Charnockitic alteration: evidence for CO2 infiltration in granulite facies metamorphism |
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| Authors: | R C NEWTON |
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| Institution: | Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, 5734 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA |
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| Abstract: | Charnockitic alteration (arrested orthopyroxene formation in biotite- and amphibole-bearing rocks) occurs in high-grade terranes of all ages. Three criteria are used to show that this alteration was produced in many locations by a migrating fluid phase: (i) diffuseness of the alteration—the alteration zones are often quite unlike discrete migmatitic veins; (ii) relation to deformation—most occurrences show alteration closely associated with warping of foliation or dilation cracks; (iii) open-system alteration—whilst some occurrences represent nearly isochemical alteration, slight changes in bulk composition, often loss of mafic constituents and gain of Na and Si, are evident in detailed mass-balance analysis. Y and sometimes Rb are characteristically depleted. Partial melting sometimes accompanied volatile infiltration, as evidenced by more discrete veins and euhedral orthopyroxene. It is quite unlikely, however, that open-system alteration was produced by escape of viscous quartzo-feldspathic melts. Pervasive migration of low-T lamprophyric (mafic–alkaline, CO2-charged) interstitial liquids is a possibility by virtue of their extreme fluidity, but CO2 infiltration was needed to generate these liquids. Vapour-deficient dehydration melting is another feasible mechanism of orthopyroxene formation which may have operated in conjunction with CO2 infiltration. Characteristic development of charnockitic alteration in some prograde amphibolite to granulite facies transitions, as in the Dharwar Craton of South India, suggests that the alteration is a fundamental feature of the granulite facies metamorphism, implying active and causal participation of migrating fluids. In other high-grade terranes like the Adirondack Mountains of New York, this kind of alteration is rare, and fluid action does not seem to have been important in the metamorphism. A vapour phase participating in charnockitic metamorphism was necessarily one of relatively low H2O, therefore presumably rich in CO2. Consideration of possible large CO2 sources leads to the conclusion that emanations from volatile-rich basalts emplaced in the lower crust are the most probable source of charnockitizing fluids. The ultimate source would therefore be enriched subcontinental lithosphere or asthenosphere. The Rb-depleted pyroxene gneiss (charnockitic) terranes may be characteristic of zones of large-scale transcurrent or oblique-motion faults which tap such great depths. |
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| Keywords: | charnockites CO2 infiltration granulite facies granulites India |
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