Metasomatic coronas around hornblendite xenoliths in granulite facies marble, Ivrea zone, N Italy. II: Oxygen isotope patterns

Abstract

Up to 20-cm-wide metasomatic reaction bands formed coronas around hornblendite xenoliths in a marble matrix during high grade metamorphism in the Ivrea zone. The coronas are comprised of an innermost monomineralic clinopyroxene layer, a garnet–clinopyroxene layer and an outermost scapolite–clinopyroxene layer. The oxygen isotope composition of the original hornblendite core is 7‰ relative to V-SMOW and the oxygen isotope composition of the marble matrix is 19.7‰. The oxygen isotope transition across the corona is represented by a diffusion front with a step discontinuity at the inner margin of the corona. The systematics of the inter-mineral fractionations indicates preservation of the oxygen isotope compositions from high temperatures and maintenance of grain-scale oxygen isotope equilibrium during corona formation. The oxygen isotope pattern is interpreted in terms of a moving boundary diffusion problem. The growing reaction band and the reactant hornblendite and marble represent a total of five media with different transport properties and moving separation surfaces. Bulk oxygen diffusion was at least three orders of magnitude faster then expected from volume diffusion, suggesting that transport was enhanced by relatively fast diffusion along grain boundaries. Oxygen diffusivities in the individual layers correlate with the oxygen volume diffusivities in the major constituent minerals of the respective layers, suggesting mineralogical control on bulk oxygen diffusion.