Zoned sodic amphibole: Petrologic indicator of changing pressure and temperature during tectonism in the Bathurst Area, New Brunswick, Canada

Abstract

Amphibole, zoned from an actinolite core through a barroisite layer to a crossite or ferroglaucophane rim, coexists with epidote, chlorite, albite, quartz, phengite, sphene, magnetite, and calcite in metabasites of the Tetagouche Group near Bathurst, New Brunswick. Stratigraphic, structural and regional-metamorphic evidence suggests that these rocks were situated in the hangingwall of a SE-dipping subduction zone during the Taconian Orogeny. Using microprobe analyses of the coexisting minerals, a dehydration reaction and a subsequent hydration reaction have been balanced in the system SiO₂-Al₂O₃-TiO₂-Fe₂O₃-(Fe, Mg, Mn)O-CaO-Na₂O-K₂O-H₂O, so as to describe the development of the zoned amphiboles. Relatively large coefficients for magnetite in these reactions accord with the absence of sodic amphibole in associated magnetite-free metabasites, indicating that ferric iron has a significant effect on the transition from greenschist to epidote-blueschist fades. Relatively small residuals of FeO, MgO and MnO show that these components are only weakly partitioned between the reactant and product assemblages. The procedure of Holland and Richardson (1979) has been used to calculate apparentP-T paths that trace the growth histories of the zoned amphiboles from a low-P environment to a high-P environment. Although the apparent pressure-change is implausibly large and the final temperature implausibly low, it is clear that the Bathurst metabasites followed a very differentP-T path than those of the Austrian Alps, despite their identical mineral assemblage.