Joint application of fluid inclusion and clumped isotope (∆47) thermometry unravels the complexity of thermal and fluid-flow history reconstruction in sedimentary basins—Upper Triassic Chaunoy Formation reservoirs (Paris Basin)

Abstract

We investigated calcites and dolomites precipitated during burial diagenesis of the Upper Triassic (Norian) continental siliciclastics from sub-surface reservoirs of the northern Paris Basin (Chaunoy Formation) that experienced a thermal maximum >100°C during Late Cretaceous times. Relative carbonate precipitation timing was established via petrographic analyses. The diagenetic carbonates were further investigated by fluid inclusion and clumped isotope (Δ47) thermometry. The two thermometric datasets were interpreted by evaluating the possible occurrence of inclusion thermal reequilibration and Δ47 solid-state reordering, based on the known basin thermal history and the three existing Δ47 reordering models. By considering the fluid inclusion and Δ47 datasets obtained and the various Δ47 reordering models, different carbonate precipitation scenarios, in terms of timing and parent fluid composition (δ18Ofluid), were inferred. These results underline that in samples having experienced thermal maximum >100°C, accuracy and interpretation of fluid inclusion and Δ47 thermometry data (especially on calcite) may be biased by thermal reequilibration and solid-state reordering. The results converge towards the need of jointly applying fluid inclusion and Δ47 thermometry on the same carbonate phases to evaluate all the possible precipitation scenarios. The most likely carbonate precipitation scenarios, based on Δ47 thermometry data, point at the precipitation of two calcite phases during Early to Late Jurassic times and of one dolomite phase during the Late Cretaceous. The parent fluids possibly were original formation waters of the Chaunoy Fm. that mixed with brines migrating from the East, where time equivalent evaporitic deposits occur. The proposed precipitation model for calcites and dolomites, involving different pulses of brine migration, and the dominance of calcite phases were not recorded by previous studies on the Upper Triassic units. These latter results may be of interest to evaluate the reservoir potential of the Chaunoy Fm. in this underexplored portion of the Paris Basin.