between 1 × 10⁻¹¹ m/s and 1 × 10⁻⁹ m/s, typical of regional metamorphism to shear focused fluid flow regimes. The trace element enrichment of biotite along the profiles reproduces the observed pattern for whole rock, indicating that biotite is their main sink during pegmatitic fluid influx. Using experimental F in biotite diffusivity we obtained a minimal planar diffusion distance, or the effective porosity, between 7 and 15 μm for the total F re-homogenization of metamorphic biotite by pegmatitic fluid. As shown from others fluid-present petrogenetic systems, the trace element contents of biotite in host rock at the contact with pegmatitic intrusions can be a potential tool for the assessment of their rare metal potential.