Interstratification and other reaction microstructures in the chlorite-berthierine series

 Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results show there is a series of periodically and nonperiodically interstratified structures composed of berthierine and chlorite layers in low-temperature “chlorite” that is one of the alteration products of granulite-facies Archean ironstone from the eastern border of the Beartooth Mountains, Montana. An antiphase domain structure suggests that the interstratified structures are intermediate transformation products formed by reaction from berthierine (serpentine structure) to chlorite. Periodically interstratified structures consisting of chlorite (C) and serpentine-like (S) (or berthierine) layers include (CS), (CCS), (CCCS), (CCCCS), and (CCCCCCS). The layer sequences in interstratified chlorite-berthierine are indicative of the reaction mechanisms that produce the interstratified structures (e.g., crystallization from solution or solid-state transformation). The reaction from berthierine to chlorite is crystallographically much like a cell-preserved phase transformation, even though it is highly reconstructive. Berthierine can be considered a polymorph of the Fe-rich chlorite mineral chamosite, with berthierine as the los-temperature phase. Interstratification and integrowths in the chlorite-berthierine series may be common phenomena in low-temperature layer silicates resembling chlorite. Although such relations are difficult to recognize from chemical analyses or powder X-ray diffraction patterns, they can be observed readily with TEM method. Received: 25 April 1995/Accepted 5 April 1996