The compositions of minerals within high pressure tectonic blocks from Horse Mountain, Northern California
- Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA (United States). Geology Dept.
High pressure metamorphic blocks occur within serpentinite between the South Fork Mountain Schist and the Coast Range Fault, Humboldt Co., Northern California. Samples from three of these blocks were studied by petrographic techniques and quantitatively analyzed using the energy dispersive spectrometer on out scanning electron microscope. The mineral assemblages for three samples are as follows: WC86-7-3 contains omphacite (jd53, di36, hd11), pumpellyite, and relic igneous clinopyroxene. WC86-9-3 contains titanite, epidote chlorite, pumpellyite, and relic clinopyroxene. WC86-18-3 contains garnet, lawsonite, glaucophane, albite, chlorite, pumpellyite, minor quartz, and relic clinopyroxene. All samples contain relic clinopyroxene that, in the case of SC86-7-3, acts as a nucleus for omphacite growth. When present in cross cutting veins, omphacite has both radiating fibrous and blocky textures. Some epidote, titanite, clinopyroxene and pumpellyite were too fine to identify optically as well, but occur in the ground mass. Large grains of euhedral glaucophane, (Na[sub 2.0] Ca[sub .2])(Mg[sub 1.3] Fe[sub 2.0] Al[sub 1.7])Si[sub 8.0] O[sub 22] (OH)[sub 2], and garnet, (alm 33, pyO, sp30, gr37), containing relic ( ) clinopyroxene, glaucophane, and albite inclusions, were present in WC86-18-3. The high SiO[sub 2] and low TiO[sub 2] relative to Al[sub 2]O[sub 3] in relic clinopyroxene indicates a non-alkaline tholeiitic protolith. Omphacite compositions correspond to the type IV blueschist typical of the Franciscan Complex and constrain the pressures of metamorphism to be approximately 9 kb while lawsonite in WC86-18-3 implies a temperature below 450C. These observations indicate that the blocks are derived from subducted material that underwent metamorphism in a low temperature, high pressure setting. The process of their exhumation remains a mystery.
- OSTI ID:
- 5879542
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303211--
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Vol. 25:2; ISSN GAAPBC; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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