Stability of manganocordierite and related phase equilibria in part of the system MnO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O

The pressure temperature stability of the phase Mn-cordierite hitherto not recorded as a mineral has been determined at temperatures ranging from 400° C up to the melting mainly using standard hydrothermal techniques at the oxygen fugacities provided by the buffering power of the bomb walls. Manganocordierite is a pronounced low-pressure phase with a maximum pressure stability of about 1 kb near 400° C and decreasing pressure limits at higher temperatures. Throughout the temperature range investigated the stable high-pressure breakdown assemblage of Mn-cordierite is spessartine, an Al-silicate, and a SiO₂-polymorph. Due to the variable water contents of Mn-cordierite and spessartine there is a pronounced curvature in the negative dP/dT-slope of the requisite upper pressure breakdown curve of Mn-cordierite. Only theoretical deductions were possible concerning the stable hydrous low-temperature breakdown assemblage of Mn-cordierite below about 400° C.The manganocordierites synthesized are orthorhombic low-cordierites with distortion indices increasing with temperature, water pressure, and duration of heating. Their mean refractive indices increase with rising contents of absorbed water in the structural channels. Based on experiments with natural material the upper temperature stability limit of the mineral carpholite must lie at temperatures below about 400° C for water pressures up to 2.5 kb.The absence of Mn-cordierite from natural rocks studied thus far cannot be explained on chemical grounds, but must be due to its narrow pressure temperature stability range. The phase may yet be discovered as a mineral in manganiferous metasediments formed by lowpressure contact metamorphism.