METAMORPHIC EVOLUTION OF SPESSARTINE QUARTZITES (COTICULES) IN THE HIGH-PRESSURE, LOW-TEMPERATURE COMPLEX AT BAHIA MANSA, COASTAL CORDILLERA OF SOUTH-CENTRAL CHILE

Lenses of spessartine quartzites (coticules) are associated with greenschist intercalations in coastal exposures at Bahia Mansa within the mainly metapsammopelitic Western Series, which forms most of the basement in the Coastal Cordillera of central to southern Chile. The chemical compositions of the coticules can be explained by protoliths formed from ferriferous and manganiferous hydrothermal precipitates mixed with aluminous alteration-derived material on top of oceanic crust. The peak conditions of metamorphism were calculated with multivariant reactions: 270–370 °C, 6–8 kbar. A retrograde P–T evolution was marked by decompression to 2 kbar during cooling below 300°C, influx of an exter…