Inclusion formation in pegmatite garnet by oriented nucleation and intergrowth
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Abstract Non‐silicate solid inclusions in garnet from ultra‐deep garnet peridotites, Otrøy, Western Gneiss Region, Norway, have been studied using light‐optical, scanning and analytical electron microscopic techniques. Texturally, the investigated garnets reveal protogranular, porphyroclastic and equigranular microstructures. Protogranular and porphyroclastic garnets contain microstructural evidence of the former existence of ‘super‐titanic’ garnet. The microstructural evidence consists of exsolution textures involving rutile and ilmenite needles //<111> Grt as well as interstitial rutile grains. This exsolution microstructure is similar to the relict majoritic garnet microstructures found in the same peridotite. Some garnets contain both pyroxene and rutile exsolution. Other non‐silicate mineral inclusions in protogranular and porphyroclastic garnet consist of nickel‐iron alloys (Ni 99 Fe 01 ) and Cr‐rich spinel. In addition, some protogranular, porphyroclastic and equigranular garnets contain composite Ni‐Fe‐Cu sulphide inclusions. The latter represent immiscible sulphide melt trapped within cracks that have healed. The original melting temperature of Ni‐Fe‐Cu sulphides was determined as being ≥ 1000°C and contrasts with temperatures derived from garnet–olivine–pyroxene mineral compositions using conventional geothermobarometry ( c . 800°C/3 GPa). This contradiction is explained by the decoupling of microstructures and mineral chemistry; the microstructures were formed at higher temperatures than indicated by the current mineral chemistry. The decoupling of microstructures and current mineral chemistry has important applications for geodynamic models. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Abstract Garnets with an unusual inclusion pattern of cylindrical quartz intergrowths have been found to develop exclusively in the presence of graphite. The intergrowths consist of quartz rods, 1–5 µ m in diameter, originating at the sector-zone interfaces in the garnet with the long axes normal to the crystal faces. The lattice orientation and continuity of the quartz suggests that the interphase boundaries between the quartz and garnet are epitaxially related and that new material was added to the tube as the crystal face of the garnet grew. In the presence of a C-O-H fluid, at the temperatures and pressures recorded, ( P = 6.5 kbar, T = 500°C), the amount of CO 2 present restricts the solubility of SiO 2 in the intergranular fluid phase, where the oxygen fugacity ( f o 2 ) is below the Quartz-fayalite-magnetite (QFM) buffer, and within the stability field of graphite. The reduced solubility will lower the concentration of SiO 2 in solution, and hence restrict its ease of transport via the fluid, resulting in an excess of SiO 2 at the site of garnet growth. Under such conditions the SiO 2 is incorporated in the growing garnet in the form of the cylindrical quartz intergrowths.
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Microlite-manganotantalite exsolution lamellae: evidence from rare-metal pegmatite, Karibib, Namibia
Abstract We have analysed a rare occurrence of orange-brown manganotantalite lamellae (visible in hand specimen), intergrown with microlite [(Ca,Na) 2 (Ta,Nb) 2 (O,OH,F) 7 ], aggregates of ferrotapiolite, bismuth minerals and apatite to understand more about the mechanisms of crystal growth and secondary modification in Ta-rich minerals. The intergrowth occurs within amblygonite/montebrasite nodules near the quartz core of the highly fractionated rare-metal Li/Be/Ta pegmatite at Rubicon, Karibib, Namibia. Electron microprobe analyses show that manganotantalite lamellae are variable in composition. Primary microlite (Ta 2 O 5 82%, 1.97 Ta a.p.f.u.) forms the matrix mineral between the lamellae. Textural relations suggest an exsolution origin for the lamellae. Manganotantalite is represented by three generations: (1) primary late magmatic; (2) disequilibrium exsolution lamellae; and (3) subsolidus replacement. Crystallization commenced with primary microlite and likely simultaneous intergrowth between ferrotapiolite and a first generation of late-magmatic primary manganotantalite with low Ta (1.1—1.5 a.p.f.u.). On cooling this was followed by exsolution of manganotantalite lamellae, generation (2) with low—medium Ta (1.27—1.7 a.p.f.u.). The replacement of microlite by a highly fractionated late-stage melt rich in Mn 2+ , Ca 2+ with low Na+ finally produces a third generation (3) of manganotantalite with high Ta (1.72—1.99 a.p.f.u.) at the contact with microlite. Native bismuth and bismutite cut across microlite and pseudomorph lamellae as a final hydrothermal replacement. Apatite is ubiquitous at the contact with amblygonite. The stability field of microlite may be extended by incorporation of CaTa 2 O 6 -rynersonite and Ca 2 Ta 2 O 7 — idealized, components in solid solution. However, rynersonite-CaTa 2 O 6 with distorted octahedra has some structural templates which are similar to the structure of pyrochlore (microlite). Hence, via the perovskite/pyrochlore analogy, hypothetical exsolution of manganotantalite-type structures may occur from a microlite (pyrochlore) host by solid-state diffusion via metastable rynersonite-type intermediates. Such a mechanism has the potential to explain the crystallographically controlled intergrowth textures and the compositional heterogeneity.
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Abstract Metapelitic residual enclaves in the Neogene Volcanic Province of SE Spain are residues left after melt extraction. Glass (quenched melt) of granitic composition occurs as inclusions in most minerals and as intergranular pockets. The most common enclave types show one stage of garnet growth that is interpreted to have occurred at the same time as glass production. Some of these show a well‐developed foliation outlined by fibrolite, biotite, graphite and glass, which wraps around elongate garnet crystals that have aspect ratios up to 10:1. Based on microstructures and chemistry, the garnet within these rocks shows clear core and mantle structure. The core has an average composition of Alm 76 –Prp 08 –Sps 14 –Grs 03 and contains primary inclusions of biotite and melt, trapped during garnet growth. A thin ( c . 100 μ m), irregular mantle overgrows the garnet core, enclosing oriented fibrolite inclusions in strain caps, and biotite in strain shadows. In places, the overgrowths form skeletal elongated arms, which extend parallel to the foliation. The garnet mantle contains less Mn and higher X Mg , but both core and mantle display flat Mn profiles, the contact being a sharp break. Ternary feldspar and Grt–Bt thermometry yield temperatures in the range 800–900 °C, with no systematic differences among the different microstructural domains of elliptical garnet. Based on the observed intracrystalline microstructures, the high amount of melt extraction in the rock by flattening component strain and the chemical zoning of garnet, the formation of elliptical garnet is modelled by a multistage sequence. This involves pressure solution and reprecipitation of the core, followed by post‐kinematic, partly mimetic growth of the garnet mantle.
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Abstract Although oriented rutile needles in garnet have been reported from several ultrahigh‐pressure (UHP) rocks and considered to be important UHP indicators, their crystallographic features including growth habit and lattice correspondences with garnet host have never been properly characterized. This paper presents a detailed analytical electron microscopic (AEM) study on evenly distributed oriented rutile needles in garnet of two eclogitic rocks from Sulu. Some garnet in one UHP diamondiferous quartzofeldspathic rock from the Saxonian Erzgebirge, and in one high‐pressure (HP) felsic granulite from Bohemia also contain a few unevenly distributed oriented rutile needles. They have also been studied for the purpose of comparison. Despite different distribution patterns, AEM revealed that all rutile needles are oriented along the 〈111〉 directions of garnet with their lateral sides surrounded by the {110} planes of garnet, and that the growth directions of most needles are close to the normal of the {101} planes of rutile. No other specific crystallographic orientation relationships between rutile and garnet host were observed, and there is no pyroxene associated with rutile, as necessitated by the precipitation reaction of rutile in garnet as previously proposed. A simple solid‐state precipitation scenario for the formation of the rutile needles in garnet in these two eclogitic rocks is not justified. Three alternative mechanisms are considered for the formation of oriented rutile needles: (i) the rutile needles may be inherited from precursor minerals; (ii) the rutile needles may be formed by a dissolution–reprecipitation mechanism; and (iii) the rutile needles may be formed by cleaving and healing of garnet with rutile deposition. None of these mechanisms can fully explain the observations, although the first one is less likely and the third one is preferred. This study presents an example where the presence of oriented/aligned inclusions in minerals does not necessarily imply a precipitation origin.
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ABSTRACT
Permian metapegmatite garnets from the Koralpe region (Eastern Alps, Austria) contain abundant submicrometer- to micrometer-sized inclusions of rutile, corundum, Fe-Mn phosphate, ilmenite, xenotime, zircon, and apatite. Variations in inclusion abundance, phase assemblage, habit, and size define sector and concentric zones in the garnets, tracing low-indexed garnet facets. Zoning resulted from a process occurring at the garnet-melt interface, homogeneous along each facet, but sensitive to its crystallographic plane. Furthermore, inclusion and host lattices interacted, generating host-inclusion crystallographic orientation relationships (CORs). These phenomena exclude inclusion formation via overgrowth of pre-existing phases, infiltration of fluids/melts, or dissolution-reprecipitation. Magmatic garnet rims contain rutile needles up to 100 μm long, showing an interface-dependent shape-preferred orientation (SPO) that cannot be explained by exsolution models. Furthermore, the COR distribution for needles is unique, and implies large 3D lattice mismatches. These phenomena suggest that needles originated via oriented heterogeneous nucleation at the garnet interface and subsequent simultaneous growth of both phases. The origin of equant inclusions in core domains is less clear. With some assumptions, integrated compositions remain compatible with closed system exsolution or open system precipitation (OSP) involving divalent cation loss. Still, the oriented interface nucleation hypothesis seems to better explain the fact that the frequency of rutile-garnet CORs varies strongly not only between cores and rims but also between garnet core domains. Inclusion formation by oriented interface nucleation and simultaneous growth can explain many observations commonly attributed to exsolution, making distinguishing between these two mechanisms a challenge. We suggest interface-dependence of SPOs and COR frequencies as criteria for identifying inclusion formation via oriented nucleation at an interface and subsequent simultaneous growth.Rutile
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Abstract Ilmenite–pyrophanite crystals from a garnet pegmatite dyke from the Upper Codera Valley (Sondrio, Italian Alps) showing exsolutions of titanohematite and columbite-tantalite were investigated by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The titanohematite precipitates share the same crystallographic orientation of the ilmenite-pyrophanite host, are bean-shaped when observed on sections inclined to the pinacoidal section, and are elongated when observed on sections closer to the prism section, possibly because of their discoidal shape parallel to (001). The columbite-tantalite precipitates form a hexagonal network of needles elongated along ⟨110⟩ of the ilmenite–pyrophanite and titanohematite host. The following crystallographic relationship was established: [100] Col //[001] Ilm ; [001] Col //(110) Ilm ; , which can be explained in terms of preservation of the oxygen close packing between the ilmenite and columbite structures. The interfaces between any two of the three different phases are coherent but show lattice strain contrast and sometimes dislocations because of their different unit-cell dimensions. On the basis of textural observations, titanohematite is supposed to exsolve first, followed by columbite-tantalite at temperatures below 500°C. The addition of MnO to the Fe 2 O 3 –FeTiO 3 system is supposed to considerably influence the topology of the related T-X phase diagram and the solubility of Nb 2 O 5 and Ta 2 O 5 in this system.
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