Albite [yields] jadeite + quartz transformation in rock: Mechanism and kinetics
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Recent work on the calcite [yields] aragonite transformation using fully dense marble revealed significant differences from earlier experiments on powders and single-crystals. The reaction rate is retarded by a factor of > 1,000 and reaction mechanisms and resultant textures are considerably more complex. Stimulated by this, the authors conducted a study of the albite [yields] jadeite + quartz/coesite transformation in a fully dense albitite. Again the results are in marked contrast with previous powder-based studies of this archetypal metamorphic reaction. Solid cores of albitite were held at temperatures of 500-1,200 C and at pressure oversteps of 500 MPa into the jadeite + quartz stability field for 1--8 days in piston-cylinder apparatus. Samples that were dried in vacuum transformed appreciably only at temperatures in excess of 1,000 C. At all grain boundaries there is subequal transformation to micron-scale intergrowths of jadeite + quartz. Samples that were vacuum-impregnated with 1 wt% water contain jadeite + quartz to temperatures as low as 600 C. In contrast to the dried samples, transformation is much less homogeneous. The jadeite + quartz intergrowths do not form rows of subparallel crystals on grain boundaries, but rather are flower-shaped clusters that radiate outward from single nucleation sites at 3-grain edges and 4-grain corners. Compared to powders, pressure oversteps a factor of 10 greater are necessary to induce equivalent reaction in albitite. The sluggishness of this reaction has important implications for the evolution of the lower continental crust and subducting oceanic crust in terms of their (1) seismic velocity profiles, (2) petrological evolution, and (3) buoyancy forces, stresses and vertical crustal movements connected with densification and dilatational reactions.
- OSTI ID:
- 5808885
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921058-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 24:7; Conference: 1992 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Cincinnati, OH (United States), 26-29 Oct 1992; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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