ALBERT

Notes: The equilibrium thermodynamics of the reaction:And the equilibrium constant is composed of activities formulated using ideal mixing on sites. Consideration is given to the evaluation of uncertainties in pressures calculated using the geobarometer. Preliminary testing suggests that the geobarometer has considerable potential. Much wider testing is now required.

Notes: Abstract. Pink piemontite-spessartine-bearing and grey-green spessartine-bearing manganiferous quartzose schists derived from siliceous pelagites, and green quartzofeldspathic schists, are described from the greenschist facies of the Haast Schist terrane, near Arrow Junction, western Otago. Electron microprobe data are reported for sphene, spessartine-rich garnet, manganoan epidote, piemontite, tourmaline, phengitic muscovite, chlorite, albite, haematite, rutile, manganoan calcite and chalcopyrite.Metamorphism occurred at about 6.4kbar, 400°C. Xco2 was above the quartz-rutile-calcite-sphene buffer (Xco2± 0.02) throughout the recorded metamorphic history of the piemontite schists. It dropped from above to below this critical buffering value in a spessartine-rich schist and it was close to or below the buffering value in the quartzofeldspathic schists. Production of piemontite required high fO2, believed to be inherited from MnOx in the parent pelagite. Substantial loss of O2 (e.g. minimum of 0.19% by weight in one rock) during diagenesis and/or metamorphism is inferred. In the grey-green schists this inhibited piemontite formation. Slight loss of O2 and Ca2+ accompanied minor late-stage replacement of piemontite by second generation spessartine. Observed zoning and mineral replacements indicate rise of temperature, drop in pressure, or invasion by solutions of lower fO2 and XCO2 equilibrated with surrounding schists.The detailed chemistry of the minerals studied correlates with available Mn and with bulk-rock (Fe3+ x 100)/(Fe2++ Fe3+). The oxidation ratio ranges from 24 in average green quartzofeldspathic schist, through 78 in average grey-green manganiferous quartzose schist, to almost 100 in some piemontite-bearing schists. As Fe2+ gives way to Fe3+, Mg/Fe ratios tend to rise in chlorite, phengite, tourmaline, spessartine, and calcite, Mn increases and Ti decreases in haematite, Mn increases in spessartine and calcite, and Fe increases in rutile. Available divalent cations are depleted relative to Al; chlorite is more aluminous, and phengite more paragonitic than in typical Haast schists.

Notes: Field, petrographic and microprobe investigations of metaclastic rocks, calcareous schists, marbles, chloritic calcareous meta-volcanic units and schists/paragneisses which crop out along the eastern portion of the Central East-West Cross Island Highway in Taiwan demonstrate that metamorphic intensity gradually increases eastward. The lower greenschist facies Slate Formation on the W contains completely recrystallized, pure albitic plagioclase, but at least some of the white micas (± chlorites) probably represent relict detrital flakes. Neo-blastic biotite and epidote occur sporadically in the Pihou(?) Formation, and increase dramatically eastward; concomitantly the abundance of carbonaceous matter decreases to zero in the eastern Tailuko zone, and the amount of chlorite + white mica diminishes somewhat. Epidote becomes more aluminous at higher metamorphic grade. Eastward, phengites change progressively to more muscovitic compositions as the proportion of biotite increases.A close approach to chemical equilibrium for the pre-Cenozoic, complexly deformed metamorphic basement assemblages is suggested by regular, systematic, major and minor element partitioning between analysed coexisting phases. Fractionation is less pronounced on the E, reflecting higher temperatures. Estimated physical conditions of recrystallization with αH2O and αCO2 moderate, are: T 〉 325 ± 75°C, P 〉 3 kbar (W); T 〉 425 ± 75°C, P 〉 4kbar(E).The gradual eastward increase in metamorphic intensity from the Slate Formation through the Pihou(?) Formation and the three Tailuko zones, as well as the relict precursor textures in the pre-Cenozoic layered basement rocks indicate that the observed paragenetic sequence could represent a synchronous Neogene recrystallization event, probably accompanying the Plio-Pleistocene collision of the Asiatic continental margin and the Luzon (Coastal Range) andesitic arc.

Notes: The structure, microstructure and petrology of a small area close to the village of Bard in Val d'Aosta (Italy) has been studied in detail. The area lies across the contact between the Gneiss Minuti (GM) and the Eclogitic Micaschist (EMS) Complexes of the Lower element of the Sesia portion of the Sesia-Lanzo Zone (Western Alps). Both complexes have undergone high-pressure metamorphism, but the metamorphic assemblages indicate a sudden increase in pressure in going across the contact from the GM to the EMS. Therefore, we interpret the contact as a thrust dividing the lower element of the Sesia into two sub-elements. This interpretation is supported by structural evidence.The early Alpine (90-70 Ma) metamorphic history is best preserved in the EMS and is one of increasing pressure associated with thrusting. The maximum P/T recorded in the EMS is 〉1500 MPa (〉15kbar) and 550°C and in the GM is 〈 1500-1300 MPa (〈 15-13 kbar) and 500-550°C. We suggest that the rocks were probably in an active Benioff zone during this time.From then on the histories of the GM and EMS are the same. Deformation continued and the thrust and thrust slices were folded during decreasing pressure. We interpret the first postthrusting deformation in terms of uplift associated with continued shortening of the crust and underplating after the Benioff zone had become inactive and a new Benioff zone had developed further to the north-west.A still later deformation and the Lepontine metamorphism (38 Ma) are related to continued uplift. Much of this deformation is characterized by structures indicative of vertical shortening and lateral spreading as the mountains rose above the general level of the surface.

Notes: In the Boi Massif of Western Timor the Mutis Complex, which is equivalent to the Lolotoi Complex of East Timor, is composed of two lithostratigraphical components: various basement schists and gneisses; and the dismembered remnants of an ophiolite. Cordierite-bearing pelitic schists and gneisses carry an early mineral assemblage of biotite + garnet + plagioclase + Al-silicate, but contain no prograde muscovite; sillimanite occurs in a textural mode which suggests that it replaced and pseudomorphed kyanite at an early stage and some specimens of pelitic schist contain tiny kyanite relics in plagioclase. Textural relations between, and mineral chemistries of, ferro-magnesian phases in these pelitic chists and gneisses suggest that two discontinuous reactions and additional continuous compositional changes have been overstepped, possibly with concomitant anatexis, as a result of decrease in Pload during high temperature metamorphism. The simplified reactions are: garnet and/or biotite + sillimanite + quartz + cordierite + hercynite + ilmenite + excess components. P-T conditions during the development of the early mineral assemblage in the pelitic gneisses are estimated to have been P + 10 kbar and T 〉 750°C, based upon the plagioclase-garnet-Al-silicate-quartz geobarometer and the garnet-biotite geothermometer. P-T conditions during the subsequent development of cordierite-bearing mineral assemblages in the pelitic gneisses are estimated to have been P + 5 kbar and T + 700°C with XH2O 〈 0.5, based upon the Fe content of cordierite occurring in the assemblage quartz + plagioclase + sillimanite + biotite + garnet + cordierite coexisting with melt.Final equilibration between some of the phases suggests that conditions dropped to P 〉 2.3 kbar and T 〉 600°C. A similar exhumation P-T path is suggested for the pelitic schists with early metamorphic conditions of P 〉 6.2 kbar and T 〉 745°C and subsequent development of cordierite under conditions in the range P = 3-4 kbar and T = 600-700°C. The tectonic implications of these P-T estimates are discussed and it is concluded that the P-T path followed by these rocks was caused by decompression during rifting and synmetamorphic ophiolite emplacement resulting from processes during the initiation and development of a convergent plate junction located in Southeast Asia during late Jurassic to Cretaceous time.

Notes: Plagioclase compositions vary from An0.1–2.5 to An32 with increasing grade in chlorite zone to oligoclase zone quartzofeldspathic schists, Franz Josef-Fox Glacier area, Southern Alps, New Zealand. This change is interrupted by the peristerite composition gap in rocks transitional between greenschist and amphibolite facies grade. Oligoclase (An20-24) and albite (An0.1–0.5) are found in biotite zone schists below the garnet isograd. With increasing grade, the plagioclase compositions outline the peristerite gap, which is asymmetric and narrows to compositions of An12 and An6 near the top of the garnet zone. In any one sample, oligoclase is the stable mineral in mica-rich layers above the garnet isograd, whereas albite and oligoclase exist in apparent textural equilibrium in adjacent quartz-plagioclase layers. The initial appearance of oligoclase in both layers results from the breakdown of epidote and possibly sphene. Carbonate is restricted to the quartz-plagioclase rich layers and probably accounts for the more sodic composition of oligoclase in these layers. The formation of more Ca-rich albite and more Na-rich oligoclase near the upper limit of the garnet zone coincides with the disappearance of carbonate and closure of the peristerite gap. Garnet appears to have only a localized effect on Ca-enrichment of plagioclase in mica-rich layers within the garnet zone. The Na-content of white mica increases sympathetically with increasing Ca-content of oligoclase and metamorphic grade.Comparison of the peristerite gap in the Franz Josef-Fox Glacier schists and schists of the same bulk composition in the Haast River area, 80 km to the S, indicates that oligoclase appears and epidote disappears at lower temperatures, and that the composition gap between coexisting albite and oligoclase is narrower in the Franz Josef-Fox Glacier area. It is suggested that a higher thermal gradient (38-40°C/km) and variations in Si/Al ordering during growth of the plagioclases between the two areas may account for these differences. In the Alpine schists the peristerite gap exists over a temperature and pressure interval of about 370-515°C and 5.5-7 kbar (550-700 MPa) PH2O.

Notes: In north-central Wopmay Orogen, syntectonic low-P(Buchan-type) suites of mineral isograds outline regional metamorphic temperature culminations that are associated, at the higher structural levels, with emplacement of early Proterozoic plutons in the west part of a deformed and eastward transported continental margin prism. The mapped isograds mark the first occurrence of biotite, staurolite, andalusite, sillimanite, sillimanite-K feldspar and K feldspar-plagioclase-quartz ± muscovite (granitic) pods in metapelites, with increasing proximity to the plutons.Microprobe analyses and field observations have resulted in the formulation of reactions for the ‘ideal’pelitic system K2O-Na2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O, to account for the various mineral assemblages of each metamorphic zone. A P-T petrogenetic grid showing erosion surface P-T curves for the northern Wopmay Orogen pelites, compiled on the basis of the mapped isograds and the inferred reaction(s) for each metamorphic zone, documents a variation in exposed metamorphic pressure ranging between 2 and 4 kbar.The configuration of a new bathograd, based on the invariant model reaction sillimanite + K feldspar + plagioclase + biotite + quartz + vapor ± muscovite + liquid and interpolated across three metamorphic suites, is consistent with a major regional structure culmination and with independently determined pressures obtained from anorthite-grossular-quartz-Al2SiO5 geobarometry. The positive correlation between the configuration of the bathograd and the structural and pressure culmination points to the pressure-dependence of anatectic-granitic-pod mineral associations.

Notes: Variations in assemblage and composition of the constituent minerals in basic and intermediate metavolcanics encountered in the Zarouchla Group of the Phyllite-Quartzite Series are consistent with a progressive sequence, corresponding to temperature conditions estimated at 290-380°C (minimum values) under a total pressure greater than 3°5kbar and possibly as high as 5 kbar. In the absence of more critical evidence, the parageneses recorded in the metavolcanic rocks are interpreted as belonging to a prograde facies series from the lawsonite-albitechlorite facies through the pumpellyite-actinolite facies to the greenschist facies. The present distribution of mineral assemblages does not show a simple increase of metamorphic grade in a given direction but is apparently related to the tectonic evolution of the metamorphic sequence.