Zoned ternary feldspars in the Klokken intrusion: exsolution microtextures and mechanisms

Abstract

The microtextures developed during relatively slow cooling as a function of bulk composition in zoned ternary feldspars from syenodiorites and syenites in the Klokken intrusion, described in the preceding paper, were determined by TEM and their origin and evolution deduced. The feldspars normally have a plagioclase core and an alkali feldspar rim; cores become smaller and rims larger and the An content of both decrease with distance from the contact of the intrusion. The following microtextural sequence was observed. The inner plagioclase cores are homogeneous oligoclase-andesine with Albite growth twins only, but are crypto-antiperthitic towards the outer core. At first small platelets of low sanidine a few nanometres thick and up to ∼10 nm long occur sporadically only on Albite-twin composition planes. With further increase in bulk Or they are homogeneously distributed in the plagioclase. Thicker, through-going plates in platelet-free areas are found, which induce Albite twins in the surrounding plagioclase. The microtextures in the rims are regular cryptomesoperthitic, with (¯601) lenses or lamellae, depending on the bulk Or-content, of low sanidine in Albite-twinned low oligoclase-andesine. Albite and Pericline twins in plagioclase in an M-twin relationship, together with lenticular low sanidine, were found in only one small area. The overall diffraction symmetry of the mesoperthites is monoclinic, showing that exsolution started in a monoclinic feldspar, whereas that of the antiperthites is triclinic. The intermediate zone between the core and rim is more complex and microtextures vary over distances of a few micrometres.

The cryptomesoperthites are very regular where Or-rich and probably arose by spinodal decomposition. The platelets in the outer cores arose by heterogeneous nucleation on twin composition planes and by homogeneous nucleation elsewhere. Near the intermediate zone they coarsened to give larger plates which induced Albite-twins in the plagioclase. Because of the zoning, microtextures that were initiated in areas of given composition, can propagate laterally into zones of different composition. A diagram is given showing the relationship between ternary bulk composition and the microtexture developed in coherent perthitic alkali feldspars and plagioclases from slowly-cooled rocks.