Fluid involvement in the active Helike normal Fault, Gulf of Corinth, Greece

Abstract Rock fabric and mineralogical composition from the fault core and the unaffected protolith have been used to define the role of the segmented Helike Fault to fluid flow. Sixty samples were investigated by XRD, SEM observation and SEM-EDS microanalyses. Detrital smectite, calcite, and quartz represent the mineral assemblage at the crest of the footwall block in Foniskaria sampling site. In this site smectite is enriched at the rims of the fault core. All other sampling sites located at the base of the fault scarp are characterized by detrital and newly formed minerals. Detrital minerals include plagioclase, quartz, calcite and illite in Nikolaiika sampling site, and smectite, illite, kaolinite, quartz, calcite in Selinous sampling site. In the latter sampling site erionite and cerussite are newly formed minerals with erionite considered as the hydrothermal alteration product of fluids at 80–100 °C. At the eastern fault segment illite, quartz and calcite (T13 site) corresponds to detrital minerals. Mineralogy in the fault core reflects its high permeability to down-flowing meteoric water and weak hydrothermal alteration. The rock fabric suggests mineral alignment parallel to the fault plane. Mineralogy indicates that the Aigion, Helike and Pyrgaki Faults in the Gulf of Corinth host hydrothermal activity at shallow levels.