Prograde Metamorphic Assemblage Evolution during Partial Melting of Metasedimentary Rocks at Low Pressures: Migmatites from Mt Stafford, Central Australia

The Mt Stafford area in central Australia preserves a low-pressuregreenschist- to granulite-facies regional aureole. The metasedimentarysequence has been divided into five zones from greenschist (Zone1) to granulite facies (Zone 4) and a zone of hybrid diatexiteformed from the introduction of granitic magma into the high-grademigmatites (Zone 5). Melt production was dominated by a seriesof multivariant biotite breakdown reactions, not the univariantreactions suggested by previous studies. Although the threemain metasedimentary rock types produced similar amounts ofmelt at the highest grades, their melt production historiesdiffered markedly as a function of temperature. Aluminous metapelitesproduced more melt at lower temperatures (Zones 2 and 3), whereasmetapsammite and cordierite granofels experienced an additionalmajor melt-producing step at higher temperatures (upper Zone3 and Zone 4). This melting step involved the breakdown of biotiteto produce garnet, K-feldspar and melt, and in some rocks theproduction of orthopyroxene. Melt production in Zone 4 exceeded25 mol %, resulting in the formation of in situ diatexites.Complex relationships involving aluminosilicate porphyroblastsresulted in the breakdown of biotite and aluminosilicate beingdrawn out over a wide temperature range, from subsolidus conditionsto temperatures close to 750°C. Initially, much of the meltingdeveloped around the aluminosilicate porphyroblasts during thebreakdown of coexisting biotite, aluminosilicate and quartz.However, much of the rock was chemically isolated from the porphyroblastsand could not react to produce melt. As temperatures rose, thepresence of the large isolated aluminosilicate porphyroblastscontrolled the spatial development of quartz-absent, spinel-presentcompositional domains, the formation of spinel being governedby the silica-undersaturated breakdown of coexisting biotiteand aluminosilicate. KEY WORDS: NCKFMASHTO; metapelite; granulite facies; petrogenetic grid; partial melting; THERMOCALC