Chloritöid-pyrophyllite-rectorite facies rocks from Brittany,France

Electron microprobe analyses of minerals in low grade metamorphic sandy black shales of middle Paleozoic age indicate that chemical equilibrium was closely approached in authigenic ferro-magnesian or alkali-bearing phases while aluminum silicate minerals appear to have reacted at a slower rate. The K for Mg-Fe in chlorite-chloritöid pairs is 0.19, the latter phase being iron-rich. The pseudomorphism of detrital white micas produces kaolinite, pyrophyllite and intimate mixtures of muscoviteparagonite. New phases forming in other sites include chlorite, chloritöid and rectorite which is an ordered paragonitebeidellite mixed layered phase. These minerals were formed at temperatures below 280° C. This is just above the stability of the illite-smectite mixed layered minerals which have an ISII ordering sequence (85 to 95% illite). It was noted that ferromagnesian minerals attain chemical equilibrium on a thin-section scale while the aluminous phases often seem to respond to chemical potentials operative on a submillimetric scale.