The Four-Phase AFM Assemblage Staurolite--Aluminum Silicate--Biotite--Garnet: Extra Components and Implications for Staurolite--Out Isograds

The prograde disappearance of staurolite can be described inthe model system K₂O-FeO-MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O (KFMASH) by thereaction: staurolite + muscovite + quartz = biotite + aluminumsilicate + garnet + water. The common occurrence and world—widedistribution of the assemblage staurolite-biotite-aluminum silicate-garnet(SBAG) in quartz-mica-schist suggest that the model reactionmay be over-simplified. Previous workers have suggested thatthe SBAG assemblage (1) is a strictly divariant assemblage thatbuffered water activity, (2) is stabilized by non-KFMASH components,and (3) did not attain equilibrium. We used least-squares regression to show that balanced reactionsdo not exist among the minerals in samples of SBAG assemblagesfrom Califonia and New England. The absence of reaction relationshipscan be explained by imbalances in two or three of the minorelements Zn, Mn, and either Ca or Na. The assemblage is apparentlystabilized by non-KFMASH components. Criteria for mapping staurolite-out isograds that representthe conditions of the KFMASH staurolite-out reaction dependon which of the four phases is the ‘extra’ phase,and require an understanding of the thermodynamic effects ofall the ‘extra’ components. Our results suggestthat transition zones of SBAG assemblages near staurolite-outisograds are the result of ‘extra’ components. However,it is uncertain whether µH²O of fluids in equilibriumwith SBAG assemblages varied across such zones.