Compositional variations in mafic phyllosilicates from regional low-grade metabasites and application of the chlorite geothermometer

<p>Strain localisation in the upper crust is strongly influenced by the presence of phyllosilicates (e.g. white mica, biotite, chlorite), systematically observed in shear zones in granites. Identifying reactions involving phyllosilicates at low-grade metamorphic conditions is crucial to understand crust mechanics and fluid-granite interactions during deformation. In the 305 Ma old basement of the Bielsa massif (Axial Zone, Pyrenees), extensive pre-orogenic (i.e. pre-Alpine) alteration related to feldspar sericitization and chloritization of biotite and amphibole occurred at temperatures of 270&#8211;350&#176;C at 230&#8211;300 Ma. This event was followed by mylonitization and fracturing at 40&#8211;70 Ma, and fluid&#8211;rock interaction at 200&#8211;280&#176;C marked by replacement and new crystallization of chlorite and white mica. In undeformed parts of the granite, compositional maps reveal in situ reaction, high local heterogeneities and low element mobility (migration over few &#181;m) for most elements. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows disconnected reaction-induced nanoporosity in chloritized amphiboles and ripplocations in chloritized biotite. Chloritization reaction varies over tens of nanometres, indicating high variability of element availability. Equilibrium is reached locally due to isolation of fluid in pockets. In samples with fractures, both elemental maps and TEM images show two chlorite groups: alpine chlorites in fractures have homogeneous composition while pre-alpine chlorites in the matrix show patchy compositions. Channelization of fluids in fractures and sealing by chlorite prevented replacement of the matrix chlorite. High element mobility was therefore limited to fractures. In mylonites, compositional maps show secondary chlorites up to 1 mm around cracks and only partial replacement of chlorite within the matrix. This suggests fluids could percolate from cracks to the matrix along chlorite grain boundaries. TEM images show nanocracks at the boundary of chlorite crystallites where replacement is localised. Crystallites were individually replaced by dissolution-reprecipitation reactions and not by intra-crystallite mineral replacement, explaining the patchy compositional variations. While fracturing did not allow chlorite sheets to be progressively re-oriented, a continuous, brittle-ductile deformation in mylonites did, making preferential fluid pathways progressively change.&#160; Despite high strain, chlorite replacement was not complete even in mylonites. Replacement appears to be controlled by matrix-fracture porosity contrasts and the location and connection of nanoporosity between crystallites, criteria that may be only transiently met in space during deformation. These mechanisms need to be taken into account when attempting to reconstruct the metamorphic history of shear zones as well as the evolution of their mechanical behaviour since they affect the scale of the thermodynamic equilibrium and the preservation of hydrothermal metamorphism in granites.</p>

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Electron-optical studies of phyllosilicate intergrowths in sedimentary and metamorphic rocks

Mineralogical Magazine ◽

10.1180/minmag.1985.049.352.12 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 49 (352) ◽

pp. 413-423 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

S. H. White ◽

J. M. Huggett ◽

H. F. Shaw

Keyword(s):

Metamorphic Grade ◽

Metamorphic Rocks ◽

Low Grade ◽

Optical Studies ◽

Microstructural Study ◽

X Ray ◽

Compositional Changes ◽

Compositional Variations ◽

The Individual ◽

Backscattered Scanning Electron Microscopy

AbstractThe results of a microstructural study by backscattered scanning electron microscopy and a microchemical study using X-ray microprobe analysis of phyllosilicate intergrowths from sandstones, shales, metagreywackes, and low-grade schists are presented. The microstructural study revealed that the intergrowths thicken and become more coherent with metamorphic grade; the intergrowths change from incoherent to coherent in the anchizone. The increasing coherency is mirrored by an increase in the crystallinity indices of the illites/phengites. Chemical analysis of the individual intergrowth phases was difficult in the sediments and no systematic compositional variations were recorded. However, clear compositional trends with increasing metamorphic grade emerged in the phengites from the metagreywackes and schists, but in the chlorites only slight compositional changes were recorded.

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Two contrasting mineral assemblages in the Meliata blueschists, Western Carpathians, Slovakia

Mineralogical Magazine ◽

10.1180/002646199548664 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 489-501 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

S. W. Faryad ◽

G. Hoinkes

Keyword(s):

High Pressure ◽

Low Pressure ◽

Greenschist Facies ◽

Western Carpathians ◽

Metamorphic Rocks ◽

Low Grade ◽

Mineral Assemblages ◽

Compositional Variations ◽

Si Content ◽

End Members

AbstractLow-grade metamorphic rocks from the Meliata unit (Western Carpathians) are characterized by the presence of typical blueschist-facies minerals. In metabasalt, an early low-pressure assemblage (<0.5 GPa at 350°C characterized by muscovite and zoisite, is followed by high-pressure glaucophane, phengite, Na-pyroxene, chlorite, clinozoisite and Al-poor titanite, indicating pressures of >1.2 GPa at 450°C Na-pyroxene shows strong compositional variations between the end-members Jd4–70, Aeg10–49 and Q17–49, respectively. Phengite has high Si content of 3.5 a.p.f.u. The zoisite with Al2Fe (100[Fetot/(−2+Altot+Fetot)]) = 3–5%, is rimmed by clinozoisite, with a maximum of 75% Al2Fe, as well as being enclosed by glaucophane. The occurrence of clinozoisite, rimming zoisite, suggests that the transformation of orthorhombic to monoclinic epidote depends not only on the temperature but also on the pressure. In the studied metabasalt, retrograde phases reflecting greenschist-facies conditions are albite and chlorite. Some neighbouring metabasites may additionally contain actinolite and biotite.

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Secondary ilvaite in a dolerite dyke from Rogaland, SW Norway

Mineralogical Magazine ◽

10.1180/minmag.1984.048.348.17 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 48 (348) ◽

pp. 449-456 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Michael Barton ◽

Manfred J. van Bergen

Keyword(s):

Solid Solutions ◽

Igneous Rocks ◽

Metamorphic Event ◽

Low Grade ◽

Secondary Minerals ◽

Dolerite Dyke ◽

Alteration Product ◽

Caledonian Orogeny ◽

Compositional Variations ◽

The Ideal

Abstract Ilvaite is an alteration product of carbonate, which itself replaced clinopyroxene, in a Precambrian tholeiitic dyke. Additional secondary minerals are ferroactinolite, cummingtonite, chlorite, biotite, prehnite, and epidote. Microprobe analyses demonstrate that the ilvaite is close to the ideal end-member composition [CaFe2 2+Fe3+Si2O8 (OH)] and that only cummingtonites, Mg/(Mg+Fe2+) 0.77–0.39, and carbonates (solid solutions between calcite and dolomite, dolomite and ankerite, magnesite and siderite) show significant compositional variations. It is estimated that ilvaite formed at temperatures < 470 °C and at pressures < 2 kbar, probably during a low-grade metamorphic event (or events) associated with the Caledonian orogeny. The fluids involved in the alteration process contained both CO2 and H2O, initial fluids probably being richer in CO2 than later ones. Ilvaite may be more common in hydrothermally altered igneous rocks than previously supposed.

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Direct Observation of Crystalline Ordering In Naturally Graphitized Carbon Produced by Low Grade Metamorphism

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100078377 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 162-163

Author(s):

Thomas R. McKee ◽

Peter R. Buseck

Keyword(s):

Crystallite Size ◽

Sedimentary Rocks ◽

Carbonaceous Material ◽

Low Grade ◽

X Ray ◽

Graphitized Carbon ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Heat Treated ◽

Commercial Carbon ◽

Metamorphic Zone

Sediments commonly contain organic material which appears as refractory carbonaceous material in metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. Grew and others have shown that relative carbon content, crystallite size, X-ray crystallinity and development of well-ordered graphite crystal structure of the carbonaceous material increases with increasing metamorphic grade. The graphitization process is irreversible and appears to be continous from the amorphous to the completely graphitized stage. The most dramatic chemical and crystallographic changes take place within the chlorite metamorphic zone.The detailed X-ray investigation of crystallite size and crystalline ordering is complex and can best be investigated by other means such as high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The natural graphitization series is similar to that for heat-treated commercial carbon blacks, which have been successfully studied by HRTEM (Ban and others).

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Scanning Electron Microscope Study of Bacteria on Mineral Surfaces

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100090634 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 130-131

Author(s):

V.K. Berry

Keyword(s):

Oxidation Reaction ◽

Electron Microscope Study ◽

Elemental Sulfur ◽

Thiobacillus Ferrooxidans ◽

Physical Contact ◽

Metal Sulfides ◽

Low Grade ◽

Mineral Surfaces ◽

Mineral Surface ◽

Scanning Electron Microscope Study

There are two strains of bacteria viz. Thiobacillus thiooxidansand Thiobacillus ferrooxidanswidely mentioned to play an important role in the leaching process of low-grade ores. Another strain used in this study is a thermophile and is designated Caldariella .These microorganisms are acidophilic chemosynthetic aerobic autotrophs and are capable of oxidizing many metal sulfides and elemental sulfur to sulfates and Fe2+ to Fe3+. The necessity of physical contact or attachment by bacteria to mineral surfaces during oxidation reaction has not been fairly established so far. Temple and Koehler reported that during oxidation of marcasite T. thiooxidanswere found concentrated on mineral surface. Schaeffer, et al. demonstrated that physical contact or attachment is essential for oxidation of sulfur.

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TEM/AEM characterization of fine-grained clay minerals in very-low-grade rocks: Evaluation of contamination by empa involving celadonite family minerals

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100165938 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 694-695

Author(s):

Gejing Li ◽

D. R. Peacor ◽

D. S. Coombs ◽

Y. Kawachi

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Volcanic Rocks ◽

Analytical Electron Microscopy ◽

Metamorphic Rocks ◽

New Mineral ◽

Chemical Compositions ◽

Low Grade ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Mineral Aggregates

Recent advances in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and analytical electron microscopy (AEM) have led to many new insights into the structural and chemical characteristics of very finegrained, optically homogeneous mineral aggregates in sedimentary and very low-grade metamorphic rocks. Chemical compositions obtained by electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) on such materials have been shown by TEM/AEM to result from beam overlap on contaminant phases on a scale below resolution of EMPA, which in turn can lead to errors in interpretation and determination of formation conditions. Here we present an in-depth analysis of the relation between AEM and EMPA data, which leads also to the definition of new mineral phases, and demonstrate the resolution power of AEM relative to EMPA in investigations of very fine-grained mineral aggregates in sedimentary and very low-grade metamorphic rocks.Celadonite, having end-member composition KMgFe3+Si4O10(OH)2, and with minor substitution of Fe2+ for Mg and Al for Fe3+ on octahedral sites, is a fine-grained mica widespread in volcanic rocks and volcaniclastic sediments which have undergone low-temperature alteration in the oceanic crust and in burial metamorphic sequences.

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Microdomains in BaFeO3-y (0.35 < y < 0.50)

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100177039 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 780-781

Author(s):

M. Vallet-Regí ◽

M. Parras ◽

J.M. González-Calbet ◽

J.C. Grenier

Keyword(s):

Electron Diffraction ◽

Chemical Analysis ◽

Monoclinic Phase ◽

Orthorhombic Phase ◽

Total Iron ◽

Zone Axis ◽

Electron Micrograph ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

X Ray ◽

Compositional Variations

BaFeO3-y compositions (0.35<y<0.50) have been investigated by means of electron diffraction and microscopy to resolve contradictory results from powder X-ray diffraction data.The samples were obtained by annealing BaFeO2.56 for 48 h. in the temperature range from 980°C to 1050°C . Total iron and barium in the samples were determined using chemical analysis and gravimetric methods, respectively.In the BaFeO3-y system, according to the electron diffraction and microscopy results, the nonstoichiometry is accommodated in different ways as a function of the composition (y):In the domain between BaFeO2.5+δBaFeO2.54, compositional variations are accommodated through the formation of microdomains. Fig. la shows the ED pattern of the BaFeO2.52 material along thezone axis. The corresponding electron micrograph is seen in Fig. 1b. Several domains corresponding to the monoclinic BaFeO2.50 phase, intergrow with domains of the orthorhombic phase. According to that, the ED pattern of Fig. 1a, can be interpreted as formed by the superposition of three types of diffraction maxima : Very strong spots corresponding to a cubic perovskite, a set of maxima due to the superposition of three domains of the monoclinic phase along [100]m and a series of maxima corresponding to three domains corresponding to the orthorhombic phase along the [100]o.

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