0000000000511130
AUTHOR
Eleanor C. R. Green
High-grade metamorphism and partial melting in Archean composite grey gneiss complexes
Much of the exposed Archaean crust is composed of composite gneiss which includes a large proportion of intermediate to tonalitic material. These gneiss terrains were typically metamorphosed to amphibolite to granulite facies conditions, with evidence for substantial partial melting at higher grade. Recently published activity–composition (a-x) models for partial melting of metabasic to intermediate compositions allows calculation of the stable metamorphic minerals, melt production and melt composition in such rocks for the first time. Calculated P–T pseudosections are presented for six bulk rock compositions taken from the literature, comprising two metabasic compositions, two intermediate…
High-grade metamorphism and partial melting of basic and intermediate rocks
Rocks of basic and intermediate bulk composition occur in orogenic terranes from all geological time periods and are thought to represent significant petrological components of the middle and lower continental crust. However, the former lack of appropriate thermodynamic models for silicate melt, amphibole and clinopyroxene that can be applied to such lithologies at high temperature has inhibited effective phase equilibrium modelling of their petrological evolution during amphibolite- and granulite facies metamorphism. In this work, we present phase diagrams calculated in the Na2O–CaO–K2O–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O–TiO2–O2 (NCKFMASHTO) compositional system for a range of natural basic and interm…
Activity-composition relations for the calculation of partial melting equilibria in metabasic rocks
A set of thermodynamic models is presented that, for the first time, allows partial melting equilibria to be calculated for metabasic rocks. The models consist of new activity–composition relations combined with end-member thermodynamic properties from the Holland & Powell dataset, version 6. They allow for forward modelling in the system Na (Formula presented.) O–CaO–K (Formula presented.) O–FeO–MgO–Al (Formula presented.) O (Formula presented.) –SiO (Formula presented.) –H (Formula presented.) O–TiO (Formula presented.) –Fe (Formula presented.) O (Formula presented.). In particular, new activity–composition relations are presented for silicate melt of broadly trondhjemitic–tonalitic compo…
Partial melting of metabasic rocks and the generation of tonalitic–trondhjemitic–granodioritic (TTG) crust in the Archaean: Constraints from phase equilibrium modelling
Abstract Rocks of tonalitic–trondhjemitic–granodioritic (TTG) composition preserved in Archaean terranes represent fragments of the Earth’s earliest-formed continental crust, and are thought to have formed via partial melting of hydrated metabasalt. The geodynamic environments in which such high-grade metamorphism and anatexis may have occurred in the early Earth is strongly debated. Constraining the pressure ( P ) and temperature ( T ) conditions at which melts of appropriate composition can be derived from protoliths containing plausible mineral assemblages is central to addressing this question. Phase equilibrium modelling has been undertaken for an enriched Archaean tholeiite bulk compo…
Garnet and spinel lherzolite assemblages in MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 and CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2: thermodynamic models and an experimental conflict
The recent publication of an updated thermodynamic dataset for petrological calculations provides an opportunity to illustrate the relationship between experimental data and the dataset, in the context of a new set of activity–composition models for several key minerals. These models represent orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and garnet in the system CaO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2 (CMAS), and are valid up to 50 kbar and at least 1800 °C; they are the first high-temperature models for these phases to be developed for the Holland & Powell dataset. The models are calibrated with reference to phase-relation data in the subsystems CaO–MgO–SiO2 (CMS) and MgO–Al2O3–SiO2 (MAS), and will themselves form the basis o…
On equilibrium in non-hydrostatic metamorphic systems
Metamorphic geology has accumulated a huge body of observation on mineral assemblages that reveal strong patterns in occurrence, summarised for example in the idea of metamorphic facies. On the realisation that such patterns needed a simple explanation, there has been considerable a posteriori success from adopting the idea that equilibrium thermodynamics can be used on mineral assemblages to make sense of the patterns in terms of, for example, the pressure and temperature of formation of mineral assemblages. In doing so, a particularly simple implicit assumption is made, that mineral assemblages operate essentially hydrostatically. Structural geologists have studied the same rocks for diff…
On parameterizing thermodynamic descriptions of minerals for petrological calculations
A new regularization approach, termed micro-ϕ, is outlined for parameterizing activity–composition (a–x) relations and other aspects of the thermodynamic descriptions of minerals for petrological calculations. In the context of the symmetric formalism, a formulation of a–x relations that is easily generalizable to multi-component minerals, parameterization with micro-ϕ extends from where there are good data available to constrain, for example, interaction energies, to where there are little or no data. This involves decomposing the interaction energies, which are macroscopic between end-members, into their microscopic components involving interactions between elements on sites. Micro-ϕ invo…
New mineral activity-composition relations for thermodynamic calculations in metapelitic systems
New activity–composition (a–x) relations for minerals commonly occurring in metapelites are presented for use with the internally consistent thermodynamic dataset of Holland & Powell (2011, Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 29, 333–383). The a–x relations include a broader consideration of Fe2O3 in minerals, changes to the formalism of several phases and order–disorder in all ferromagnesian minerals where Fe–Mg mixing occurs on multiple sites. The a–x relations for chlorite, biotite, garnet, chloritoid, staurolite, cordierite, orthopyroxene, muscovite, paragonite and margarite have been substantially reparameterized using the approach outlined in the companion paper in this issue. For the fir…