Compositional evolution in Ca-amphibole in the Karmutsen metabasites, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract The 6-km-thick Karmutsen metabasites, exposed over much of Vancouver Island, were thermally metamorphosed by intrusions of Jurassic granodiorite and granite. Observations of about 800 thin sections from the Campbell River and Buttle Lake area show that the metabasites provide a complete succession of mineral assemblages ranging from the zeolite to pyroxene hornfels facies around the intrusion. The most important observations are as follows. (1) The compositional change of Ca-amphiboles with increasing metamorphic grade is not straightforward. The tremolite component decreases from the prehnite–actinolite facies to the greenschist facies with a compensating tschermak component increase, but the tendency is not clear thereafter. Instead, the edenite component increases from the amphibolite facies to the pyroxene hornfels facies. (2) The most pargasitic Ca-amphibole occurs in high-Fe²⁺/Mg metabasite from the greenschist/amphibolite transition zone. (3) The reasons for such irregular compositional trends, even in the rather uniform MORB-like composition of the Karmutsen metabasites, are non-ideal solid solutions of Ca-amphibole at low temperature and the effective control by bulk rock composition in the amphibolite facies. (4) The data from this study support, but do not prove, a transition loop for the actinolite–hornblende compositional gap rather than a solvus. If the gap is a solvus, its shape is asymmetric, and is highly dependent on the other compositional parameters such as Fe³⁺/Al and Fe²⁺/Mg. (5) The X_NaA/X_A±X_Ab) ratios between Ca-amphibole and plagioclase are most useful as an indicator of metamorphic grade even within the amphibolite facies, and these change systematically from 0.2 to 0.5 from the greenschist to pyroxene hornfels facies. (6) The compositional trend of Ca-amphibole from the Karmutsen metabasites indicates a typical low-P/T metamorphic facies series on a Rbk–Gln–Tr–Ts diagram.