Experimental determination of the spinel peridotite to garnet peridotite reaction in the system MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 in the range 900 °–1100 °C and Al2O3 isopleths of enstatite in the spinel field |
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| Authors: | P A Danckwerth R C Newton |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, 5734 S. Ellis Ave., 60637 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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| Abstract: | The univariant high-pressure reaction of aluminous enstatite and spinel to pyrope and forsterite in the MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 system has been determined in the temperature range 900 °–1100 °C by hydrothermal reversals in the piston-cylinder apparatus using the low-friction NaCl pressure medium. A mixture of synthetic minerals, including an enstatite with 6 wt% Al2O3, with product and reactant assemblages in nearly equal amounts, was the starting material. The equilibrium pressure of 19.3±0.3 kbar at 1000 ° C and average dP/dT slope of 8.0 bars/ ° C confirm the strong curvature of the equilibrium below 1200 ° C deduced by Obata (1976) from a theoretical study of experimental Al2O3 isopleths of enstatite in the garnet field. His prediction of an absolute minimum pressure near 18 kbar of the garnet peridotite assemblage in the ternary system is undoubtedly correct.Three reversed determinations of the equilibrium Al2O3 content of enstatite in the presence of spinel +forsterite were made at points adjacent to the univariant curve. The points are 5.5 wt% Al2O3 at 950 ° C and 20 kbar, 6.2 wt% at 1000 ° C and 20 kbar and 7.2 wt% at 1080 ° C and 20 kbar. These values are somewhat higher than given by the MacGregor (1974) isopleth set and quite close to those predicted by Fujii (1976) from experimental synthesis data at higher temperatures, using the Wood and Banno (1973) model of ideal solution of the Mg2Si2O6 and MgAl2SiO6 components in enstatite to reduce the data.All of the available spinel-field isopleth data can be systematized with the use of the ideal solution model. A value of  H
0 of 9000 cal fits the reduced data well, and is in agreement with the calorimetrically determined value of 8500±1900 calories. An accurate calculation of the dP/dT slope of the univariant equilibrium at 1000 ° C based on calorimetry gives 7±2bars/ °C, also in good agreement with experiment. Thus, all of the available experimental and calorimetric data are consistent with the ideal-solution aluminous enstatite model.The dP/dT slopes of the spinel-field isopleths are too large to permit their use as an accurate geobarometric scale. They do have considerable potential as a thermometric indicator for certain natural peridotites, however. The southwestern Oregon overthrust peridotite masses of Cretaceous age have enstatite of 5.6 wt% Al2O3 with spinel of nearly 80 mole% MgAl2O4. The present reduced isopleth data directly give 930 ° C for the equilibration, assuming 12 kbar pressure. A first order correction based on ideal solution departures from the ternary system, as suggested by Stroh (1976) gives 1000 ° C. Thus, the high temperatures deduced by Medaris (1972) are confirmed. The pressure cannot be deduced independently from the pyroxene Al2O3 contents. |
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