Kyanite eclogites

Prior experimental work has shown that in the laboratory the mineralogy of eclogites is sensitive to the ratio of CaO ∶ MgO ∶ FeO and that the reaction pyroxene + kyanite?garnet + quartz proceeds to the right at high pressures in rocks rich in magnesium and to the left in rocks rich in calcium and iron. Typical basalts crystallized at high pressure never contain kyanite. The chemistry and mineralogy of a large number of naturally occurring eclogites show they belong to three classes.

1. Kyanite-free magmatic eclogites, rich in magnesium, from:
2. kimberlites
3. dunites and serpentinites.
4. Kyanite-bearing eclogites and grosspydites rich in CaO and low in FeO with intermediate MgO from:
5. kimberlites
6. gneisses.
7. Kyanite-free eclogites of metamorphic origin rich in iron with low magnesium and intermediate amounts of calcium from:
8. glaucophane schists
9. gneisses.

     

China’s crust-and mantle-source pegmatites and their discriminating criteria

According to their material sources, China’s pegmatities can be divided into two broad types: (1) the crust-source pegmatites derived mainly from the upper continental crust, which can be subdivided into metamorphic differentiated, mixed metasomatic and anatectic magmadifferentiated pegmatites, and (2) the mantle-source pegmatites generated from the mantle, including those related to late differentiates and carbonatites. In space, carbonatites are usually accompanied with alkaii syenite. The criteria of discriminating the two-source pegmatites of China are listed as follows:

1. Rock-forming minerals (micas and feldspars);
2. REE distribution patterns;
3. Zr/Hf ratios in zircons; and
4. Species of apatite and REE contents.

     

Phase equilibria among pumpellyite,lawsonite, epidote and associated minerals in low grade metamorphic rocks

Phase relations of pumpellyite, epidote, lawsonite, CaCO₃, paragonite, actinolite, crossite and iron oxide are analysed on an Al-Ca-Fe³⁺ diagram in which all minerals are projected from quartz, albite or Jadeite, chlorite and fluid. Fe²⁺ and Mg are treated as a single component because variation in Fe²⁺/Mg has little effect on the stability of phases on the diagram. Comparison of assemblages in the Franciscan, Shuksan, Sanbagawa, New Caledonia, Southern Italian, and Otago metamorphic terranes reveals several reactions, useful for construction of a petrogenetic grid:

1. lawsonite+crossite + paragonite = epidote+chlorite + albite + quartz + H₂O
2. lawsonite + crossite = pumpellyite + epidote + chlorite + albite+ quartz + H₂O
3. crossite + pumpellyite + quartz = epidote + actinolite + albite + chlorite + H₂O
4. crossite + epidote + quartz = actinolite + hematite + albite + chlorite + H₂O
5. calcite + epidote + chlorite + quartz = pumpellyite + actinolite + H₂O + CO₂
6. pumpellyite + chlorite + quartz = epidote + actinolite + H₂O

     

Quartz-grain surfaces of debris flow material in the marginal mountains of Tibet

Debris flow is a natural phenomenon which occurs on steep slopes of mountain regions. Very often morainic material and nonmorainic sediments, such as debris flow material, fluvial and other sediments, are mixed in the marginal mountain systems of the Tibetan Plateau. The study of quartz-grain surface features of debris flow has an important significance for differentiating between different origins of Quaternary sediments. Features of quartz-grain in debris flow will be described as below:

1. The predominant shapes of quartz grains are irregular.
2. The degree of roundness of grains is in general are angular to subangular in shape.
3. The textures of quartz-grains in debris flows are conchoidal fractures, parallel steps and mechanical V-marks. Parallel steps are especially abundant. Their presence is the most characteristic indicator of debris flow sand, aiding in the differentiation between debris flow and glacial sand.
4. Fresh cleavage planes are extremely flat.

     

Temperaturen und Drucke bei der regionalen Metamorphose: Prinzipielle und praktische Hinweise

The author's concept (1970, 1974) of evaluating metamorphic conditions is explained on the basis of most recent petrologic data. The major points treated are:

1. Instead of usual petrographic mapping, petrographic work in the field is aimed at specific “targets”, i.e., rock compositions. This is so because only specific rocks may give petrogenetically relevant information in the four metamorphic grades.
2. There are very many mineral reactions in metamorphism but only a few are petrogenetically significant. These are important to know, and they are graphically demonstrated. Any mineral assemblage that is formed by a significant mineral reaction must be verified as a paragenesis of mutually contacting minerals. Only such parageneses deserve to be mapped in the field as isograds or isoreactiongrads.
3. Crossing isograds or isoreactionsgrads provide data on temperature and pressure during metamorphism for that part of a metamorphic terrane where the crossing has been observed.
4. The sequence of isograds or isoreaction-grads may be a pressure indicator. Moreover, such a sequence provides geodynamic information whether a larger metamorphic area has been lifted up evenly or has been tilted while it was uplifted after metamorphism.

     

Laihunite—A new iron silicate mineral

Laihuite reported in the present paper is a new iron silicate mineral found in China with the following characteristics:

1. This mineral occurs in a metamorphic iron deposit, associated with fayalite, hypersthene, quartz, magnetitc, etc.
2. The mineral is opaque, black in colour, thickly tabular in shape with luster metallic to sub-metallic, two perfect cleavages and specific gravity of 3.92.
3. Its main chemical components are Fe and Si with Fe³⁺>Fe²⁺. The analysis gave the formula of Fe Fe _1.00 ³⁺ ·Fe _0.58 ²⁺ ·Mg _0.03 ²⁺ ·Si_0.96O₄.
4. Its DTA curve shows an exothermic peak at 713°C.
5. The mineral has its own infrared spectrum distinctive from that of other minerals.
6. This mineral is of orthorhombic system; space group:C _2h ^/5 ?P2₁/c; unit cell:α=5.813ű0.005,b=4.812ű0.005,c=10.211ű0.005,β=90.87°.
7. The Mössbauer spectrum of this mineral is given, too.

     

Staurolite-quartzite bands in kyanite quartzite at big rock,Rio Arriba County,New Mexico

Concordant igneous-looking bands of ferruginous bulk composition occur in a highly aluminous Precambrian metasedimentary series composed predominantly of kyanite quartzite. The bands consist of quartz, staurolite, and magnetite (partially martitized) with accessory amounts of muscovite, chlorite (pseudomorphous after biotite), chloritoid, apatite, and monazite. Quartz is found in three types (I–III) differing in appearance as well as in origin. Staurolite, in combination with quartz-II, shows peculiar radial sieve textures caused by mimetic crystallization after preexisting chloritoid rosettes. The chloritoid has been largely consumed, either by a reaction with hypothetical former kyanite to produce staurolite+ quartz with rock composition unchanged, or, possibly, by metasomatic introduction of oxygen (oxidation) to yield staurolite+quartz+magnetite; the remaining chloritoid, however, persisted in stable equilibrium with the other minerals of the rock. The staurolite quartzites are thus considered to represent original sedimentary bands which have undergone several stages of recrystallisation and (possibly) metasomatic modification during their metamorphic history. Their igneous aspect results from annealing crystallisation during a late static, i.e. postdeformational, thermal event of regional metamorphism.Chemical analysis of the staurolite shows no unusual features. For all staurolites plotted there is a positive relationship of the excess H⁺ over 2.0 and the Si⁺⁴-deficiency in the unit cell. This suggests partial substitution of 4 H⁺ for Si⁺⁴.The formation of staurolite in regional metamorphic rocks with excess silica, low alkali contents, and (FeO+MgO)/Al₂O₃ ratios < 1 showing chloritoid at lower grades appears to be governed, in many cases, by the reaction chloritoid+Al-silicate=staurolite+quartz+H₂O.The assemblage chloritoid-staurolite may be stable in regional metamorphism over a limited pressure-temperature range.     

Melting of acid xenoliths into a basanite: An approach to the possible mechanisms of crustal contamination

Biotite gneiss xenoliths included in a basanitic flow in the Causses region (France) show several kinds of partial melting. Rhyolitic glasses appear at the expense of the quartz + feldspar assemblage; initially undersaturated latitic glasses at the expense of biotite + feldspar (+ quartz); lastly hyperaluminous products derivating from large phenoblasts of alkali feldspar. The microprobe study of these glasses, of their contacts with the host lava, as well as that of the neogenic mineral phases, show that contamination occurs through, at least, four possible processes:

1. Diffusion at the interface between two liquids of contrasted composition (rhyolitic and basanitic).
2. Mechanical mixing of two liquids of less contrasted chemistry (latitic and basanitic).
3. Progressive solution of a solid phase (quartz) into the magma.
4. Vapour phase transfers.

Qualitative magmatic contamination in alkalies (mainly K) and silica results from all these processes; quantitatively, the most important of them seems to be 4.     

Some critical remarks on the analysis of phengite and paragonite components in muscovite by X-ray diffractometry

In the past lattice parameters b and c of muscovite s.1. from pelitic schists have been used to determine its phengite and paragonite component. A critical review of the literature and of some new data shows, however,

that a convincing statistical correlation between these physical and chemical properties does not exist

that an eventual trend-like correlation cannot be used for a quantitative analysis of phengite and/or paragonite components in muscovite.

Obviously further factors influence the lattice parameters of muscovite s.1., besides octahedral and interlayer chemistry.     

Altération supergène des protores à grenats manganésifères dans quelques gisements d'Afrique de l'Ouest

The wet tropical weathering of Precambrian spessartite quartzites leads to the formation of secondary oxidized ores. These ores result from different successions of superimposed elementary processes, among them:

garnet hydrolysis: Mn, Ca, and Fe are leached, and only an amorphous, silicoaluminous phase remains.

lithiophorite neoformation: Added manganese combines with alumina of the amorphous, Si-Al products.

leaching: Voids appear in the central part of the weathered garnets. They may widen, leaving only the quartz matrix with polyhedric voids.

epigenic replacement: The quartz is replaced by cryptomelane, while the garnets may remain unweathered.

The various ore types are characterized by the sequence of transformations and by the volumes that each transformation affects. These transformations are old because they are observed not only in situ ores but also in removed detrital ores. In the same way the major part of the accumulated stocks of oxidized ores must be old.     

Essai d'organisation paléogéographique et structurale du PaléozoÏque des Andes Méridionales

Hercynian absolute ages obtained from many plutonites and metamorphites of the Sierras Pampeanas compel to consider this polymetamorphic domain rather as an intermediate hinterland and axis of divergent symmetry between the two elementary geosyncline ranges (Cuyanides and Bolivianides) of the south america hercynian orogen. Attempt of Cuyanides paleogeographic organization indice to define during the geosyncline period (Cambrian to Devonian):

the Pampean zone which consist of:

1. an internal sub-zone (eastern) or pampean s. st. with hinterland significance
2. a more external sub-zone (western) or transpampean or Umango sub-zone with intermediate features between eugeanticlinal ridge and eugeosynclinal furrow;
3. the Calingasta zone as a typical eugeosynclinal furrow with pelagic-terrigenous ordovician sedimentation and ophiolitic magmatism followed by early silurian than devonian Flyschs;
4. the Zonda zone as an external ridge with neritic cambro-ordovician facies and devonian flyschs.

The unwonted position of Zonda no metamorphic Facies surrounded by Calingasta and Umango metamorphic Facies, suggest its window situation and wide allochthonous structures for the internal zones. An eastward origin of the nappes is discussed in relation with pampean syntectonic metamorphism and plutonism. Essentially, structures are referred to the Acadian phase (= bretonic) but early paleo-hercynian phases are also emphasized to explain Flyschs sequences and some pampean plutonic cycles. Tardi- and Post-hercynian organization is briefly sketched with related molasses, neomolasses and magmatism. The remarquable geosyncline pattern of the Cuyanides is emphasizes in all stages of its evolution and under aspects however tectonic, magmatic and metamorphic. Finally, the fundamentally western polarity of the Cuyanides is replaced into the most general framework of Gondwanides organization.     

Charriage crustal,anatexie et decrochements ductiles dans les Maures orientales (Var,France) au cours de l'orogenese varisque

The kinematics of the deformational events recorded in the catazonal gneisses within the eastern part of the Maures massif (Variscan basement of Provence, southeastern France) has been established. These events can be correlated with both the metamorphic and the magmatic evolution, and the orogenic history of the eastern Maures then consists of the following stages:

1. -HP-metamorphism preserved only in relict eclogites and quartzites rich in calc-silicates,
2. -Catazonal metamorphism involving anatectic melting, broadly contemporaneous with large-scale horizontal transport towards the NNE. During this event, the lithologic units were disrupted and intensively mylonitized.
3. -Intrusion of a first generation of anatectic granitoids.
4. -A second tectonic event under epi-to mesozonal metamorphism conditions is responsible for the northward displacement of the eastern Maures relative to the western part along a sinistral strike-slip fault 4 km wide (Ramatuelle — Plan de la Tour fault) in which the early anatectic granitoids have been mylonitized. Outside the fault zone, this event is marked by upright to W-vergent open folds trending N-S, i.e. parallel to the transport direction.
5. -A moderate cataclastic reactivation of the Ramatuelle — Plan de la Tour fault with a dextral sense of shear, locally accompanied in the eastern part of the area by minor lowtemperature thrusting towards the south.
6. -Intrusion of a second generation of anatectic granites about 320 Ma ago.

The metamorphic, magmatic and tectonic evolution of the eastern Maures suggests a continuous orogenic history in an area of rapid crustal thickening by large-scale thrusting within the continental crust. This evolution may be related to the development of continental subduction during the continent/continent collision responsible for the Variscan orogeny in southern Europe.     

High-pressure relics in meta-sediments intercalated with the Weissenstein eclogite,Münchberg gneiss complex,Bavaria

The mineral assemblages in the eclogites and meta-sediments of the Münchberg gneiss complex suggest minimum pressures of about 15 kbar, and temperatures of 600±30° C for the eclogite-facies metamorphism. Both rock types underwent a subsequent amphibolite-facies metamorphism at almost the same temperature range. In the Weissenstein borehole the eclogites and meta-sediments show an intimate interlayering on a centimetre scale. Contacts between the two rock types are often sharp and untectonized suggesting in-situ metamorphism of the eclogites. The following features indicate that the gneisses were subjected to eclogite-facies metamorphism:

1. Phengite relics and phengite inclusions in garnet contain up to 3.45 Si per formula unit while amphibolite facies phengites have considerably lower Si-contents (3.0–3.25 p.f.u.).
2. Omphacite relics occur in the form of Na-augite (6–9 mol% jadeite)-oligoclase symplectites.
3. Garnets with up to 40 mol% of the pyrope component occur.

The geological and mineral-chemical data indicate that large volumes of crustal material have been buried to depths possibly exceeding 70 km. The preservation of primary eclogitic textures as well as symplectitic textures in the presence of a fluid phase, are indicative of a rapid decompression. This would suggest a tectonic uplift (e.g. underthrusting) as is also indicated by the virtually constant temperature range during the uplift.     

Fabrics and sequences of submarine carbonate cements in Holocene Bermuda cup reefs

A variety of precipitative synsedimentary CaCO₃ cements lines or fills cavities and surrounds sediment particles within Recent algal cup reefs which dot the rim of the Bermuda platform. These include aragonite needle, spherulitic, and lath cements as well as calcite micrite, palisade, scale, and blocky cements, listed according to respective relative abundances. No distribution pattern of cements is apparent; various combinations of three or four cements are found in almost every sample or thin section. From the occurrence of various cements, factors determining composition and fabric are deduced:

1. Morphology, composition, and coating of the substrate.
2. Direct or indirect influence of organisms such as algae, pelecypods, or crustaceans.
3. Micro-environment, specifically size and permeability, rate of sea-water circulation through the micro-environment, substrates and organisms within the microenvironment.

Various sequences of two or three precipitative cements result from changes in microenvironment; the only cause of such change recognized is the entrance of endolithic algae into partly cemented cavities. This study provides some insight into the origin of submarine cements and a basis for comparative interpretation of cements in fossil marine environments, especially fossil reefs.     

Zur Genese der Migmatite des Beaume-Tales (Mittlere Cévennen,Dép. Ardèche)

Samples of micaschists, gneisses, and migmatites from a sequence of metamorphic subfacies of the Gévennes Médianes (Dép. Ardèche, France) are characterized chemically by

1. a high and only slightly varying Al₂O₃ content (m.v.=17.5₇ wt.-%, stand, dev.=1.804, var. coeff.=0.103).
2. a negligible variation of the molar MgO/MgO+FeO ratio (m.v.=0.504, stand. dev.= 0.066, var. coeff.=0.130), and
3. an insignificant variation of the molar CaO/CaO + Na₂O ratio (m.v.=0.360, stand. dev.=0.014, var. coeff.=0.039).

The Na₂O and K₂O values of the migmatite samples are respectively 14 and 30% higher than those of the samples of the neighbouring gneisses and schists. The concentrations of all other major elements of the migmatites are within the variation limits determined for the gneisses and schists. Samples displaying initial migmatization have the following petrography:

1. The light-coloured portions of the migmatites (leueosome) contain alkalifeldspar, plagioclase, and quartz, the dark-coloured ones (melanosome) are always free of alkalifeldspar and contain, besides ferromagnesian constituents, both plagioclase and quartz.
2. The plagioclase of the melanosome has a remarkably higher An-content (An30–40mol.-%) than that one of the leueosome (An 9–14 mol.-%).

These observations seem to represent petrographic evidence that leueosome and melanosome have been in a restite-melt-relation at a temperature that just reached or slightly exceeded the value necessary to produce the beginning of melting. In addition, major element analyses of separated leueosome portions of samples displaying the petrography mentioned above have been undertaken. Normative Qz ∶ Ab: Or-ratios calculated from these analyses vary within very narrow limits about the average value of Qz ∶ Ab ∶ Or=36 ∶ 31 ∶ 33. Using the diagrams of von Platen (1965) concerning the crystallization of granitic melts the petrographic findings can be verified from analytical results, i.e. the migmatites of the Beaume valley are considered to be products of minimum temperature melting of the gneisses which still occur unaltered in adjoining areas of lower metamorphic grade.     

Petrogenesis of the Elzevir batholith and related trondhjemitic intrusions in the grenville province of eastern Ontario,Canada

The Elzevir batholith belongs to a suite of trondhjemitic intrusions emplaced at ca. 1,240 Ma in the Grenville Province of eastern Ontario. New major and trace element data, including REE, combined with isotopic and petrographic data indicate that:

1. the batholith has calc-alkalic affinities;
2. the Elzevir parental magma is very similar to that of dacites in the nearby, coeval metavolcanic rocks; the magma formed by partial melting of crustal material at granulite grade;
3. chemical differences between the plutonic and volcanic rocks can be best explained by accumulation of plagioclase in the plutonic environment;
4. fractionation was dominated by plagioclase and quartz, with lesser biotite and epidote, and minor zircon and apatite.

It is suggested that melting of sialic crust took place during the ‘docking’ of a partly-evolved, originally ensimatic arc system against the main cratonic mass to the northwest.     

Aperçu sur les amas sulfurés massifs des hercynides Marocaines

Massive sulfide deposits located on Hercynian islets of northwestern Morocco exhibit four main characteristics:

They are strata-bound massive pyrrhotite deposits mined for sulfur and/or base metals occasionally occurring as sulfides of workable grade.

Volcanic rocks with which these massive sulfide orebodies are associated are scarce, although always present as acid flows of submarine emissions of either rhyolitic or more often quartz-keratophyric nature. Later on, basic plutonics intruded the pelitic country rocks.

Stockworks underlying the massive sulfide orebodies are common, but not systematic. When present, they occur in siltite ± phyllite ± carbonate rocks at the wall of massive sulfide lenses. They consist of fissural disseminations transformed by epimetamorphic recrystallization and by one schistosity generally concordant with s₀.

Associated alterites and exhalites belong to three types, i.e., sericitite (or biotite-rich rock), chloritite, and/or chert (jasper).

Generally well located in a back-arc basin environment characterized by a two-phase geological history, i.e., “extension and volcanism, compression and metamorphism”, these volcano-sedimentary deposits exhibit distal features with regard to the volcanism coeval with their sedimentation. They are mostly linked with strongly reducing environmental properties entailing pyrrhotite and/or magnetite syngenetic deposition, whatever the iron activity.     

The Araguainha astrobleme/Central Brazil

The following facts have supported the origin of the Araguainha circular structure in Central Brazil by a meteoritic impact:

1. the almost circular contour
2. the impact-morphologic sequence including a central uplift, ring walls and a basin rim of escarpments
3. outcrops of suevites and mixed breccias
4. the evidence of shock metamorphism
5. the presence of shatter cones, and
6. negative anomalies of the total intensity of the magnetic field at the center of the ring structure.

     

Die Hoch-Tiefquarz-Inversion als petrologisches Hilfsmittel

It was shown by Keith and Tuttle (1952) that the high-low inversion of quartz from different sources can occur at somewhat variable temperatures; the authors suggest the determination of the inversion temperature (= t _i) as a “finger print method” for the geologic conditions of formation of the mineral. The results of the d.t.a. investigations reported here on the inversion temperature of 145 quartz samples from 130 localities (72 minerals from igneous rocks, 31 which had been formed authigenically in sediments, 17 from metamorphic rocks, 25 detritical quartzes from sediments) have been gained by exactly standardized methods of preparation and investigation (precision of t _i-determination: ±0.1° C).

1. The mean of t _i of all investigated quartz samples from igneous rocks lies at 573.2° C, the mean t _i of all quartzes which have been formed authigenically in sediments at 563.6° C. The t _i of all investigated specimens ranges from 536.9° to 576.3° C.
2. There is a boundary between the t _i of igneous and authigenically formed quartzes: the t _i of all investigated quartzes that were formed authigenically is lower than 570.9° C, the t _i of all investigated quartzes from igneous rocks, however, lies above this temperature.
3. There has no dependence been observed between t _i and temperature of formation as described by Keith and Tuttle. There is, however, a destinct dependence between the lowering of t _i and the degree of substitution of Al³⁺ and alkali metals for Si⁴⁺. The amount of foreign ions present in the lattice of quartz depends much more strongly on the concentrations of these ions in the solutions resp. melts from which the quartz crystals have formed than on temperature.
4. Besides substitution physical properties of the quartz crystals influence the variation of t _i . In the case of authigenically formed quartzes t _i will be the lower the worse the degree of crystallization. The microcrystalline quartz which had been formed authigenically in siliceous nodules in slates shows the lowest t _i of all investigated specimens. The influence of lattice defects and the factors which are responsible for them is discussed especially with regard to the t _i of metamorphic quartzes.
5. Inclusions of other minerals, liquids or gasses have no influence on the t _i of quartz.
6. The quartzes from a metamorphic sequence (Beaume valley, France) ranging through all subfacies of the greenschist and the amphibolite facies show characteristic differences in their t _i which can be explained partly by an “effect of recrystallization”.
7. The efficiency of t _i -determinations as a petrologic tool is outlined.

     

Paläoklima und paläoozeanische Verhältnisse im SW-Pazifik während der letzten 6 Millionen Jahre (DSDP - Site 594, Chatham Rücken, östlich Neuseeland)

Detailed sedimentological investigations were performed on sediments from DSDP-Site 594 (Chatham Rise, east of New Zealand) in order to reconstruct the evolution of paleoclimate and paleoceanographic conditions in the Southwest Pacific during the last 6 million years. The results can be summarized as follows:

1. High accumulation rates of biogenic opal and carbonate and the dominance of smectites in the clay fraction suggest increased oceanic productivity and an equable dominantly humid climate during the late Miocene.
2. During Pliocene times, decreasing contents of smectites and increasing feldspar/quartz ratios point to an aridification in the source area of the terrigenous sediments, culmunating near 2.5 Ma. At that time, accumulation rates of terrigenous components distinctly increased probably caused by increased sediment supply due to intensified atmospheric and oceanic circulation, lowered sea level, and decreased vegetation cover.
3. A hiatus (1.45 to 0.73 Ma) suggests intensified intermediate-water circulation.
4. Major glacial/interglacial cycles characterize the upper 0.73 Ma. During glacial times, oceanic productivity and terrigenous sediment supply was distinctly increased because of intensified atmospheric and oceanic circulations and lowered sea level, whereas during interglacials productivity and terrigenous sediment supply were reduced.
5. An increased content of amphibols in the sediments of Site 594 indicates increased volcanic activities during the last 4.25 Ma.