Paleo-Hydrothermal Predecessor to Perennial Spring Activity in Thick Permafrost in the Canadian High Arctic, and Its Relation to Deep Salt Structures: Expedition Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut

Figure 11

Plot of stable C (‰, relative to VPDB) and O (‰, relative to VSMOW) isotope data for carbonates (cal1 and cal2) from paleospring hydrothermal veins (black circles) and modern carbonate precipitate (red square). Line A is the O isotope composition of meteoric water in the study area (constrained using lat-long-elevation data; using the OIPC3.1 calculator, University of Utah). Line B is the composition of water that would be in equilibrium with modern carbonate at the springs at a mean temperature of 6°C. Fields “C” and “D” are the predicted compositional ranges for carbonates and quartz, respectively, expected if the paleospring hydrothermal veins crystallized at between 150 and 300°C from meteoric water (based on values from fluid inclusions and utilizing fractionation expressions from [140], [calcite-H₂O], [141] [aragonite-H₂O], and [142] [quartz-H₂O]).