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Blueschist alteration during serpentinization

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Abstract

The petrogenesis of Franciscan-type blueschists is controversial or paradoxial in regard to the possible significance of the serpentinite-blueschist association, the isochemical vs. allochemical character of blueschist metamorphism, the significance of “high pressure” mineralogy, and the physical-geologic-tectonic conditions existing during metamorphism. A model for blueschist alteration during serpentinization is presented that departs from conventional treatments of metamorphism because the reaction path rather then the thermodynamically lowest energy state is considered to be a controlling factor.

Alteration of ultramafic rocks to serpentinites requires oxidation of iron in the rock and selective withdrawal of water from saline pore fluids derived from surrounding eugeosynclinal rocks. Pore fluids become concentrated and chemically reducing in the vicinity of serpentinites.

The activated pore fluids may react with surrounding rocks via reactions that include a reduction step. The pore fluids may also affect the reaction path through surface chemical effects existing between mineral surfaces and/or “growth units” and the reducing pore fluid. The degree of polarization of oxygen ions in the silicate structural types, a function of polymerization and aluminum substitution, may control the surface effects and result in the preferential growth of chain silicates, and, more generally, of silicates with low amounts of tetrahedral aluminum.

The ratio Mg+2/H+ in the pore fluid can change during serpentinization depending on the extent to which magnesium is lost from the original mafic rock. This ratio may be an important control on the growth of jadeite vs. glaucophane in the presence of excess quartz.

The reduction reactions and those involving conventional fluid-solid equilibria cause a change in pore fluid chemistry as the reaction proceeds. Such reactions may explain short-range metasomatic transitions observed in some blueschists. The kinetic controls involving surface chemical effects are catalytic and may explain isochemical phenomena.

The ultimate “drive” for the process is the large negative free energy change of serpentinization that results when ultramafic rocks are emplaced in eugeosynclinal rocks with which they are not in equilibrium. Removal of this overwhelming disequilibrium may induce secondary disequilibrium and activation of pore fluids, producing Franciscan-type blueschists.

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  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Washington, 98105, Seattle, Washington

    Randall L. Gresens

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Gresens, R.L. Blueschist alteration during serpentinization. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 24, 93–113 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00376885

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