ALBERT

Notes: Abstract Specimen thickness is the main experimental factor controlling the results of illite crystallinity (IC) or crystallite size measurements on sedimentation slides. Different values obtained from thick and thin preparations are due to grain-size gradation effects, which may exclude larger and higher ordered grains from contributing to the diffraction. Orientation effects control the measured peak intensity. The change from poor particle orientation in thick slides to high orientation in very thin slides is marked by an increase in specimen density, diminishing non-basal reflections, and by a strong increase in peak intensity. A plateau with constant peak breadths is observed if thin slides of well ordered, platy illites are used. A similar plateau can be recognized for thick preparations of specimens from less ordered materials, but not from well ordered ones. Therefore, it is suggested that IC is determined on very thin sedimentation slides with a thickness of 0.25 mg/cm2 or less. Ultrasonic and H2O2 treatments enhance the degree of particle orientation by destruction of grain aggregates and organic compounds, leading to smaller peak breadths and higher intensities.

Notes: Abstract Five basalt samples from the Point Sal ophiolite, California, were examined using HRTEM and AEM in order to compare observations with interpretations of XRD patterns and microprobe analyses. XRD data from ethylene-glycol-saturated samples indicate the following percentages of chlorite in mixed-layer chlorite–smectite identified for each specimen: (i) L2036 ± 50%, (ii) L2035 ± 70 and 20%, (iii) 1A-13 ± 70%, (iv) 1B-42 ± 70%, and (v) 1B-55 = 100%. Detailed electron microprobe analyses show that ‘chlorite’analyses with high Si, K, Na and Ca contents are the result of interlayering with smectite-like layers. The Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratios of mixed-layer phyllosilicates from Point Sal samples are influenced by the bulk rock composition, not by the percentage of chlorite nor the structure of the phyllosilicate.Measurements of lattice-fringe images indicate that both smectite and chlorite layers are present in the Point Sal samples in abundances similar to those predicted with XRD techniques and that regular alternation of chlorite and smectite occurs at the unit-cell scale. Both 10- and 14-Å layers were recorded with HRTEM and interpreted to be smectite and chlorite, respectively. Regular alternation of chlorite and smectite (24-Å periodicity) occurs in upper lava samples L2036 and 1A-13, and lower lava sample 1B-42 for as many as seven alternations per crystallite with local layer mistakes. Sample L2035 shows disordered alternation of chlorite and smectite, with juxtaposition of smectite-like layers, suggesting that randomly interlayered chlorite (〈0.5)–smectite exists. Images of lower lava sample 1B-55 show predominantly 14-Å layers. Units of 24 Å tend to cluster in what may otherwise appear to be disordered mixtures, suggesting the existence of a corrensite end-member having thermodynamic significance.

Notes: Abstract White mica crystallinity studies have been carried out on 90 samples of mudrocks, six of spotted slate, and five of accretionary lapilli tuff from the area around the Berwyn Hills, North Wales. Strain was measured for some of the spotted slate and tuff samples. The metamorphic grade increases from southeast to northwest, with values of the Kübler index varying from 0.64 to 0.20Δ2θ. Metamorphic zonal boundaries follow the strike of bedding and cleavage, but crystallinity values increase into stratigraphically younger rocks on the northwest side of the Berwyn Dome. This effect is attributed mainly to a rapid increase in the thickness of synmetamorphic overburden to the northwest, comprising exposed Silurian turbidites and inferred Lower Devonian non-marine sediments. Strain variations have a more local influence on crystallinity, and lateral variations in the contemporary geothermal gradient cannot be ruled out. However, only with unrealistically high gradients would the need for a thick Lower Devonian component to the overburden be removed. This reasoning implies that the metamorphic peak was coeval with the Acadian (late Caledonian) event, rather than with an early diastathermal event.

Notes: Abstract Illite crystallinity (IC) measurements, determination of the proportion of 2M mica-polytypes and organic-matter reflectance measurements establish regional diagenetic/low-grade metamorphic trends for the Taconian and Acadian belts of Gaspé Peninsula.IC varies as a function of many factors besides maximum burial temperature and heating time. Correlation between IC and %2M illite polytypes for the Fortin Group and Temiscouata Formation suggests (i) that the amount of high-grade detrital mica in the samples is low, and (ii) that IC can be used with some confidence as an estimator of regional thermal maturation levels. Correlation of these parameters with available organic reflectance values further supports this assumption. The illites of the Temiscouata and western Fortin groups are mostly phengitic in composition, whereas in the eastern outcrop belt they are more Mg- and Fe-rich (celadonitic), but generally also of lower grade and lower 2M content. The d(060) values for illites measured on the unorientated 〈2-μm fraction of samples fall between 1.502 and 1.503 Å (range: 1.500–1.504 Å), indicating relatively low octahedral occupancy by Mg and Fe (between one-fifth and one-third of the available spaces). Pyrophyllite and paragonite were not detected. Chlorites are Fe-rich and ripidolitic.The IC map for the Acadian belt of the peninsula displays general congruence between IC contours (2200 sample points) and structural trends for the 27,000-km2 area. The highest grades (anchimetamorphic) are associated with the oldest rocks (Honorat and Matapedia groups) exposed in the cores of major anticlines. Anchimetamorphic grades associated with the western outcrop belt of the Lower Devonian Fortin Group require 7–8 km of subsidence to accommodate sufficient thickness of overlying younger rocks (on top of 4–5 km of Fortin Group deep-water clastics) to explain the grades in terms of burial metamorphism assuming a geothermal gradient of 30° C km−1. The lowest-grade diagenetic rocks occupy a large area in the northeastern part of the peninsula, smaller areas in the northwestern part of the Acadian belt, in the centre of Chaleurs Bay synclinorium, and in the Ordovician Mictaw Group. The contact between the Taconian and Acadian belt is marked by a distinct maturation discontinuity. The Grand Pabos fault juxtaposes rocks of contrasting maturation levels (Matapedia Group against Fortin Group) in the west, but shows no maturation offset further east in the Honorat Group. The fault zone limiting the Fortin Group in the north is also associated with a major IC jump.

Notes: Abstract The assemblage muscovite-quartz-staurolite-aluminium silicate-biotite-garnet-chlorite with H2O (SABGC assemblage) is invariant in the K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O (KFMASH) system. Such five-phase AFM assemblages should be absent in nature, but reported occurrences from at least ten localities suggest that either the assemblage internally controls μH2O or non-KFMASH components stabilize one or more of the phases.Least-squares regression analysis of minerals from South Royalton and Gassetts, Vermont, USA, demonstrates that subsets of the minerals in single SABGC assemblages from both localities are related by balanced reactions involving water. These results are consistent with the interpretation that the subassemblages fixed μH2O at an arbitrary, specified pressure and temperature. Balanced dehydration reactions also may be written between minerals in the SABGC assemblages and four-phase assemblages from the same outcrops interpreted to have equilibrated at the same pressures and temperatures as the five-phase assemblages. These results suggest that different specimens from the same outcrops equilibrated at different values of μH2O, supporting the conclusion that μH2O was not controlled externally. We could not demonstrate internal control of fo2 using measured mineral compositions because oxygen balance occurred in all reactions derived by regression.Regression analysis of published mineral compositions from New Mexico failed to identify balanced reactions involving water or oxygen either among the phases in a single SABGC assemblage or between SABGC and nearby four-phase assemblages. These results demonstrate that neither μH2O nor fo2 were fixed by the SABGC assemblages at these localities, and permit the interpretations that the assemblages were stabilized by the non-KFMASH components Na or Ca and that μH2O and fo2 were controlled externally.

Notes: Abstract Albite porphyroblasts are widely distributed in pelitic and semi-pelitic schists of the Fleur de Lys Supergroup, western Newfoundland. Textures and mineral assemblages indicate that albite grew during nearly isothermal decompression from P-T conditions of about 500° C, 9 kbar, to conditions of 550° C, 6.5 kbar. Three compositional varieties of albite-bearing schists, here termed PMAQ (paragonite-muscovite-albite-quartz), MMAQ (microcline-muscovite-albite-quartz), and PMMQ (paragonite-muscovite-margarite-quartz), can be distinguished on the basis of pre-porphyroblast mineral assemblages. Analysis of these assemblages in terms of the composition of the coexisting fluid [log a(Na+/H+) versus log a(K+/H+)] suggests that, as pressure and temperature changed, the stability field of albite expanded at the expense of coexisting matrix phyllosilicates. This promoted growth of albite on pre-existing or newly formed nuclei. Late oligoclase in PMAQ and PMMQ samples is associated with replacement of matrix garnet by plagioclase + mica ° Chlorite, particularly in strongly sheared samples.

Notes: Abstract Spinel-quartz-cordierite and spinel-quartz are found as relic prograde assemblages in Fe-rich granulites from the Araku area, Eastern Ghats belt, India. Subsequent reactions produced orthopyroxene + sillimanite in the former association and garnet + sillimanite in the latter. The first reaction is univariant in the FMAS system, but is trivariant in the present case because of the presence of Zn and Fe3+ in spinel. The second reaction also has high variance because of Zn and Fe3+, but also because of the presence of Ca in garnet. Thermobarometry shows that the metamorphic conditions were approximately 950° C and 8.5 kbar and the fo2 was near the NNO buffer. In Fe-rich bulk compositions and low-P-high-T conditions of metamorphism, two of the univariant reactions around the invariant point [Sa], namely (Sa, Hy) and (Sa, Cd), change topology due to reverse partitioning of Fe-Mg between coexisting garnet and spinel. An alternative partial petrogenetic grid in the system FMAS is constructed for such conditions and is applied satisfactorily to several sapphirine-free spinel granulites. It is shown that bulk composition (XFe and Zn) exerts greater control on the stability of spinel + quartz than fo2. The effect of the presence of Zn and Fe3+ in spinel on the proposed grid is evaluated. Reaction textures in the Araku spinel granulites can be explained from the petrogenetic grid as due to near-isobaric cooling.