ABSTRACT

Carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopic studies were carried out on marbles occurring in crystalline schists and epidote amphibolites of the Sanbagawa metamorphic terrain, central Shikoku, Japan, in order to estimate metamorphic temperatures and to elucidate their origin. Carbon isotopic fractionation between calcite and graphite shows the metamorphic temperature of 460°C at the transitional part between the garnet and albite-biotite zones. Marbles are isotopically classified into two groups. (1) some marbles in epidote amphibolite masses show characteristically negative δ¹³C values and low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios. These marbles are interpreted as have been derived from magmatic or deep-seated carbonates. (2) marbles collected from the crystalline schists and from the marginal part of epidote amphibolite masses, have high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and δ¹³C values similar to those of typical sedimentary carbonates. They were probably derived from sedimentary carbonates and/or carbonates re-equilibrated with metamorphic fluid segregated from crystalline schists during the Sanbagawa metamorphism.