Granulite formation in a Gondwana fragment: petrology and mineral equilibrium modeling of incipient charnockite from Mavadi, southern India

Mineralogy and Petrology volume 107, pages727–738(2013)Cite this article

Abstract

We report a new occurrence of incipient charnockite from Mavadi in the Trivandrum Granulite Block (TGB), southern India, and discuss the petrogenesis of granulite formation in an arrested stage on the basis of petrography, geothermobarometry, and mineral equilibrium modeling. In Mavadi, patches and lenses of charnockite (Kfs + Qtz + Pl + Bt + Grt + Opx + Ilm + Mag) of about 30 to 220 cm in length occur within Opx-free Grt-Bt gneiss (Kfs + Qtz + Pl + Bt + Grt + Ilm). The application of mineral equilibrium modeling on the charnockite assemblage in the NCKFMASHTO system to constrain the conditions of charnockitization defines a P–T range of 800 °C at 4.5 kbar to 850 °C at 8.5 kbar, which is broadly consistent with the results from the conventional geothermobarometry (810–880 °C at 7.7–8.0 kbar) on these rocks. The P–T conditions are lower than the peak metamorphic conditions reported for the ultrahigh-temperature granulites from this area (T > 900 °C). The heterogeneity in peak P–T conditions within the same crustal block might be related to local buffering of metamorphic temperatures by the Opx-Bt-Kfs-Qtz assemblage. The result of T versus mole H2O (M(H2O)) modeling demonstrated that the Opx-free assemblage in the Grt-Bt gneiss is stable at M(H2O) = 0.3 to 1.5 mol%, and orthopyroxene occurs as a stable mineral at M(H2O) <0.3 mol%, which is consistent with the petrogenetic model of incipient charnockite related to the lowering of the water activity and stabilization of orthopyroxene through the breakdown of biotite by dehydration caused by the infiltration of CO2-rich fluid from external sources. We also propose a possible alternative mechanism to form charnockite from Grt-Bt gneiss through slight variations in bulk-rock chemistry (particularly for the K- and Fe-rich portion of Grt-Bt gneiss) that can enhance the stability of orthopyroxene rather than that of biotite, with K-metasomatism playing a possible role.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ms. Preetha Warrier and the staff at Gondwana Research Office in Trivandrum for their valuable field support. Special thanks are due to Dr. N. Nishida for his assistance on microprobe analysis. We also thank Guest Editor Prof. Tamer Abu-Alam, Dr. Shoujie Liu, and an anonymous reviewer for constructive and helpful comments. Partial funding for this project was produced by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to Tsunogae (Nos. 20340148, 22403017).

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Affiliations

  1. Collage of Geosciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Takahiro Endo

  2. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Toshiaki Tsunogae & Hisako Shimizu

  3. Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa

    Toshiaki Tsunogae

  4. Division of Interdisciplinary Science, Faculty of Science, Kochi University, Kochi, 780-8520, Japan

    M. Santosh

  5. Journal Centre, China University of Geosciences Beijing, No. 29, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    M. Santosh

  6. Department of Geology, University of Kerala, Kariyavattom, Trivandrum, India

    E. Shaji

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  1. Takahiro Endo
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  2. Toshiaki Tsunogae
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Correspondence to Toshiaki Tsunogae.

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Endo, T., Tsunogae, T., Santosh, M. et al. Granulite formation in a Gondwana fragment: petrology and mineral equilibrium modeling of incipient charnockite from Mavadi, southern India. Miner Petrol 107, 727–738 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-012-0214-x

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Keywords

  • Ilmenite
  • Mineral Assemblage
  • Gondwana Supercontinent
  • Peak Assemblage
  • Charnockite Formation