Mid-crustal contact metamorphism around the Chimakurthy mafic-ultramafic complex, Eastern Ghats Belt, India

Abstract

Pelitic rocks were thermally metamorphosed at the contact of the Chimakurthy mafic-ultramafic igneous complex, Eastern Ghats Belt, India. The rocks show progressive change in mineralogy from biotite-sillimanite-quartz-garnet-K-feldspar (association I, 150 m from the intrusive contact) to garnet-spinel-cordierite-K-feldspar-sillimanite (association II, 20–30 m from the intrusive contact) to cordierite-K-feldspar-(cordierite-orthopyroxene-K-feldspar symplectite after osumilite)-spinel-FeTiAl oxides with/without garnet (associations III and IV, 5 m from the intrusive contact), and finally to spinel-orthopyroxene-cordierite-K-feldspar (association V, xenoliths). Oxide mineral clots in associations III and IV resemble emery-type rocks. Initial mineral reactions involved biotite-dehydration melting with partial segregation of the melt. Down-temperature mineral reactions were largely diffusion controlled and preservation of symplectitic and coronitic textures in microdomains is common. Interpretation of reaction textures in relevant petrogenetic grids for the sytems KFMASH and FMAS and combined with geothermobarometry suggest that the pelitic rocks were thermally metamorphosed at c. 6 kbar pressure along a heating-cooling trajectory within the temperature interval between c. 750 °C and c. 1000 °C.