Experimental determination of the reaction paragonite=jadeite+kyanite+H2O,and internally consistent thermodynamic data for part of the system Na2O−Al2O3−SiO2−H2O,with applications to eclogites and blueschists

Hydrothermal reversal experiments have been performed on the upper pressure stability of paragonite in the temperature range 550–740 ° C. The reaction $$\begin{gathered} {\text{NaAl}}_{\text{3}} {\text{Si}}_{\text{3}} {\text{O}}_{{\text{1 0}}} ({\text{OH)}}_{\text{2}} \hfill \\ {\text{ paragonite}} \hfill \\ {\text{ = NaAlSi}}_{\text{2}} {\text{O}}_{\text{6}} + {\text{Al}}_{\text{2}} {\text{SiO}}_{\text{5}} + {\text{H}}_{\text{2}} {\text{O}} \hfill \\ {\text{ jadeite kyanite vapour}} \hfill \\ \end{gathered}$$ has been bracketed at 550 ° C, 600 ° C, 650 ° C, and 700 ° C, at pressures 24–26 kb, 24–25.5 kb, 24–25 kb, and 23–24.5 kb respectively. The reaction has a shallow negative slope (? 10 bar °C^?1) and is of geobarometric significance to the stability of the eclogite assemblage, omphacite+kyanite. The experimental brackets are thermodynamically consistent with the lower pressure reversals of Chatterjee (1970, 1972), and a set of thermodynamic data is presented which satisfies all the reversal brackets for six reactions in the system Na₂O-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O. The Modified Redlich Kwong equation for H₂O (Holloway, 1977) predicts fugacities which are too high to satisfy the reversals of this study. The P-T stabilities of important eclogite and blueschist assemblages involving omphacite, kyanite, lawsonite, Jadeite, albite, chloritoid, and almandine with paragonite have been calculated using thermodynamic data derived from this study.