The reaction garnet+clinopyroxene+quartz =2 orthopyroxene+anorthite: A potential geobarometer for granulites

Abstract

A mineralogic geobarometer based on the reaction garnet+clinopyroxene+quartz=2 orthopyroxene+anorthite is proposed. The geobarometric formulations for the Fe- and Mg- end member equilibria are

$$\begin{gathered} P_{({\text{Fe}})} {\text{ }}({\text{bars}}){\text{ = 32}}{\text{.097 }}T{\text{ }} - {\text{ 26385 }} - {\text{ 22}}{\text{.79 (}}T - 848 - T1{\text{n(}}T/848{\text{))}} \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - (3.655 + 0.0138T){\text{ }}\left( {\frac{{{\text{(}}T - 848{\text{)}}^{\text{2}} }}{T}} \right) \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - {\text{(3}}{\text{.123) }}T1{\text{n }}\frac{{(a_{a{\text{n}}}^{{\text{Plag}}} )(a_{{\text{fs}}}^{{\text{P}}\ddot u{\text{x}}} )^2 }}{{(a_{{\text{alm}}}^{{\text{Gt}}} )(a_{{\text{hed}}}^{{\text{Opx}}} )}} \hfill \\ P_{({\text{Mg}})} {\text{ (bars) = 9}}{\text{.270 }}T + 4006 - 0.9305{\text{ }}(T - 848 - T1{\text{n (}}T/848{\text{)}}) \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - (1.1963{\text{ }} - {\text{ }}6.0128{\text{ x 10}}^{ - {\text{3}}} T)\left( {\frac{{(T - 848)^2 }}{T}} \right) \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - 3.489{\text{ }}T1{\text{n }}\frac{{(a_{an}^{{\text{Plag}}} ){\text{ }}(a_{{\text{ens}}}^{{\text{Opx}}} )}}{{{\text{(}}a_{{\text{pyr}}}^{{\text{Gt}}} {\text{) (}}a_{{\text{diop}}}^{{\text{Cpx}}} {\text{)}}}}. \hfill \\ \end{gathered}$$

The end member thermodynamic data have been taken from the data base of Helgeson et al. (1978) and Saxena and Erikson (1983). The activities of pyroxene components and anorthite in plagioclase have been modelled after Wood and Banno (1973) and Newton (1983) respectively. The activities of pyrope and almandine are calculated from the binary interaction parameters for garnet solid solutions proposed by Saxena and Erikson (1983).

Pressures computed from these equations for fifty sets of published mineral data from several granulite areas are comparable with those obtained from dependable geobarometers. The pressure values determined from the Fe-end member equilibrium appear to be more reasonable than those from the Mg-end member reaction. It is likely that the difference in pressures computed from the Fe- and Mg-end members, ΔP ^*, have been caused by non-ideal mixing in the phases, especially in garnets.