Staurolite Stability and Related Parageneses: Theory, Experiments, and Applications

The results of recent investigations on the stability limitsof staurolite have been combined together with those of thepresent study to develop a semi-quantitative model of the P–T–f_o2–Xrelations of staurolite±quartz±magnetite. Theproblem with respect to the hydroxyl content of staurolite hasbeen analysed; it is concluded that no evidence has yet beenmustered to discount the idealised stoichiometry proposed byNaray-Szabó & Sasvari (1958), at least as a limitingcomposition. The stability limits of staurolite±magnetitehave been calculated from the experimental data for the equilibriainvolving quartz. Also the conditions over which the assemblagecordierite+magnetite+quartz could be stable, as well as a quantitativemodel for the fo₂-P stability of almandine ± quartz havebeen deduced theoretically. An analysis is presented of the paragenetic relations of staurolitein common pelitic schists. It is suggested that the formationof staurolite at the expense of either chloritoid or chlorite,rather than the unqualified first appearance of staurolite asproposed by Winkler (1970), should define a ‘staurolite-in’isograd in the range of 500–575 °C. In regional metamorphism,chloritoid, staurolite, and aluminum silicates should, underequilibrium conditions, be unstable relative to almandine ingraphitic pelitic schists involving magnetite (chloritoid/staurolite/Al₂SiO₆+magnetite+quartzalmandine+O₂+H₂O).The limits of P-T conditions over which staurolite and cordieritemay coexist in natural assemblages have been deduced; it isrestricted, almost entirely within the field of andalusite,between 500–700 °C, and 2–6 kbars, thus definingthe range of P-T conditions for the ‘low-pressure intermediate’—or ‘Buchan’–type amphibolite facies discussedby Miyashiro (1961). In assemblages involving staurolite andandalusite, cordierite rather than almandine should usuallybe stable; the reverse holds for assemblages involving stauroliteand sillimanite.