Mineralogy and Petrology of a Tactite near Helena, Montana |
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Authors: | SHEDLOCK, ROBERT J. ESSENE, ERIC J. |
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Affiliation: | The Department of Geology and Mineralogy, The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109 |
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Abstract: | The aluminous pyroxene, fassaite, occurs in two small tabularbodies within mafic plutonites of the Boulder Batholith nearits north-east margin twelve miles east of Helena, Montana.First described by Knopf & Lee (1957), the bodies are contact-metasomatizedlimestone septa, now magnesian-tactites, consisting chieflyof fassaite, spinel, garnet, vesuvianite, and clintonite. Lesscommon minerals include pargasite, diopside, wollastonite, sphene,perovskite, anorthite, forsterite, calcite and chlorite. Sometwenty-five microprobe analyses of the fassaite show it is variablein composition and largely consists of the components CaMgSi2O6(5383 per cent), CaAl2SiO6 (725 per cent), CaFeAlSiO6(828 per cent), and CaTiAl2O6 (07 per cent). Thestoichiometry generally requires that most of the iron is ferric,consistent with Mössbauer data taken on a typical sample.If fassaite analyses from these and other contact metamorphicrocks are plotted on a triangular diagram with Ca(Mg,Fe)Si2O6,CaAl2SiO6 and CaFeAlSiO6 as end-members, the distribution ofpoints offers no positive evidence for a solvus gap betweenfassaite and diopside as proposed by Ginzburg (1969). The mostaluminous fassaites occur with spinel-clintonite ± grossularand have 25 per cent of the Si replaced by Al, making them truepolymorphs of a garnet (i.e. Gr42And23Pp35). No unusual cationordering is detected in these fassaites by single-crystal X-rayphotographs or Mössbauer measurements. Smede's (1966) estimate of 34 km of stratigraphic coverfor the Boulder Batholith indicates pressures of approximately1 kb, in agreement with the occurrence of andalusite + K-feldsparin a hornfels at the Kokaruda Ranch complex. The partial assemblagesof grossular, epidote, perovskite, anorthite-wollastonite, anorthite-calcite,and fassaite-calcite require XCO2 = 0·12 ± 0·08and T = 570 ± 10 °C at these pressures. These pressuresand temperatures place this occurrence in the upper portionsof the hornblende-hornfels facies after Turner (1968), althoughthe low pressures and water-rich fluids permit assemblages (wollastonite,calcite-forsterite-diopside) that Turner lists as characteristicof the pyroxene-hornfels facies. |
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