Stability of sapphirine quartz in the oxidized rocks of the Wilson Lake terrane, Labrador: Calculated equilibria in NCKFMASHTO

FJ Korhonen; R Powell; JH Stout

Journal article

Stability of sapphirine quartz in the oxidized rocks of the Wilson Lake terrane, Labrador: Calculated equilibria in NCKFMASHTO

FJ Korhonen, R Powell, JH Stout

Journal of Metamorphic Geology | WILEY | Published : 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1525-1314.2011.00954.x

Abstract

The equilibrium coexistence of sapphirine+quartz is inferred to record temperatures in excess of 980°C, based on the stability of this assemblage in the simplified chemical system FeO-MgO-Al 2O 3-SiO 2 (FMAS) system. However, the potential for sapphirine to contain significant Fe 3+ suggests that the stability of sapphirine+quartz could extend to lower temperatures than those constrained in this ideal system. The Wilson Lake terrane in the Grenville Province of central Labrador preserves sapphirine+quartz-bearing assemblages in highly oxidized bulk compositions, and provides an opportunity to explore the stability of sapphirine+quartz in such rock compositions within the Na 2O-CaO-K 2O-FeO-M..

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Roger Powell Author

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Funding Acknowledgements

We thank T. Johnson, J. Diener and E. Green for critical comments on earlier versions of this paper, and careful editorial handling by R. White. This research was funded by the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN). Field work was also supported by the Geological Society of America and the Newfoundland Department of Mines and Energy, Geological Survey. We also acknowledge K. Gross and E. Baldwin for assistance in the field in 2002 and 2003, respectively. We thank K. Taylor-Jones for recent discussions about the thermodynamics and stability of sapphirine. Korhonen is currently supported by a research fellowship from the Australia-India Strategic Fund. RP acknowledges support of ARC DP0451770 and DP0987731.