Quartz-amethyst hosted hydrocarbon-bearing fluid inclusions from the green ridge breccia in the snoqualmie granite, north cascades, wa, usa

Abstract

The Green Ridge Breccia cuts the composite Miocene Snoqualmie Batholith in King County, WA, USA. The granite was emplaced at similar to 5 km depth between similar to 17 and 20 Ma and the crosscutting NW trending breccia contains large angular blocks of the host granite (< 1 m in longest dimension). The brecciated granite blocks are cemented by quartz-amethyst euhedra (< 10 cm in longest dimension) bearing vugs. A notable feature is the presence of centimetric scale amber coloured oil inclusions within the quartz-amethyst crystals. Fluid inclusion studies using Transmitted Light Petrography, UV Microscopy, Microthermometry, Laser Raman Microspectroscopy and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry record the presence and the fluid composition of three fluid inclusion types hosted by the euhedra: primary Type 1 (liquid rich two-phase (L + V) aqueous inclusions) and secondary Type 2 bituminous two-phase (S + L) inclusions and Type 3 amber coloured oil bearing two-phase immiscible liquid inclusions. The Green Ridge Breccia was the locus for convective hydrothermal fluid flow that formed the quartz-amethyst vugs formed at T similar to 390 degrees C assuming a trapping pressure of similar to 1.65 kb. Later, hydrocarbon fluids migrated downwards from the roof source rock (e.g., the Guye Sedimentary Member) and were trapped in the euhedra. This was followed by unroofing of the batholith and exposure of the Green Ridge Breccia. This study highlights the potential for other oil migrations into the Snoqualmie Batholith in areas where it forms the basement capped by the Guye Sedimentary Member.