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A rare sekaninaite occurrence in the Nenana Coal Basin, Alaska Range, Alaska

  • Stephen P. Reidel and Martin E. Ross
Published/Copyright: August 31, 2023
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 108 Issue 9

Abstract

Coal-seam fires are not uncommon and occur in coal deposits of all ages. Coal-seam fires have been noted in Alaska, but this paper is the first to describe the mineralogy and petrology of a coal-seam fire in the Mystic Creek coal basin in the remote eastern part of the Nenana Coal Basin, Alaska Range. The coal is Miocene and part of the Healy Creek Formation of the Usibelli Group. The coal-fire products were studied optically and analyzed using XRF, XRD, and electron microprobe. The host rock is a silty sandstone consisting mainly of quartz, feldspar, and minor hematite and clay. The coal-seam fire fused and melted the country rock producing a metasediment-clinker and paralava. Sekaninaite (Fecordierite), plagioclase, and fayalite are the main minerals that formed along with titanomagnetite, mullite, augite, and an unidentified Al-Fe-Ti oxide mineral. Petrographic analysis shows there are at least three distinct lithologies in the paralava at thin section scale: a vesicular, holocrystalline sekaninaite-plagioclase ± olivine bearing area; holocrystalline areas dominated by plagioclase and quartz ± minor sekaninaite; glassy bodies; and a bulbous, lenticular body of coarse-grained sekaninaite and lesser olivine. The paralava is an andesite with rhyolitic residual glass. Oxidation and fusion of the sediment was the first phase of pyrometamorphism, where the sediment becomes brown-red and sekaninaite begins to form. The metasediment melts forming vesicles in a black glass; sekaninaite formation is well underway. The melt separates from the host and coalesces to form the paralava. As the paralava cools, fayalite and sekaninaite precipitate, accompanied by plagioclase, quartz, titanomagnetite, and an Al-Fe-Ti oxide. Proximity to the surface allowed quenching of the remaining liquid to rhyolitic glass. Numerical modeling was employed to calculate the liquidus temperature (1140 to 1200 °C) and understand the crystallization pathway to the rhyolitic glass. In all models, sekaninaite precipitation is the most important mineral leading to the rhyolitic glass.

Keywords: Sekaninaite; Nenana Coal Basin; Alaska Range

Acknowledgments

We thank Leslie Baker, Warren Huff, and an anonymous individual for reviewing this paper and providing valuable comments and suggestions. XRF analyses were provided by R. Conrey, Hamilton College analytical labs; Electron Microprobe analyses were provided by J. Eckler, Yale University; XRD analysis was provided by Elitsa Hrischeva, Activation Laboratories Ltd.

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Received: 2022-07-08
Accepted: 2022-09-28
Published Online: 2023-08-31
Published in Print: 2023-09-26

© 2023 by Mineralogical Society of America

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Fluorine-rich mafic lower crust in the southern Rocky Mountains: The role of pre-enrichment in generating fluorine-rich silicic magmas and porphyry Mo deposits
  2. Apatite in brachinites: Insights into thermal history and halogen evolution
  3. A high-pressure structural transition of norsethite-type BaFe(CO3)2: Comparison with BaMg(CO3)2 and BaMn(CO3)2
  4. An evolutionary system of mineralogy, Part VII: The evolution of the igneous minerals (>2500 Ma)
  5. Oriented secondary magnetite micro-inclusions in plagioclase from oceanic gabbro
  6. A multi-methodological study of the bastnäsite-synchysite polysomatic series: Tips and tricks of polysome identification and the origin of syntactic intergrowths
  7. Petrogenesis of Chang’E-5 mare basalts: Clues from the trace elements in plagioclase
  8. Experimental investigation of trace element partitioning between amphibole and alkali basaltic melt: Toward a more general partitioning model with implications for amphibole fractionation at deep crustal levels
  9. Grain-scale zircon Hf isotope heterogeneity inherited from sediment-metasomatized mantle: Geochemical and Nd-Hf-Pb-O isotopic constraints on Early Cretaceous intrusions in central Lhasa Terrane, Tibetan Plateau
  10. Mechanism and kinetics of the pseudomorphic replacement of anhydrite by calcium phosphate phases at hydrothermal conditions
  11. Vacancy infilling during the crystallization of Fe-deficient hematite: An in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of non-classical crystal growth
  12. Simulated diagenesis of the iron-silica precipitates in banded iron formations
  13. Wave vector and field vector orientation dependence of Fe K pre-edge X-ray absorption features in clinopyroxenes
  14. Structure and compressibility of Fe-bearing Al-phase D
  15. Synthesis of boehmite-type GaOOH: A new polymorph of Ga oxyhydroxide and geochemical implications
  16. Scheelite U-Pb geochronology and trace element geochemistry fingerprint W mineralization in the giant Zhuxi W deposit, South China
  17. A rare sekaninaite occurrence in the Nenana Coal Basin, Alaska Range, Alaska
  18. Slyudyankaite, Na28Ca4(Si24Al24O96)(SO4)6(S6)1/3(CO2)·2H2O, a new sodalite-group mineral from the Malo-Bystrinskoe lazurite deposit, Baikal Lake area, Russia
  19. Ruizhongite, (Ag2□)Pb3Ge2S8, a thiogermanate mineral from the Wusihe Pb-Zn deposit, Sichuan Province, Southwest China
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2022-8698
Keywords for this article
Sekaninaite; Nenana Coal Basin; Alaska Range

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Fluorine-rich mafic lower crust in the southern Rocky Mountains: The role of pre-enrichment in generating fluorine-rich silicic magmas and porphyry Mo deposits
  2. Apatite in brachinites: Insights into thermal history and halogen evolution
  3. A high-pressure structural transition of norsethite-type BaFe(CO3)2: Comparison with BaMg(CO3)2 and BaMn(CO3)2
  4. An evolutionary system of mineralogy, Part VII: The evolution of the igneous minerals (>2500 Ma)
  5. Oriented secondary magnetite micro-inclusions in plagioclase from oceanic gabbro
  6. A multi-methodological study of the bastnäsite-synchysite polysomatic series: Tips and tricks of polysome identification and the origin of syntactic intergrowths
  7. Petrogenesis of Chang’E-5 mare basalts: Clues from the trace elements in plagioclase
  8. Experimental investigation of trace element partitioning between amphibole and alkali basaltic melt: Toward a more general partitioning model with implications for amphibole fractionation at deep crustal levels
  9. Grain-scale zircon Hf isotope heterogeneity inherited from sediment-metasomatized mantle: Geochemical and Nd-Hf-Pb-O isotopic constraints on Early Cretaceous intrusions in central Lhasa Terrane, Tibetan Plateau
  10. Mechanism and kinetics of the pseudomorphic replacement of anhydrite by calcium phosphate phases at hydrothermal conditions
  11. Vacancy infilling during the crystallization of Fe-deficient hematite: An in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of non-classical crystal growth
  12. Simulated diagenesis of the iron-silica precipitates in banded iron formations
  13. Wave vector and field vector orientation dependence of Fe K pre-edge X-ray absorption features in clinopyroxenes
  14. Structure and compressibility of Fe-bearing Al-phase D
  15. Synthesis of boehmite-type GaOOH: A new polymorph of Ga oxyhydroxide and geochemical implications
  16. Scheelite U-Pb geochronology and trace element geochemistry fingerprint W mineralization in the giant Zhuxi W deposit, South China
  17. A rare sekaninaite occurrence in the Nenana Coal Basin, Alaska Range, Alaska
  18. Slyudyankaite, Na28Ca4(Si24Al24O96)(SO4)6(S6)1/3(CO2)·2H2O, a new sodalite-group mineral from the Malo-Bystrinskoe lazurite deposit, Baikal Lake area, Russia
  19. Ruizhongite, (Ag2□)Pb3Ge2S8, a thiogermanate mineral from the Wusihe Pb-Zn deposit, Sichuan Province, Southwest China
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