Al-Fe Partitioning between Coexisting Garnet and Epidote from Metamorphic Rocks

Al-Fe Partitioning between Coexisting Garnet and Epidote from Metamorphic Rocks

The assemblage epidote and grandite garnet occurs in low-to medium-grade metabasites and calc schists of various geotectonic settings and in hydrothermally altered calcareous rocks in skarn deposits. The compositions of sixteen epidote-garnet paris have been analysed by means of electron microprobe. Al-Fe partitioning between coexisting grandite garnet and epidote is considered and measured at the grain boundaries on the supposition that the surface equilibrium was maintained in the following exchange reaction: 2$Ca_2Al_3Si_3O_12$(OH)+$Ca_3Fe_2Si_3O_12$=2$Ca_2A_l2FeSi_3O_12$(OH)+$Ca_3Al_2Si_3O_12$ Partition coefficients confirms the differences in thermal conditions between low-grade and medium-grade metamorphic rocks. $K_D$ values ($X_{$CO_2$}$=($Fe^{+3}$/Al)$^{Ep}$/($Fe^{+3}$/Al)$^{Gr}$, where Fe=$Fe^{+3}$) from greenschist facies rocks of the estimated metamorphic temperatures, 330~$390^{\circ}C$, range approximately between 0.02 and 0.17. Epidote-amphibolite facies rocks and calcareous skarns of the estimated temperatures, 400~$550^{\circ}C$, have $K_D$ values between 0.24 and 0.37. $K_D$ values from the rocks of the temperatures, 640~$700^{\circ}C$, range nearly between 0.58 and 0.75. The diagrams in Figs. 2 and 3 can serve as a mineralogic thermometer for relatively shallow rocks, assuming that the pressure dependence of partition coefficients for the iron-exchange reaction in the two minerals can be neglected.