Matthias Konrad-Schmolke

Compositional re-equilibration of garnet: the importance of sub-grain boundaries

Garnets from meta-granitoid high pressure rocks (Sesia Zone, Western Alps) show complex internal sub-grain textures in electron forescatter images. All investigated garnets consist of a large number of sub-grains with different shapes and sizes. Some garnets exhibit a sub-texture with very fine-grained (< 20 μm) sub-grains in their cores overgrown by palisade-like sub-grains in the rims. Sub-grain boundaries in these garnets have enabled diffusive element exchange between the garnet core and the surrounding matrix. Compositional mapping reveals zonation patterns of Mg that indicate modification of the garnet composition during prograde metamorphism. The extent of diffusional re-equilibration is dependent on sub-grain size and element diffusivities. Our samples show that XMg is strongly influenced by diffusion along the sub-grain boundaries, whereas apparently slow diffusing elements, such as Ca, Ti and Y preserve their original concentric zonation pattern. This differential re-equilibration leads to very complex chemical zonation that cannot be easily interpreted in terms of simple prograde growth zonation or of normally-applied spherical diffusion models. The observation that almost all garnets in the investigated samples exhibit a sub-grain pattern suggests this might be a common feature in high pressure/low temperature rocks.

Mineral dissolution and reprecipitation mediated by an amorphous phase

Fluid-mediated mineral dissolution and reprecipitation processes are the most common mineral reaction mechanism in the solid Earth and are fundamental for the Earth’s internal dynamics. Element exchange during such mineral reactions is commonly thought to occur via aqueous solutions with the mineral solubility in the coexisting fluid being a rate limiting factor. Here we show in high-pressure/low temperature rocks that element transfer during mineral dissolution and reprecipitation can occur in an alkali-Al–Si-rich amorphous material that forms directly by depolymerization of the crystal lattice and is thermodynamically decoupled from aqueous solutions. Depolymerization starts along grain boundaries and crystal lattice defects that serve as element exchange pathways and are sites of porosity formation. The resulting amorphous material occupies large volumes in an interconnected porosity network. Precipitation of product minerals occurs directly by repolymerization of the amorphous material at the product surface. This mechanism allows for significantly higher element transport and mineral reaction rates than aqueous solutions with major implications for the role of mineral reactions in the dynamic Earth.Fluid-mediated mineral dissolution is a key mechanism for mineral reactions in the Earth. Here, the authors show that element transport during mineral dissolution and reprecipitation reactions can be mediated by an amorphous phase, which can contain significant amounts of metals.

Rb-Sr and in situ 40Ar/39Ar dating of exhumation-related shearing and fluid-induced recrystallization in the Sesia zone (Western Alps, Italy)

Ralf Halama1,2, Johannes Glodny3, Matthias Konrad-Schmolke2,4, and Masafumi Sudo2 1School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG, UK 2Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany 3GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany 4Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Guldhedsgatan 5a, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden GEOSPHERE