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Genesis of chromium-rich kyanite in eclogite-facies Cr-spinel-bearing gabbroic cumulates, Pohorje Massif, Eastern Alps

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Published/Copyright: February 18, 2016
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Abstract

Natural kyanites with Cr2O3 contents >1 wt% are very rare and known only from high-P environments, for example, eclogite-facies gabbroic cumulates containing Cr-spinel from the Pohorje Massif, Eastern Alps, Slovenia. In these rocks, turquoise-colored Cr-rich kyanites are present in two different textural types. A first type has formed as blocky crystals of several hundred micrometers in size around clusters of small drop-like Cr-spinels. This kyanite shows a highly irregular Cr distribution and may contain up to 15.6 wt% Cr2O3, which is one of the highest Cr2O3 contents reported so far. A second type is present as part of reaction coronas around large red-brownish Cr-spinel and forms deep-blue needle-like crystals that rarely exceed 100 μm in size. This kyanite contains up to 8.2 wt% Cr2O3 and is associated with Cr-rich corundum (≤9.1 wt% Cr2O3) and Cr-Al-rich pargasite (≤3.9 wt% Cr2O3). The formation of kyanite around Cr-spinel droplets is interpreted to be the result of increasing P-T conditions during prograde metamorphism where Cr-spinel and plagioclase or quartz react to Crkyanite, ±garnet, ±omphacite. In contrast, the formation of kyanite associated with Cr-rich corundum and Cr-rich pargasite within coronas around Cr-spinel occurred in an early stage of the retrogressive evolution of the gabbroic cumulates at eclogite-facies conditions of ~2.5 GPa and 750–800 °C triggered by the influx of H2O-rich fluids. The driving force for developing these coronas was an increase in the chemical potential of silica caused by the infiltrating hydrous fluid phase. P-T estimates using matrix mineral assemblage place the peak metamorphic conditions close to the quartz/coesite transition with temperatures in the range of 750–810 °C and pressures of ~2.9 GPa.

Acknowledgments

We thank Zmargo Zorg, Anton Gutschi, and Walter Postl for their support during fieldwork. We are particularly indebded to Zmargo Zorg who has been ranging the Pohorje Massif for eclogite occurrences for many years. Anton Pock, Juergen Neubauer, Karl Ettinger, and Reinhard Kaindl are thanked for thin section preparation, SEM support, performing EPMA analysis, and support for Raman analysis, respectively. We thank Håkon Austrheim, Gerhard Franz, and an unknown reviewer for their comments and corrections.

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  1. Manuscript handled by Thomas Mueller

Received: 2014-8-28
Accepted: 2015-9-1
Published Online: 2016-2-18
Published in Print: 2016-2-1

© 2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

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