Preservation of evidence for prograde metamorphism in ultrahigh-temperature, high-pressure kyanite-bearing granulites, South Harris, Scotland |
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| Authors: | JA HOLLIS SL HARLEY RW WHITE GL CLARKE |
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| Institution: | Department of Geological Mapping, Geological Survey of Denmark &Greenland, Øster Voldgade 10, Copenhagen-K, DK-1350, Denmark (); School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK; School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia; School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Mineralogical and mineral chemical evidence for prograde metamorphism is rarely preserved in rocks that have reached ultrahigh‐temperature (UHT) conditions (>900 °C) because high diffusion and reaction rates erase evidence for earlier assemblages. The UHT, high‐pressure (HP) metasedimentary rocks of the Leverburgh belt of South Harris, Scotland, are unusual in that evidence for the prograde history is preserved, despite having reached temperatures of ～955 °C or more. Two lithologies from the belt are investigated here and quantitatively modelled in the system NaO–CaO–K2O–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O: a garnet‐kyanite‐K‐feldspar‐quartz gneiss (XMg = 37, A/AFM = 0.41), and an orthopyroxene‐garnet‐kyanite‐K‐feldspar quartzite (XMg = 89 A/AFM = 0.68). The garnet‐kyanite gneiss contains garnet porphyroblasts that grew on the prograde path, and captured inclusion assemblages of biotite, sillimanite, plagioclase and quartz (<790 °C, <9.5 kbar). These porphyroblasts preserve spectacular calcium zonation features with an early growth pattern overgrown by high‐Ca rims formed during high‐P metamorphism in the kyanite stability field. In contrast, Fe‐Mg zonation in the same garnet porphyroblasts reflects retrograde re‐equilibration, as a result of the relatively faster diffusivity of these ions. Peak P–T are constrained by the occurrence of coexisting orthopyroxene and aluminosilicate in the quartzite. Orthopyroxene porphyroblasts y(opx) = 0.17–0.22] contain sillimanite inclusions, indicative of maximum conditions of 955 ± 45 °C at 10.0 ± 1.5 kbar. Subsequently, orthopyroxene, kyanite, K‐feldspar and quartz developed in equilibrated textures, constraining the maximum pressure conditions to 12.5 ± 0.8 kbar at 905 ± 25 °C. P–T–X modelling reveals that the mineral assemblage orthopyroxene‐kyanite‐quartz is compositionally restricted to rocks of XMg > 84, consistent with its very rare occurrence in nature. The preservation of unusual high P–T mineral assemblages and chemical disequilibrium features in these UHT HP rocks is attributed to a rapid tectonometamorphic cycle involving arc subduction and terminating in exhumation. |
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| Keywords: | garnet zonation kyanite-orthopyroxene-quartz NCKFMASH P–T–X modelling pseudosection |
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