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Metamorphic reactions in dry and aluminous granulites: a Perple_X P–T pseudosection analysis of the influence of effective reaction volume

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Abstract

In high-Mg, Al metapelites, monophase sapphirine corona occur around spinel–corundum aggregates in monomineralic cordierite layers, and bi-phase orthopyroxene–sillimanite aggregates replace locally warped sapphirine in polygonized cordierite aggregates. P–T phase topologies computed (Perple_X software) using compositions of cordierite-rich layers that host the reaction textures did not match the assemblages for the discontinuous reactions spinel + corundum + cordierite → sapphirine and sapphirine + cordierite → orthopyroxene + sillimanite. Instead, the reaction assemblages were reproduced using P–T pseudosection analysis for micro-domain reaction volumes estimated from compositions of product phases in the volume proportion they occur. The results are consistent with known phase relations deduced using Schreinmakers P–T grids. Apparently, the compositions of cordierite-rich layers that hosted the reaction textures were inadequate chemical proxies for determining P–T–X relations of phase-boundary controlled reactions influenced by compositions of the nearest-neighbor minerals in the proportion they react (effective composition), and not in the proportion they existed in the layer/bulk rock. In other words, P–T–X phase topologies and reconstructed P–T paths in dry and aluminous rocks may be best understood by thermodynamic modeling of reactions using effective reaction volume compositions rather than the bulk composition of the rock or the mineralogical layer that host the reaction textures.

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Acknowledgments

The work was carried out during the tenure of S. D. as Institute Research Scholar and P. N. as UGC Research Fellow in this department. M. Raith provided analytical support for the work during the visit of A. B. as AvH-Fellow to the University of Bonn. The work was also partly supported financially by the Department of Science and Technology (India) grant-in-aid to A. B. Sudipto Neogi (GSI, Hyderabad) provided XRF analyses (major elements) of the samples at short notice. The authors acknowledge the detailed technical advice given by J. A. D. Connolly on the use of Perple_X software. Mr. S. Shome (GSI, Kolkata) helped with BSE imaging. D. E. Kelsey provided thoughtful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank the two anonymous journal reviewers for constructive suggestions to improve the content and styling of manuscript.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721 302, India

    P. Nasipuri, A. Bhattacharya & S. Das

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  1. P. Nasipuri
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  2. A. Bhattacharya
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  3. S. Das
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Correspondence to A. Bhattacharya.

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Communicated by T.L. Grove.

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Nasipuri, P., Bhattacharya, A. & Das, S. Metamorphic reactions in dry and aluminous granulites: a Perple_X P–T pseudosection analysis of the influence of effective reaction volume. Contrib Mineral Petrol 157, 301–311 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-008-0335-8

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