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Melt must transfer through the lower crust, yet the field signatures and mechanisms involved in such transfer zones (excluding dykes) are still poorly understood. We report field and microstructural evidence of a deformation‐assisted melt transfer zone that developed in the lower crustal magmatic arc environment of Fiordland, New Zealand. A 30–40 m wide hornblende‐rich body comprising hornblende ± clinozoisite and/or garnet exhibits 'igneous‐like' features and is hosted within a metamorphic, two‐pyroxene–pargasite gabbroic gneiss (GG). Previous studies have interpreted the hornblende‐rich body as an igneous cumulate or a mass transfer zone. We present field and microstructural characteristics supporting the later and indicating the body has formed by deformation‐assisted, channelized, reactive porous melt flow. The host granulite facies GG contains distinctive rectilinear dykes and garnet reaction zones (GRZ) from earlier in the geological history; these form important reaction and strain markers. Field observations show that the mineral assemblages and microstructures of the GG and GRZ are progressively modified with proximity to the hornblende‐rich body. At the same time, GRZ bend systematically into the hornblende‐rich body on each side of the unit, showing apparent sinistral shearing. Within the hornblende‐rich body itself, microstructures and electron back‐scatter diffraction mapping show evidence of the former presence of melt including observations consistent with melt crystallization within pore spaces, elongate pseudomorphs of melt films along grain boundaries, minerals with low dihedral angles as small as

The prograde metamorphic history of the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic terrane has been revealed using Raman-based barometry of the SiO2 phases and other mineral inclusions in garnet porphyroblasts of a coesite eclogite from Yangzhuang, Junan region, eastern China. Garnet porphyroblasts have inner and outer segments with the boundary being marked by discontinuous changes in the grossular content. In the inner segment, the SiO2 phase inclusions are α-quartz with no coesite or relict features such as radial cracks. The residual pressures retained by the quartz inclusions systematically increase from the crystal centre to the margin of the inner segment. The metamorphic conditions estimated by calculation from the residual pressure and conventional thermodynamic calculation range from 500 to 630 °C and 1.3 to 2.3 GPa for the stage of the inner segment. Coesite and its pseudomorph occur as inclusions in the outer segment of the garnet and matrix omphacite. This occurrence of coesite is consistent with the pressure and temperature conditions of 660–725 °C and 3.1 GPa estimated by conventional geothermobarometry. Our results suggest that the quartz inclusions in the inner segment were trapped by garnet under α-quartz-stable conditions and survived phase transition to coesite at the peak metamorphic stage. The SiO2 phases and other inclusions in the garnet have retained evidence of the pre-eclogite prograde stage even during exhumation stage. The combined Raman spectroscopic and petrological approaches used here offers a powerful means for obtaining more robust constraints prograde stages involving garnet growth where different SiO2 phases are present as inclusions.

Stromatic metatexites occurring structurally below the contact with the Ronda peridotite (Ojnap- pe, Betic Cordillera, S Spain) are characterized by the mineral assemblage Qtz+Pl+Kfs+Bt+Sil+Grt+ Ap+Gr+Ilm. Garnet occurs in low modal amount (2-5 vol.%). Very rare muscovite is present as armoured inclusions, indicating prograde exhaustion. Microstructural evidence of melting in the migmatites includes pseudomorphs after melt films and nanogranite and glassy inclusions hosted in garnet cores. The latter microstructure demonstrates that garnet crystallized in the presence of melt. Re-melted nanogranites and preserved glassy inclusions show leucogranitic compositions. Phase equi- libria modelling of the stromatic migmatite in the MnO-Na2O-CaO-K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2- H2-O2-C (MnNCaKFMASHOC) system with graphite-saturated fluid shows P-T conditions of equilibration of 4.5-5 kbar, 660-700 °C. These results are consistent with the complete experimental re-melting of nanogranites at 700 °C and indicate that nanogranites represent the anatectic melt gen- erated immediately after entering supersolidus conditions. The P-T estimate for garnet and melt development does not, however, overlap with the low-temperature tip of the pure melt field in the phase diagram calculated for the composition of preserved glassy inclusions in garnet in the Na2O- CaO-K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O (NCKFMASH) system. A comparison of measured melt compositions formed immediately beyond the solidus with results of phase equilibria modelling points to the systematic underestimation of FeO, MgO and CaO in the calculated melt. These discrepancies are present also when calculated melts are compared with low-T natural and experimental melts from the literature. Under such conditions, the available melt model does not perform well. Given the presence of melt inclusions in garnet cores and the P-T estimates for their formation, we argue that small amounts (

Retrograde reaction textures, such as partial pseudomorphs, coronae and symplectic coronae are a relatively common feature of granulite facies rocks and represent evidence of change of mineral modes or assemblages. Thus, such reaction textures represent one of the more potentially useful indicators of retrograde P-T evolutions. However, the interpretation of such textures requires the simultaneous consideration of the formation of the texture itself in terms of the spatial relationships in a rock, and of the changes in P-T conditions that drove the development of the reaction texture. Calculated phase diagrams provide a robust framework in which to consider reaction textures, especially via the combined use of pseudosections to understand the P-T changes and μ-μ diagrams to understand the spatial arrangement of the minerals. Consideration of the chemical potential gradients that may exist across a given texture means that elucidating P-T conditions and P-T paths must be done with care. The evolution of a given reaction texture may be complex with different layers or individual minerals in a texture forming at different times. Thus, the approach of writing a reaction to represent the inferred local reactant and product phases and simply ascribing such reaction textures to crossing equivalent univariant reactions from petrogenetic grids or traversing through fields in pseudosections without due consideration of chemical potential gradients may result in an incorrect interpretation. Furthermore, the potential for a non-continuous metamorphic evolution of a rock by polymetamorphism or some other hiatus in the textural/mineral-assemblage evolution creates further uncertainty in the interpretation of a texture in terms of its reaction history and P-T path. A common interpretation of coronae and symplectic coronae, on the basis of the preservation of the apparent reactants, is that they represent reactions that failed to go to completion for various kinetic reasons. While this may be true in some cases, many other textures may actually represent reaction having gone to completion with, for example, silicate melt being the phase completely consumed. Furthermore, even where a reaction has failed to go to completion, the possible reasons for this may be different for different rocks. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Monazite petrogenesis in the Nelson contact aureole is the result of allanite breakdown close to, but downgrade and therefore independent of, major phase isograds involving cordierite, andalusite and staurolite. The development of garnet downgrade of the staurolite and andalusite isograds does not appear to affect the onset of the allanite-to-monazite reaction but does affect the textural development of monazite. In lower pressure, garnet-absent rocks, allanite breakdown results in localized monazite growth as pseudomorphous clusters. In higher pressure, garnet-bearing rocks, allanite breakdown produces randomly distributed, lone grains of monazite with no textural relationship to the original reaction site. Fluids liberated from hydrous phases (chlorite, muscovite) during garnet formation may have acted as a flux to distribute light rare earth elements more widely within the rock upon allanite breakdown, preventing the localized formation of monazite pseudomorphs. Despite these textural differences, both types of monazite have very similar chemistry and an indistinguishable age by electron microprobe chemical dating (157 ± 6.4 Ma). This age range is within error of isotopic ages determined by others for the Nelson Batholith. Garnet from the garnet, staurolite and andalusite zones shows euhedral Y zoning typified by a high-Y core, low-Y collar and moderate-Y annulus, the latter ascribed to allanite breakdown during garnet growth in the garnet zone. The cause of the transition from high-Y core to low-Y collar, traditionally interpreted to be due to xenotime consumption, is unclear because of the ubiquitous presence of xenotime. Accessory phase geothermometry involving monazite, xenotime and garnet returns inconsistent results, suggesting calibration problems or a lack of equilibration between phases.

Eclogite, orthogneiss and, by association, metapelite from an island at 78°N in North-East Greenland experienced ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism at approximately 970 °C and 3.6 GPa, at the end of the Caledonian collision, 360–350 Ma. Hydrous metapelites contain abundant leucocratic layers and lenses composed of medium-grained, anhedral, equigranular quartz, antiperthitic plagioclase and K-feldspar with minor small garnet and kyanite crystals. Leucosomes are generally parallel to the matrix foliation, are interlayered with residual quartz bands, anastomose around residual garnet and commonly cross-cut micaceous segregations. Textures suggest that the leucosomes crystallized from a syntectonic melt, but crystallized at the end of local high-grade deformation. The metapelite outcrop is

The abundance and morphology of microdiamond in dolomite marble from Kumdy-kol in the Kokchetav Massif, are unusual; a previous study estimated the maximum content of diamonds in dolomite marble to be about 2700 carat ton−1. Microdiamond is included primarily in garnet, and occasionally in diopside and phlogopite pseudomorphs after garnet. They are classified into three types on the basis of their morphology: (1) S-type: star-shaped diamond consisting of translucent cores and transparent subhedral to euhedral very fine-grained outer parts; (2) R-type: translucent crystals with rugged surfaces; and (3) T-type: transparent, very fine-grained crystals. The S-type is the most abundant. Micro-Laue diffraction using a 1.6-µm X-ray beam-size demonstrated that the cores of the star-shaped microdiamond represent single crystals. In contrast, the most fine-grained outer parts usually have different orientations compared to the core. Laser–Raman studies indicate that the FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) of the Raman band of the core of the S-type diamond is slightly larger than that for the outer parts. Differences in morphology, crystal orientations, and in the FWHM of the Raman band between the core and the fine-grained outer-parts of S-type microdiamond suggest that the star-shaped microdiamond was formed discontinuously in two distinct stages.

The solid-state reaction magnesite (MgCO3) + calcite (aragonite) (CaCO3) = dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) has been identified in metapelites from western Tianshan, China. Petrological studies show that two metamorphic stages are recorded in the metapelites: (1) the peak mineral assemblage of magnesite and calcite pseudomorphs after aragonite which is only preserved as inclusions within dolomite; and (2) the retrograde glaucophane-chloritoid facies mineral assemblage of glaucophane, chloritoid, dolomite, garnet, paragonite, chlorite and quartz. The peak metamorphic temperatures and pressures are calculated to be 560–600 °C, 4.95–5.07 GPa based on the calcite–dolomite geothermometer and the equilibrium calculation of the reaction dolomite = magnesite + aragonite, respectively. These give direct evidence in UHP metamorphic rocks from Tianshan, China, that carbonate sediments were subducted to greater than 150 km depth. This UHP metamorphism represents a geotherm lower than any previously estimated for subduction metamorphism (

Fiordland, New Zealand exposes the lower crustal root of an Early Cretaceous magmatic arc that now forms one of Earth's most extensive high-P granulite facies belts. The Arthur River Complex, a dioritic to gabbroic suite in northern Fiordland, is part of the root of the arc, and records an Early Cretaceous history of emplacement, tectonic burial, and high-P granulite facies metamorphism that accompanied partial melting of the crust. Late random intergrowths of kyanite, quartz and plagioclase partially pseudomorph minerals in the earlier high-T assemblages of the Arthur River Complex, indicating high-P cooling of an over thickened crustal root by c. 200 °C. The kyanite intergrowths are themselves partially pseudomorphed by paragonite, commonly in the presence of phengitic white mica. Biotite–plagioclase intergrowths that partially pseudomorph phengitic white mica and diopside–plagioclase intergrowths that partially pseudomorph jadeitic diopside, combined with published thermochronology results, are consistent with later rapid decompression. A short duration anticlockwise P–T path may be explained by the high-P juxtaposition of comparatively cool upper crustal rocks following their tectonic burial and under thrusting during the waning stages of Early Cretaceous orogenesis. This was then followed by the decompression giving the rapid exhumation within 20 Myr of peak metamorphism, as suggested by the isotopic data.

The grain-scale spatial arrangement of melt in layer-parallel leucosomes in two anatectic rocks from two different contact aureoles located in central Maine, USA, is documented and used to constrain the controls on grain-scale melt localization. The spatial distribution of grain-scale melt is inferred from microstructural criteria for recognition of mineral pseudomorphs after melt and mineral grains of the solid matrix that hosted the melt. In both rocks, feldspar mimics the grain-scale distribution of melt, and quartz is the major constituent of the solid matrix. The feldspar pockets consist of individual feldspar grains or aggregates of feldspar grains that show cuspate outlines. They have low average width/length ratios (0.54 and 0.55, respectively), and are interstitial between more rounded and equant (width/length ratios 0.65 for both samples) quartz grains. In two dimensions, the feldspar pockets extend over distances equivalent to multiple quartz grain diameters, possibly forming a connected three-dimensional intergranular network. Both samples show similar mesoscopic structural elements and in both samples the feldspar pockets have a shape-preferred orientation. In one sample, feldspar inferred to replace melt is aligned subparallel to the shape-preferred orientation of quartz, indicating that pre- or syn-anatectic strain controlled the grain-scale distribution of melt. In the other sample, the preferred orientation of feldspar inferred to replace melt is different from the orientations of all other mesoscopic or microscopic structures in the rock, indicating that differential stress controlled grain-scale melt localization. This is probably facilitated by conditions of higher differential stress, which may have promoted microfracturing. Grain-scale melt distribution and inferred melt localization controls give insight into possible grain-scale deformation mechanisms in melt-bearing rocks. Application of these results to the interpretation of deep crustal anatectic rocks suggests that grain-scale melt distribution should be controlled primarily by pre- or syn-anatectic deformation. Feedback relations between melt localization and deformation are to be expected, with important implications for deformation and tectonic evolution of melt-bearing rocks.

Chemical relationships among four metapelites have been studied by investigation of mineral and bulk chemistry data and by singular value decomposition analysis of single and composite assemblage matrices. Bulk rock compositions cluster close together in an AFM diagram, all within the intersection space defined by the four sample assemblages. The similarity of bulk compositions normalized on a silica-free, anhydrous basis indicates that sample chemistries differ mainly as a result of inhomogeneous distribution of quartz layers. The existence of mass balance relationships among samples indicates that assemblages also overlap in the Si–Ti–Al–Fe–Mg–Mn–Ca–Na–K multisystem. Analysis of single and composite matrices helps in defining possible mass balances linking sample mineral facies to one another during progressive contact metamorphism. The assemblage in sample A can form as the result of the model reaction 5.000 Ky+0.269 Grt+0.965 Bt+0.314 Pl=0.049 Ilm+1.115 Ms+0.849 Chl+0.306 St and react to assemblage B via reaction 0.97 Chl+0.52 Grt+0.66 Ms+0.14 Ilm+1.26 Ky=0.42 St+0.63 Bt+0.22 Pl coupled with the Ky→And transition. Assemblage B can transform into C by initial progress of Ky+Ilm+Chl+Grt+Ms=And+St+Bt+Pl followed by 0.142 Ilm+0.175 St+1.089 Chl+1.533 Ms+0.003 Grt=5.000 And+1.266 Bt+0.551 Pl Matrix analysis cannot satisfactorily model the C–D transition, because it predicts a net production of staurolite, which is in disagreement with petrographic evidence. All mass balances in the C–D composite matrix indicate net consumption of muscovite; this is integrated with the contrasting evidence of prograde pseudomorphs of muscovite after staurolite, observed in the nodules of sample D, within a model involving the progress of ionic reaction cycles.

Microstructural evidence commonly is used to infer metamorphic reactions, which are used to infer pressure–temperature–time (P–T–t) paths. However, this approach in low-P/high-T (LPHT) granulite facies metamorphic terranes has two main problems. (1) Microstructural evidence may be inconclusive, so that reactions cannot be inferred with confidence. In particular, relative timing of mineral growth inferred from inclusions, moulding relationships and foliation–porphyroblast relationships is commonly ambiguous or invalid. The most reliable indicators of metamorphic reactions are partial pseudomorphs and corona structures, especially if symplectic intergrowths (indicating simultaneous growth of two or more minerals) are involved. (2) Even reactions that can be inferred with confidence do not indicate unique P–T trends, owing to P–T slopes of reaction curves. Where successive reactions can be shown to have occurred in the same rock, a line or curve joining reaction-curve intersections gives an apparent single-event path. However, isotopic evidence is needed to prove that polymetamorphism (involving more complex paths making fortuitous intersections with the apparent single-event path) did not occur. Although these problems are well known, their importance is not always emphasized in metamorphic investigations. The difficulties are illustrated by published work on P–T–t paths for Proterozoic LPHT granulite facies rocks of central Australia and Antarctica. Recent work in Antarctica has shown that P–T–t paths may be episodic and more complex than the simple, single-event paths commonly inferred from microstructural evidence alone.

International audience; Lawsonite pseudomorphs are used to identify and distinguish the kinematic records of subduction and exhumation in blueschist-facies rocks from Syros (Cyclades; Greece). Lawsonite is a hydrous mineral that crystallizes at high-pressure and low-temperature conditions. During decompression, lawsonite is typically pseudomorphed by an aggregate dominated by epidote and paragonite. Such aggregates are easily deformable and if deformation occurs after the lawsonite breakdown, the pseudomorphs are difficult to distinguish from the matrix. The preservation of the lawsonite crystal shape, despite complete retrogression, indicates therefore that the host blueschist rock has not been affected by penetrative deformation during exhumation, thus providing indication of strain-free conditions. Therefore, tracking the lawsonite growth and destabilization along the P-T path followed by the rocks during a subduction/exhumation cycle provides information about the subduction/exhumation-related deformation. Using microstructural observations and P-T pseudosections calculated with thermocalc, it is inferred that top-to-the-south sense of shear preserved in lawsonite pseudomorph-bearing blueschists on Syros occurred during the prograde metamorphic path within the lawsonite stability field, and is therefore associated with subduction. On the contrary, the deformation with a top-to-the-north sense of shear is observed in surrounding rocks, where lawsonite pseudomorphs are deformed or apparently lacking. This deformation occurred after the lawsonite breakdown during exhumation. At the regional scale, exhumation-related deformation is heterogeneous, allowing the preservation of lawsonite pseudomorphs in significant volumes of blueschists of the central and southern Cyclades. It is argued that such successive shearing deformation events with opposite senses more likely correspond to an exhumation process driven by slab rollback, in which subduction and exhumation are not synchronous