Calcite–dolomite geothermometry in the system CaCO3–MgCO3–FeCO3: an experimental study

Abstract An experimental study of the system CaCO₃–MgCO₃–FeCO₃ was undertaken in order to calibrate the iron correction to the calcite–dolomite geothermometer, which is based on the solubility of magnesium in calcite in the assemblage calcite + dolomite. The experiments, at 450°C and lower temperatures, resulted in products with a very small grain size and incomplete equilibration. However, application of a carefully-devised automatic data processing algorithm to analyses of the phases in experimental charges, combined with a thermodynamic analysis, results in geothermometer diagrams which should be preferred to previous theoretical predictions.     

Calculated phase equilibria involving chemical potentials to investigate the textural evolution of metamorphic rocks

Evolving pressure–temperature conditions during metamorphism drive changes in the stable mineral assemblage, mineral proportions and mineral compositions in rocks. These changes are achieved via the diffusion of components between minerals, fluid and melt, the driving force for diffusion being the gradients in chemical potential of the components developed spatially within the rock. This study utilises recent developments in the software thermocalc to investigate quantitatively chemical potential relationships in rocks, with the phases involved being (solid) solutions. Phase diagrams with chemical potentials as axes are used to understand better the spatial rearrangement of components during the metamorphic evolution of rocks and the metamorphic textures that result. In contrast to qualitative chemical potential diagrams, quantitative diagrams can be contoured for mineral composition, allowing consideration of chemical zoning in minerals. Furthermore, the amount of material required to diffuse to equalise chemical potentials can be calculated. We start by demonstrating the approach via an example of retrograde corona development in an ultra-high-temperature granulite. Whereas the use of chemical potentials to consider the retrograde development of corona textures is well known, they are also significant in considering the prograde history. The role of chemical potentials in prograde metamorphic textural evolution is highlighted in consideration of the consumption and growth of aluminosilicates during the kyanite-to-sillimanite reaction, and the growth of garnet porphyroblasts.     

Influence of ferric iron on the stability of mineral assemblages

Ferric iron is present in all metamorphic rocks and has the ability to significantly affect their phase relations. However, the influence of ferric iron has commonly been ignored, or at least not been considered quantitatively, mainly because its abundance in rocks and minerals is not determined by routine analytical techniques. Mineral equilibria calculations that explicitly account for ferric iron can be used to examine its effect on the phase relations in rocks and, in principle, allow the estimation of the oxidation state of rocks. This is illustrated with calculated pseudosections in NCKFMASHTO for mafic and pelitic rock compositions. In addition, it is shown that ferric iron has the capacity to significantly increase the stability of the corundum + quartz assemblage, making it possible for this assemblage to exist at crustal P–T conditions in oxidized rocks of appropriate composition.     

Facies relationships in Pleistocene outwash gravels, southern Ontario: a model for bar growth in braided rivers

Facies relationships in Pleistocene braided outwash deposits in southern Ontario demonstrate the presence of a large braid bar with adjacent side channel. The core of the bar is up to 6 m high, and consists of crudely horizontally stratified gravels. Downstream from the core is the bar front facies, consisting of large gravelly foresets up to 4 m high, rounded off in many places by reactivation surfaces. Upstream from the core is the bar stoss side facies consisting of several sets (individually up to 35 cm thick) of tabular cross-bedding, arranged in coarsening-upward sequences. The stoss side—core—bar front relationships are continuously exposed in one 400 m long quarry face which is cut almost parallel to the palaeoflow direction. A transverse quarry face shows the side channel facies, which consists of trough cross-bedded sands. Gravel layers can be seen to finger from the main gravelly bar into the sandy side channel, but they do not reach the base of the channel. This surprising relationship indicates that gravel moved only in the topographically higher parts of the system. After deposition in the side channel, and growth upstream and downstream from the bar core, the entire system aggraded. Crudely horizontally stratified, and imbricated gravel sheets were laid down as a bar top facies. Grain size analyses indicate strongly bimodal distributions, implying that much of the sand in the spaces between pebbles and boulders filtered in after the gravel had been deposited. This interpretation is strengthened by velocity calculations—mean velocities in excess of 300 cm/s would be needed to roll the gravel as bed load, but at such a velocity, a large amount of sand would be transported entirely in suspension. In a final section of the paper, our results are combined with other work on braided systems in an attempt to formulate a more general facies model.     

Metapelitic granulites from Jetty Peninsula,east Antarctica: formation during a single event or by polymetamorphism?

Granulite facies metasedimentary gneiss exposed on Jetty Peninsula, east Antarctica, contains assemblages involving garnet-sillimanite-biotite-cordierite-spinel-ilmenite-rutile and garnet-orthopyroxene-cordierite-biotite, as well as quartz and K-feldspar. Peak assemblages involve garnet + sillimanite + ilmenite (±rutile) and garnet + orthopyroxene. P-T calculations suggest formation conditions of approximately 800d? C at 7-7.5 kbar. Cooling from peak conditions is suggested by biotite + garnet (±sillimanite) overprinting some peak assemblages. A subsequent increase in temperature is inferred from the formation of cordierite + garnet + biotite + ilmenite, garnet + sillimanite + cordierite + ilmenite and cordierite + orthopyroxene assemblages during D2. In slightly zincian bulk compositions, hercynitic spinel + cordierite + sillimanite constitutes the peak D2 assemblage. Average pressure calculations indicate peak pressures of 5.9 ±0.4 kbar at 700d? C for the cordierite-bearing D2 assemblages. Available radiometric data suggest that peak metamorphism occurred at c. 1000 Ma and D2 occurred after 940 ± 20 Ma. The following two possibilities exist for the metamorphic evolution. (1) The formation of the lower pressure cordierite-bearing assemblages is associated with a separate metamorphic event (M2), unrelated to the peak assemblage (M1), and the lower pressure assemblages have no relevance in terms of a single tectonothermal event. (2) The cordierite-bearing assemblages formed during a progression from peak conditions. In this case, the lower pressure assemblages reflect a broadly decompressional metamorphic evolution, during which temperatures fluctuated. Comparison with P-T paths from granulites of similar age in adjacent areas suggests that the second possibility should be preferred. The cooling interval between peak conditions and the development of cordierite-bearing coronas and symplectites suggests affinities with isobarically cooled granulites of similar age immediately to the west, and the low-P/high-T post-peak conditions are similar to the later stages of decompressional paths recognized in much of east Antarctica.     

Melting Experiments on a Sanidine Phlogopite Lamproite at 4-7 GPa and their Bearing on the Sources of Lamproitic Magmas

Suprasolidus phase relations at pressures from 4 to 7 GPa andtemperatures from 1000 to 1700C have been determined experimentallyfor a sanidine phlogopite lamproite from North Table Mountain,Leucite Hills, Wyoming. The lamproite is silica rich and hasbeen postulated to be representative of the magmas which wereparental to the Leucite Hills volcanic field. Near-liquidusphases above 5 GPa are pyrope-rich garnet and jadeite-rich pyroxene.Below 5 GPa, jadeite-poor pyroxene is the only near-liquidusphase. Near-solidus assemblages consist of clinopyroxene, titanianpotassium richterite and titanian phlogopite with either potassiumtitanian silicate above 5 GPa or potassium feldspar below 5GPa. The potassium titanian silicate is a newly recognized high-pressurephase ranging in composition from K₄Ti₂Si₇O₂₀ to K₄TiSi₈O₂₀.It coexists with coesite at pressures above 6 GPa at 1100–1400C.A previously unrecognized K-Ba-phosphate is a common near-solidusphase. The phase relationships are interpreted to suggest thatlamproites cannot be derived by the partial melting of simplelherzolitic sources. However, it is proposed that sanidine phlogopitelamproites an derived by high degrees of partial melting ofancient metasomatic veins within a harzburgitic–lherzoliticlithospheric substrate mantle. The veins are considered to consistof phlogopite, K–Ti-richterite, K–Ba-phosphate andK–Ti-silicates. KEY WORDS: lamproilte; experimental petrology; upper mantle ^*Corresponding author     

Mineral activity–composition relations and petrological calculations involving cation equipartition in multisite minerals: a logical inconsistency

Equipartition is an assumption that preserves the same relative fraction of the cations on each site, originally used just to distribute cations such as Fe and Mg over two or more sites during mineral recalculation. This approximation has been used in almost all thermometry and barometry applications in petrology involving pyroxene, amphibole, chlorite and biotite mica. It has also become the default approach used in deriving activity–composition relations in multisite minerals where details of element partitioning among the sites is unknown and therefore assumed to be random. It is shown that, where a third element, such as Al, resides on just one of the sites, equipartition introduces a serious logical and numerical inconsistency between the enthalpy and entropy of mixing. In particular, application of equipartition is demonstrated to be equivalent to treating the solution as one in which all cations reside on one type of site. For example, in the case of aluminous orthopyroxene the equipartition assumption implies that Fe, Mg and Al are distributed across two identical sites, and that end‐members such as Mg‐tschermak's pyroxene have enthalpies characterized by a totally disordered distribution of Mg and Al over the M2 and M1 sites. Clearly this is unsupportable, and solid solutions should be treated with appropriate thermodynamics for order–disorder. For phases where element partitioning data are unavailable, we offer a simple alternative strategy, using the ordering of Fe and Mg on M1 and M2 sites in biotite as an example.     

Mafic Mineralogy of Ferroaugite Syenite from the Coldwell Alkaline Complex, Ontario, Canada

A 1500 m thick sheet-like body of ferroaugite syenite is divisiblemineralogically into an upper and lower series of syenites.The lower syenites are characterized by well developed igneouslayering defined by mafic cumulus minerals. The syenites aresaturated to oversaturated and contain as cumulus phases alkalifeldspar, olivine (Fa_83–93), ferroaugite (Di₅₀Hd₄₅Ac₅–Di₅Hd₉₀Ac₅)and ilmeno-magnetite. Amphiboles which crystallized from theintercumulus liquid range in composition from ferrohastingsitichornblende to ferroedenitic hornblende to ferroactinolitic edenite.The upper series are coarse grained cumulates with poorly definedlayering and abundant patch pegmatites. Cumulus phases are alkalifeldspar, olivine (Fa₉₃), and acmitic-hedenbergite (Di₅Hd₅₀Ac₅–Ac₅₀Hd₅₀).Intercumulus liquids are peralkaline and crystallized to aenigmatiteand amphiboles which range in composition from ferrorichteritickatophorite to ferrorichterite, Patch pegmatites are peralkalinerocks composed of ferrorichterite, ferroactinolite, alkali feldspar,aenigmatite, quartz and zircon. Extreme differentiation of ferroaugitesyenite magma generates residua which are ironrich, oversaturatedand peralkaline. Initial and final temperatures of crystallizationare estimated from mineral stability data to be 800–900°C to 500–550 °C respectively. Thermodynamic dataand mineral compositions indicate that during crystallizationthe oxygen fugacity of the magma decreased from approximately10^–15 to 10^–23–10^–24 bars. Ferroaugitesyenite pyroxene compositional trends are similar to those ofundersaturated peralkaline syenites (llimaussaq) and demonstratethat acmite enrichment trends are independent of silica activityand take place under decreasing oxygen fugacities.     

Retrograde melt–residue interaction and the formation of near‐anhydrous leucosomes in migmatites

Considering physical segregation of melt from its residue, the chemical potentials of the components (oxides) are the same in both when segregation occurs. Then, as P–T conditions change, gradients in chemical potential are established between the melt‐rich domains and residue permitting diffusional interaction to occur. In particular, on cooling, the chemical potential of H₂O becomes higher in the melt segregation than in the residue, particularly when biotite becomes stable in the residue assemblage. Diffusion of water from the melt to the residue promotes crystallization of anhydrous products from the melt and hydrous products in the residue. This diffusive process, when coupled with melt loss from the rocks subsequent to some degree of crystallization, can result in a significant degree of anhydrous leucosome being preserved in a migmatite with only minor retrogression of the residue. If H₂O can diffuse between the melt segregation and all of the residue, then no apparent selvedge between the two will be observed. Alternatively, if H₂O can diffuse between the melt segregation and only part of the residue, then a distinct selvedge may be produced. Diffusion of H₂O into the residue may be in part responsible for the commonly anhydrous nature of leucosomes, especially in granulite facies migmatites. Diffusion of other relatively mobile species such as Na₂O and K₂O has a lesser effect on overall melt crystallization but can change the proportion of quartz, plagioclase and K‐feldspar in the resultant leucosome. The diffusion of H₂O out of the melt results in the enhanced crystallization of the melt in the segregation and increases the amount of resulting anhydrous leucosome relative to the amount produced if melt crystallized in chemical isolation from the residue. For high residue:melt ratios, the proportion of resulting near‐anhydrous leucosome can approach that of the proportion of melt present at the onset of cooling with only minor loss of melt from a given segregation required. Crystallization of melt segregations via the diffusion of H₂O out of them into the host may also play a major role in driving melt‐rich segregations across key rheological transitions that would allow the expulsion of remaining melt from the system.     

Sedimentology and tectonic implications of Cretaceous fan-delta conglomerates, Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada

The Honna Formation, of Coniacian age, consists of several hundred metres of polymictic clast-supported conglomerate associated with sandstone and mudstone. Five conglomerate facies are recognized: ungraded beds; inverse graded beds; normal graded beds; inverse-to-normal graded beds; and parallel-stratified beds. These facies are interpreted as the deposits of subaqueous cohesionless debris flows and/or high-density turbidity currents. The depositional environment was a deep-water, gravelly fan that draped a fault-controlled, basin-margin slope. The fan is inferred to have passed upslope directly into an alluvial fan (unpreserved); hence, the name fan delta can be applied to the overall depositional system. This type of fan delta, of which the Brae oilfield in the North Sea is an example, is defined here as a deep-water fan delta. The lack of a shelf is in marked contrast to other types of fan delta. Three facies associations are recognized in the Honna Formation: subaqueous proximal-fan conglomerates, distal-fan turbiditic sandstones, and pro-fan/interfan mudstones with thin sandy turbidites. The proximal fan is envisaged as an unchannelled gravel belt with a downslope length of at least 20 km; such a long subaqueous gravel belt lacks a known modern analogue. The distal fan was an unchannelled sandy extension of the proximal gravel belt. It is postulated that the Honna Formation accumulated in a foreland basin which migrated westwards from the Coast Mountains where the Wrangellia-Alexander terrane was colliding with North America. In this model, the Honna fan delta was sourced by a (west-verging) thrust sheet whose sole-thrust was the Sandspit Fault immediately to the east. Deep-water fan deltas appear to develop preferentially when eustatic sea-level is relatively high, so that the‘feeder’ alluvial fan is small, and gravelly throughout. In petroleum exploration and field development, care should be taken to distinguish deep-water fan deltas from base-of-slope (canyon-fed) submarine fans, because the two systems differ significantly in terms of coarse-sediment distribution.