Evidence for an Early Cretaceous mineralizing event above the basement/sediment unconformity in the intracratonic Paris Basin: paragenetic sequence and Sm-Nd dating of the world-class Pierre-Perthuis stratabound fluorite deposit

World-class stratabound fluorite deposits are spatially associated with the basement/sediment unconformity of the intracratonic Paris Basin and the Morvan Massif in Burgundy (France). The reserves are estimated to be about 5.5 Mt of fluorite within six fluorite deposits. In this study, we aim to determine the age of the major fluorite mineralization event of the Pierre-Perthuis deposit (1.4 Mt fluorite) by a combined study of the paragenetic mineral sequence and Sm-Nd dating on fluorite crystals. Fluorite occurs as isolated cubes or filling geodes in a Triassic, silicified, dolomitic formation. Three fluorite stages associated with sphalerite, pyrite, galena, barite, and quartz have been distinguished using optical, cathodoluminescence, and scanning electron microscopes. Seven crystals of the geodic fluorite stage were analyzed for their rare earth element (REE) contents and their 147 Sm/ 144 Nd and 143 Nd/ 144 Nd isotopic compositions. The normalized REE distribution displays homogeneous bell-shaped patterns for all the geodic fluorite samples with a Mid-REE enrichment over the Light-REE and Heavy-REE. The 147 Sm/ 144 Nd varies from 0.3108 to 0.5504 and the 143 Nd/ 144 Nd from 0.512313 to 0.512518. A six-point Sm-Nd isochron defines an age of 130 ± 15 Ma (initial 143 Nd/ 144 Nd = 0.512054, MSWD = 0.21). This Sm-Nd isochron provides the first age for the stratabound fluorite sediment-hosted deposit, related to an unconformity in the Paris Basin, and highlights a major Early Cretaceous fluid circulation event mainly above the basement/sediment unconformity during a flexural deformation of the Paris Basin, which relates to the rifting of the Bay of Biscay and the formation of the Ligurian Sea in the Western Europe domain.