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Osumilite-sapphirine-quartz granulites from Enderby Land Antarctica — Mineral assemblages and reactions

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Abstract

The pre-Cambrian granulites of Enderby Land Antarctica, contain coexisting spinel-quartz, sapphirine-quartz, hypersthene-sillimanite-quartz and osumilite on a regional extent. Osumilite is present in a variety of mineral assemblages, most of which are documented in granulites for the first time. The mineral assemblages, reactions and compositional zoning in minerals are discussed in terms of continuous and discontinuous reactions in response to changing conditions of metamorphism. The development of many of the mineral coronas can be explained by continuous rather than discontinuous reactions, due to the effects of Mg-Fe and (Mg,Fe)-2Al exchange equilibria with decreasing temperature. The highest P-T conditions of metamorphism (8–10 kb, 900 °–980 ° C, Ellis, in preparation) were beyond the stability limit of coexisting garnet-cordierite. Secondary cordierite has developed through a large number of mineral reactions in response to cooling of these granulites.

A theoretical analysis of the phase relations involving osumilite in the chemical systems K2O-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 and K2O-MgO-FeO-Al2O3-SiO2 is presented. In the pure Mg-system the lower temperature stability limit of Mg-osumilite is inferred to be defined with increasing pressure by the reactions Os→Cd+En+Kfeld+Qtz, Os→Sa+En+Kfeld+Qtz, Os→Sill+En+Kfeld+Qtz. In iron-bearing systems an important reaction involving osumilite is Os+Gt→Cd+Hy+Kfeld+Qtz.

At moderate temperatures and pressures, osumilite is limited to rocks which lie on the Mg-rich side of the Cd-Hy stable tie line on an AFM diagram. At higher pressures and temperatures osumilite occurs in a widerrange of rock compositions because of the stability of coexisting garnet and osumilite. Petrographic data, as well as chemographic relations indicate that for many common rock compositions, garnet, cordierite, hypersthene, sapphirine and sillimanite cannot coexist with both osumilite and K-feldspar.

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Author notes

  1. D. J. Ellis

    Present address: Institut für Kristallographie und Petrographie, ETH-Zentrum, Sonneggstr. 5, CH-8006, Zürich, Switzerland

  2. R. N. England

    Present address: Dept. of Earth Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Geology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    D. J. Ellis

  2. Bureau of Mineral Resources, P.O. Box 378, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    D. J. Ellis, J. W. Sheraton, R. N. England & W. B. Dallwitz

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Ellis, D.J., Sheraton, J.W., England, R.N. et al. Osumilite-sapphirine-quartz granulites from Enderby Land Antarctica — Mineral assemblages and reactions. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 72, 123–143 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00399473

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