Sapphirine-bearing rocks with sedimentary and volcanogenic protoliths from the Arunta Block
AT least 15 separate localities for sapphirine-bearing rocks have been found in the Arunta Block, a Precambrian metamorphic complex in central Australia (Fig. 1), although only two have been documented in any detail1–3. Such rocks are the most spectacular examples of a suite of rocks with a distinctive, characteristic chemistry. This suite includes, inter alia, the better known cordierite–anthophyllite rocks, and is widely distributed both within the Arunta Block and world-wide. From field observations it is proposed here that two different geological processes, one sedimentary or diagenetic and the other volcanic, generated rocks that are now indistinguishable in their whole-rock chemistry and mineral assemblages. It had formerly been proposed that sapphirine-bearing rocks of volcanogenic and sedimentary origins were mineralogically and chemically distinct4.
GENESIS OF CORDIERITE – GEDRITE GNEISSES, CENTRAL METASEDIMENTARY BELT BOUNDARY THRUST ZONE, GRENVILLE PROVINCE, ONTARIO, CANADA
Cordierite- and gedrite-bearing lithologies crop out along the base of the Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone (CMBbtz) in Ontario, the boundary between the Central Metasedimentary Belt and the Central Gneiss Belt. It has been proposed that these rocks represent metamorphosed and partially melted Al- and Mg-rich sedimentary rocks. Whole-rock oxygen isotope values (δ18O in the range 6–8‰) from these rocks are not consistent with closed-system metamorphism of either soils or pelitic sediments, and cannot be explained solely by extraction of partial melt from pelitic rocks. The whole-rock δ18O and chemical composition of cordierite–gedrite rocks in the CMBbtz indicate that these rocks represent volcanic rocks hydrothermally altered by seawater. After hydrothermal alteration, these rocks were metamorphosed to the upper amphibolite facies, stabilizing the cordierite + gedrite assemblages. Diffusion modeling of quartz–garnet fractionations suggests intermineral exchange of oxygen in a closed system at moderate fugacity of H2O during slow cooling after regional metamorphism. We believe that cordierite–gedrite lithologies in the CMBbtz mark the site of Mid-Proterozoic rifting at the margin of Laurentia.
Three-stage metamorphic history of a whiteschist from Sar e Sang, Afghanistan, as part of a former evaporite deposit
Small volumes (in the cm3 range) of a talc-kyanite schist exhibit mosaic equilibria characterized by mineral assemblages conventionally attributed to vastly different pressure temperature conditions of metamorphism. On the basis of petrographic and microprobe studies these assemblages are attributed to three consecutive stages of metamorphism of a chemically exceptional rock composition falling largely into the model system MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O. Stage 1 typified by Mg chlorite-quartz-talc and some paragonite was followed during stage 2 by talc-kyanite, Mg gedrite-quartz, and the growth of large dravites. In stage 3 pure Mg cordierite formed with or without corundum and/or talc, and kyanite was partly converted into sillimanite. Pressures and temperature during this final stage of metamorphism were probably near 5–6 kb, 640 ° C.The preservation of this succession of mineral assemblages related to each other through isochemical reactions suggests that the main factors governing the metamorphic history of this whitheschist were compositional changes of the coexisting fluids with time, whereas pressure temperature variations may be subordinate. In the Sar e Sang area such chemical variations of the metamorphic fluids are probably caused by progressive metamorphism and mobilization of a former evaporite deposit.Microprobe analyses of the phases gedrite and talc indicate variable degrees of sodium incorporation into these phases according to the substitution NaAl→Si.