Effect of initial water composition on thermodynamic modeling of hydrothermal alteration in basalt—A case study of the Vargeão Dome impact structure

Abstract

The impact-generated hydrothermal system at Vargeão Dome, Brazil, is a unique potential analogue for impact-generated hydrothermal systems on Mars. Its evolution can be understood through thermodynamic modeling, for which one of the necessary parameters is the composition of the involved water. The exact water composition for Vargeão at the time of the impact is unknown, and, moreover, the effect of this uncertainty is often underestimated in thermodynamic modeling. Here, the effect of initial water composition was tested by using a randomized set of initial solutions for thermodynamic modeling of the evolution of the Vargeão Dome impact-generated hydrothermal system. It was found that even small changes in composition could affect the precipitation of common minerals like calcite and quartz. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a sensitivity analysis for any thermodynamic model in which the initial solution is poorly constrained. Subsequently, the found effects were used to constrain water compositions for the Vargeão Dome system at the time of the impact, by eliminating randomized solutions of models precipitating different minerals from those observed in reality. Using a simple set of rules, it was possible to constrain the total amount of dissolved solids between 6 and 2000 mg/L, as well as provide approximate boundaries for all individual elements present in the solution.