Zoisite

Abstract: Fluid-absent melting experiments on a zoisiteand phengite-bearing INTRODUCTION eclogite (omphacite, garnet, quartz, kyanite, zoisite, phengite and Zoisite or clinozoisite is present in many high-pressure rutile) were performed to constrain the melting relations of these eclogites, and many occurrences are known from the hydrous phases in natural assemblages, as well as the melt and Scandinavian Caledonides (e.g. Holsnoy: Austrheim & mineral compositions produced by their breakdown. From 1·0 to Mork, 1988; Jamtveit et al., 1990; Western gneiss region: 3·2 GPa the solidus slopes positively from 1·5 GPa at 850°C to Griffin et al., 1985; Seve Nappe: Kullerud et al., 1990). 2·7 GPa at 1025°C, but bends back at higher pressures to 975°C Indeed, most eclogites worldwide contain minor amounts at 3·2 GPa. The melt fraction is always low and the melt of zoisite or other hydrous phases, according to the compositions always felsic and become increasingly so with increasing compilations of Smith (1988) and Carswell (1990). During pressure. The normative Ab–An–Or compositions of the initial prograde eclogitization, zoisite forms by breakdown of melts vary from tonalites at 1·0 GPa to tonalite–trondhjemites at the anorthite component of plagioclase in the presence 1·5 GPa, adamellites at 2·1 and 2·7 GPa, and to true granites of a hydrous fluid phase. The origin of these hydrous at 3·2 GPa. At pressures 2·5 GPa zoisite and phengite break fluids is controversial. One possibility is that they are down more or less simultaneously. At 3·2 GPa and 1000°C zoisite introduced from below during continental collision, for is unreacted whereas phengite is absent, so that the first formed melt example, if wet continental sedimentary rocks are deeply at these conditions is granitic. Our experiments show that if subducted. During subduction of oceanic crust zoisite sufficiently high temperatures (of the order of 1000°C) are attained, forms by prograde metamorphism of hydrothermally zoisiteand phengite-bearing eclogites can produce small fractions altered oceanic crust, which in its upper levels contains of silicic melts of a wide range of compositions. These melts are low-temperature hydrous Ca-rich phases (e.g. Poli & rich in water and, probably, in Sr and other incompatible elements, Schmidt, 1997). At the gabbro to dyke transition zone so that they can act as metasomatic agents in the mantle wedge. the temperature and pressure are high enough to allow

Abstract: The reaction Hb+Zo(Ep)+H2O+CO2⇌Pl+ Chl+Cc+Q was studied under hydrothermal conditions at P total=2, 4, 6 and 8 kb at $$X_{{\text{co}}_{\text{2}} } = 0.1$$ . The continious transition from tremolite (actinolite) to Al-rich hornblende was fixed along the equilibrium curve of the reaction, providing a complete solid solution in the calcic amphibole series. A dependence of Al content in Ca-amphiboles and coexisting plagioclases on PT-conditions of their crystallization, determined for a wide range of temperature (450–650° C) and pressure (2–8 kb), has been used for construction of the experimental geothermobarometer. This may be employed to deduce temperature and pressure conditions of metamorphism of the albite-epidote-amphibolite and the amphibolite facies metabasites, including zoisite (or epidote)-bearing assemblages. An application of the Hb-Pl geothermobarometer is illustrated on the Patom Highland amphibolites and also on the well-known mafic schists of Vermont.

Abstract: Epidote minerals are known since the 18th century, but at that time the greenish to dark colored varieties were termed actinolite or schorl and not distinguished from the minerals to which these names apply today. Hauy defined the mineral species and introduced the name “epidote” in 1801, whereas Werner in 1805 used the term pistacite (quoted from Hintze 1897). Epidote is derived from greek epidosis = to increase, because the base of the rhombohedral prism has one side larger than the other and pistacite refers to its green color (all references for names after Luschen 1979; Blackburn and Dennen 1997). Weinschenk (1896) proposed the name clinozoisite from its monoclinic symmetry and zoisite-like composition for those monoclinic members of the epidote family that are Fe poor, optically positive and have low refractive indices and birefringence. Zoisite was probably confused with tremolite until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1804, Siegmund Zois, Baron von Edelstein 1747–1819, an Austrian sponsor of mineral collections, found and described a new mineral in a handspecimen from the Saualpe Mountains in Carinthia that was named zoisite by Werner. Hauy (1822) interpreted zoisite as a variety of epidote and included it in his “epidote spezies.” Weiss (1820) presented a theory of the epidote system and also discussed crystal morphological features of the epidote minerals (Weiss 1828). Rammelsberg (1856) studied the relationship between epidote and zoisite and presented a compilation of chemical analyses of zoisite. He already noticed that the relative concentrations of di-, tri- and tetravalent cations are identical in zoisite and epidote but that the Fe content in zoisite (about 2–3.5 wt% Fe2O3) is generally less than in epidote (about 9–12 wt% Fe2O3). Piemontite (see Bonazzi and Menchetti 2004) was probably first described in 1758 by Cronstedt …