Chemistry and origin of chloritoid rocks from eastern Taiwan

Chloritoid-rich rocks occur as thin pods or lenses in the well-foliated marble and greenschist of the pre-Tertiary metamorphic complex of eastern central Taiwan. They contain unusually abundant chloritoid: 60–90% in the massive rocks and 30–50% in the schistose rocks. Compared to the adjacent basaltic greenschist, the chloritoid rocks contain extremely low SiO₂, CaO and Na₂O and very high Al₂O₃, total Fe as Fe₂O₃, and TiO₂. Both monoclinic and triclinic chloritoids were identified. These rocks may have been derived originally from fossil lateritic soils formed from a basaltic layer in a limestone terrain. These soils and the bedded rocks were then metamorphosed in the chlorite-biotite zone of the greenschist facies.