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Mineral chemistry and zoning in eclogite inclusions from Colorado Plateau diatremes

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Abstract

Eclogite inclusions from kimberlitic diatremes on the Colorado Plateau contain intricately zoned garnet and pyroxene and unusual textures. Detailed electron microprobe traverses for a clinopyroxene-garnet-phengite-lawsonite-rutile assemblage show garnet zoning from Alm69Gr21Py10 (core) to Alm61Gr13Py26 (rim) and pyroxene zoning from Jd50 (core) through Jd77 to Jd55 (rim). Pyroxene cores are Cr-rich in another rock. Sharp compositional discontinuities and zoning reversals are preserved in garnet and pyroxene. Oscillatory zoning occurs in both phases on a 10–20 μm scale, with variations of up to 6% Py in garnet and 15% Jd in pyroxene. Phengite is unzoned and contains 74% celadonite endmember.

Skeletal, pyroxene-filled garnet crystals are common in some rocks, and garnets in other rocks clearly began growth as shell-like crystals. Some rocks contain domains of coarse, prismatic pyroxene with very fine-grained, interstitial magnesium silicates. The texture appears to have resulted from crystallization in the presence of a fluid phase, and water pressure is inferred to have equalled total pressure during crystallization. Eclogite formation at high water pressure may reflect subcrustal crystallization.

An analysis of error propagation shows that ferrous iron calculations from electron probe data are not meaningful for these jadeitic pyroxenes, and temperature differences between core and rim crystallization cannot be documented. The garnet textures and oscillatory zoning are unusual for metamorphic rocks, and they suggest disequilibrium crystallization after overstepping of reaction boundaries. All data fit a model of eclogite formation during cooling and metasomatism of basaltic dikes intruded into a cool upper mantle, but the results here do not preclude other origins, such as subduction zone metamorphism.

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  1. M. Zientek

    Present address: Department of Geology, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, CA, USA

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  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas Austin, 78712, Texas, USA

    Douglas Smith & M. Zientek

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Smith, D., Zientek, M. Mineral chemistry and zoning in eclogite inclusions from Colorado Plateau diatremes. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 69, 119–131 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371855

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