Prehnite in plutonic and metamorphic rocks of the northern Santa Lucia Range, Salinian block, California

Prehnite is abundant as monomineralic veins, as lenses in biotite, and as discrete patches and apparent primary crystals in both plutonic and metamorphic rocks along the west edge of the Salinian block in the northern Santa Lucia Range. The prehnite appears to be concentrated near the Sur fault zone but is very rare in Franciscan rocks west of the fault zone. The prehnite does not appear to have been derived by local alteration of minerals in the country rocks (either plutonic or metamorphic). I suggest that solutions, derived from a "substratum" (possibly Franciscan graywacke) beneath the tectonically thinned west margin of the Salinian block, migrated through the fractured rocks of the Salinian block near the Sur fault zone and that the chemical and physical nature of these rocks favored selective prehnite deposition.