Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T03:45:46.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cr-rich spinel and garnet in two peridotite xenoliths from the Frank Smith mine South Africa: Significance of Al and Cr distribution between spinel and garnet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

R. A. Exley
Affiliation:
Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA
J. V. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA
R. L. Hervig
Affiliation:
Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA

Abstract

Peridotite xenoliths 73–106 and 73–109 have coarse textures. All minerals in 73–106 are very Ti-rich, and include olivine (Fo 87.6), orthopyroxene (En 90.0), garnet (core TiO2 0.8, Cr2O3 7; rim 1.4, 4 wt. %), spinel (TiO2 5, Cr2O3 38), clinopyroxene (A12O3 1–8) secondary mica (TiO2 6, Cr2O3 2.5 near garnet 0.5 away from garnet), and serpentine (FeO 5–12) enclosing perovskite-rimmed ilmenite and minute apatites. All minerals in peridotite 73–109 are Ti-poor, and include olivine (Fo 92.6), orthopyroxene (En 93.6), garnet (Cr2O3 3.1–3.8), spinel (55), ureyitic diopside, primary mica (TiO2 0.06, Cr2O3 1.0, BaO 0.5, Cl 0.04), and serpentine (FeO 2–23). Various thermometers indicate ∼ 1350K (73–106) and 1100K (73–109). The low Al2O3 in the orthopyroxenes gives 39–47 kb for 73–109 from the Wood-Banno barometer. In 73–106, the spinel lies in secondary mica next to the garnet rim, whereas the spinel of 73–109 occurs in grains enclosed by garnet. The former assemblage indicates diffusion-dependent disequilibrium, whereas the latter is attributed to simultaneous growth of spinel and garnet, perhaps consequent upon exsolution from orthopyroxene. Complex behaviour was found for the Cr/Al distribution in published analyses of garnet and spinel. The 73–109 pair lies near the Thaba Putsoa trend, and the 73–106 assemblages are displaced towards the kelyphite region in which garnet and spinel have similar Cr/Al. Spinel and garnet may coexist over a 30 kb pressure interval ranging from ∼ 16 kb for low bulk Cr to ∼ 40 kb for high Cr.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Present address: Department of Chemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85281 USA.

References

Aoki, K., and Prinz, M. (1974) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 46, 249-56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basu, A. R., and MacGregor, I. D. (1975) Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 39, 937-45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, F. R. (1973) Ibid. 37, 2533-46.Google Scholar
Boyd, F. R. and Nixon, P. H. (1978) Ibid. 42, 1367-82.Google Scholar
Carswell, D. A., Clarke, D. B., and Mitchell, R. H. (1979) In The Mantle Sample: Inclusions in Kimberlites and other Volcanics (F. R., Boyd and H. O. A., Meyer, eds.), Washington; Am. Geophys. Union, 127-44.Google Scholar
Danchin, R. V. (1979) Ibid. 104-26.Google Scholar
Dawson, J. B., and Stephens, W. E. (1975) J. Geol. 83, 589-607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, J. B., Smith, J. V., and Delaney, J. S. (1978) Nature, 273, 741-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delaney, J. S., Smith, J. V., Dawson, J. B., and Nixon, P. H. (1979) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 71, 157-69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delaney, J. S., Smith, J. V., Carswell, D. A., and Dawson, J. B. (1980) Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 44, 857-72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, J., Ellis, D. J., and England, R. N. (1977) Geology 5, 278-80.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggerty, S. E. (1973). In Lesotho Kimberlites (H. Nixon, P., ed.), Maseru, Lesotho National Development Corporation, 149-58.Google Scholar
Haggerty, S. E. (1975) Phys. Chem. Earth, 9, 295-307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harte, B., and Gurney, J. J. (1975) Carnegie Inst. Washinffton Yearb. 74, 528-36.Google Scholar
Hervig, R. L., and Smith, J. V. (1980) J. Geol. 88, 337-42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hervig, R. L., and Smith, J. V. (1981) Eos, Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 62, 1055.Google Scholar
Irving, A. J. (1974) J. Petrol. 15, 1-40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, D. M., and Newton, R. C. (1979) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 68, 407-19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lock, N. P., and Dawson, J. B. (1980). Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh: Earth Sci. 71, 47-53.Google Scholar
MacGregor, I. D. (1970) Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 3, 372-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacGregor, I. D. (1979) In The Mantle Sample: Inclusions in Kimberlites and other Volcanics (R. Boyd, F. and Meyer, H. O. A., eds.), Washington, Am. Geophys. Union, 156-72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R. H., Carswell, D. A., and Clarke, D. B. (1980) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 72, 205-17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nixon, P. H., and Boyd, F. R. (1973) In Lesotho Kimberlites (H. Nixon, P., ed.), Maseru, Lesotho National Development Corporation, 48-56.Google Scholar
Nixon, P. H., and Boyd, F. R. (1979) In The Mantle Sample: Inclusions in Kimberlites and other Volcanics (R. Boyd, F. and Meyer, H. O. A., eds.), Washington, Am. Geophys. Union, 400-23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nixon, P. H., Chapman, N. A., and Gurney, J. J. (1978). Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 65, 341-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Hara, M. H., Richardson, S. W., and Wilson, G. (1971) Ibid. 32, 48-68.Google Scholar
O'Neill, H. St.C. (1981) Ibid. 77, 185-94.Google Scholar
O'Neill, H. St.C. and Wood, B. J. (1979) Ibid. 70, 59-70.Google Scholar
Pasteris, J. D. (1981) Geology, 9, 356-9.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, A. M., and Dawson, J. B. (1972) Lithos, 5, 115- 24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, A. M., Donaldson, C. H., Brown, R. W., Ridley, W. I., and Dawson, J. B. (1975) Phys. Chem. Earth, 9, 525-43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shervais, J. W., Wilshire, H. G., and Schwarzman, E. C. (1973) Earth Planet Sci. Lett. 19, 120-30.Google Scholar
Smith, J. V., and Dawson, J. B. (1975) Phys. Chem. Earth, 9, 309-22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobolev, N. V. (1977) Deep-seated inclusions in kimberlites and the problem of the composition of the upper mantle. Trans. by D. A. Brown and F. R. Boyd. Washington, Am. Geophys. Union.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, W. E., and Dawson, J. B. (1977) J. Geol. 85, 433-49.Google Scholar
Wells, P. (1977) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 62, 129-34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, B. J. (1977) Second Kimberlite Conference Extended Abstracts, unpaged.Google Scholar
Wood, B. J. and Banno, S. (1973) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 42, 109-24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar