Academic literature on the topic 'Ti-humite'

AbstractThe structure of a natural sample of chondrodite (Mg4.89Fe0.07Si2.04O8F1.54(OH)0.46) was refined using powder neutron diffraction data and the Rietveld technique (P21/b; Z = 2; a = 4.7204(1)Å; b = 10.2360(3)Å; c = 7.8252(2)Å; α = 109.11(1)°; V = 357.26(2)Å3). Hydrogen was found to occupy the H1 site. The significance of hydrogen at this site is discussed in terms of hydrogen-bond stabilization of humite structures containing varying amounts of OH, F and Ti. Arguments are proposed as to why the F and Ti contents of natural humites usually result in only one H per formula unit when there is no crystal-chemical reason why fully hydrated samples should not be favoured.

The Rizhao Hujialin area is located in the central Sulu ultrahigh-pressure orogenic belt, where garnet clinopyroxenite is exposed in the upper part of an ultramafic rock complex and serpentinized dunite is exposed in its lower part. Based on textural criteria, the garnet clinopyroxenites were divided into three types: Equigranular garnet, porphyroclastic garnet, and megacrystic garnet pyroxenites. The garnet clinopyroxenites have convex-upward chondrite-normalized rare earth element patterns, large positive Pb anomalies, and depletion of high-field-strength elements (e.g., Nb, Zr, and Ti), suggesting a mantle source protolith overprinted by fluid metasomatism. Petrographic, mineral chemistry, phase equilibrium modeling, and zircon U–Pb geochronology data show that the evolutionary stages of the Hujialin garnet clinopyroxenites were as follows: Stage I: formation of the magmatic protoliths; stage II: formation of megacrystic garnet pyroxenite accompanying subduction; stage III: formation of porphyroclastic or equigranular garnet clinopyroxenite with a mineral assemblage of garnet + clinopyroxene + ilmenite + humite accompanying initial exhumation at ~215.0 ± 5.7 Ma; stage IV = progressive cooling and decompression associated with the crystallization of water-bearing minerals such as clinochlore and pargasite at 206 Ma; and Stage V = late epidote amphibolite-facies retrograde metamorphism producing a mineral assemblage of garnet + clinopyroxene + amphibole + chlorite + epidote + ilmenite at ~180–174 Ma associated with fluid activity in shear–tensional fractures and/or pores. The P-T conditions of the peak metamorphism were estimated at 4.5 ± 0.5 GPa and 800 ± 50 °C. Retrograde metamorphism recorded conditions of 1.0 GPa and 710 ± 30 °C during the exhumation and cooling process. The mineral transformation from early high-Al clinopyroxene to garnet and to late diopside records the general metamorphic evolution during subduction and exhumation, respectively. One zircon U–Pb analysis presents the Palaeoproterozoic age of 1817 ± 40 Ma, which is coeval with widespread magmatic and metamorphic events in the North China Craton.

Abstract The unit-cell parameter a of antigorite (usually expressed as the polysome m value) has been determined as a function of temperature (T) and pressure (P) in the range of 600–650 °C, 25–45 kbar in weeklong piston-cylinder experiments. A well-characterized natural antigorite (with m = 16 and less abundant m = 15) was used as a starting material that coexisted with olivine, chlorite, Ti-humite, and aqueous fluid at run conditions. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) measurements on selected focused ion beam (FIB) wafers showed that antigorite m values after the experiments varied between 14 and 22. More than 40 punctual analyses for each run condition were acquired to determine the range and the primary m value. The most frequent antigorite m-value decreased systematically from 17–19 at 600 °C to 15–16 at 650 °C. The spacing of the m-isolines is getting narrower as the antigorite breakdown reaction is approached. The topology of the m-isolines is similar to that previously characterized for the simple MgO-SiO2-H2O (MSH) system. However, the isolines are shifted to about 50–100 °C higher temperatures due to the incorporation of Al into antigorite. Powder samples and FIB wafers of natural antigorite from the Tianshan UHP belt (China) with peak metamorphic conditions of ~35 kbar, ~520 °C were also investigated with TEM. Low Al-antigorite formed at peak metamorphic conditions displays a peak m value of 20–21, whereas high-Al antigorite formed during isothermal decompression displays a lower m value of 19. Combination of our results with the published data of m values from metamorphic antigorite that experienced various conditions allowed construction of a P-T-m diagram that can be used in future studies to better constrain formation conditions of serpentinites. The decrease of m values and the increase of Al in antigorite with increasing temperature result in small, continuous dehydration whereby the H2O content of antigorite changes from 12.4 to 12.1 wt%. Therefore, it is expected that a pore fluid is present during the prograde deformation of serpentinites. TEM observations showed that antigorite adjusted its Al content by segregation of chlorite at the nanoscale. Together with the observation that multiple m values are always present in a single sample, this result indicates that full equilibration of antigorite at the micrometer-scale is rare, with important implications for the interpretation of geochemical signatures obtained by in situ techniques.

In questa tesi si applica un’indagine multidisciplinare guidata dall’analisi strutturale per studiare l’evoluzione tettono-metamorfica di rocce ultrafemiche appartenenti a unità ofiolitiche affiorati nella parte occidentale delle Alpi o intrappolate nel basamento prealpino durante la collisione varisica. L’analisi si focalizza sulla Zona Zermatt-Saas (ZSZ) in alta Valtournanche (AO), al contatto di questa zona e la parte esterna del bordo meridionale della Zona Sesia Lanzo nella Valli del Tesso e del Tessuolo (TO) e nel Massiccio dell’Argentera, in alta Valle Gesso (CN). Le prime due aree si trovano nella Zona Piemontese che include unità derivanti da litosfera oceanica ristrutturate durante la convergenza alpina. L’ultima zona è situata nei Massicci Cristallini Esterni delle Alpi che includono in prevalenza rocce di origine continentale con scarsi relitti di rocce di probabile origine oceanica, ristrutturate e pervasivamente riequilibrate durante il ciclo Varisico. L’analisi meso- e micro-strutturale è stata integrata dall’analisi minero-chimica, dalle stime termo-barometriche e dalla modellazione petrologica delle associazioni di minerali metamorfici all’equilibrio, dalla datazione radiometrica dei fabric e dall’analisi geochimica di micro-domini selezionati. Le serpentinite di Créton in Valtournanche sono state interpretate come una scaglia di litosfera originariamente adiacente alla dorsale medio oceanica della Tetide Alpina, metasomatizzata e percolata da Fe- e Mg-gabbri, che ha raggiunto condizioni di ultra alta pressione (UHP) durante la convergenza Alpina, come registrato dalle associazioni a Ti-chondrodite e Ti-clinohumite, precedentemente allo sviluppo della foliazione di alta pressione, dominante a scala regionale, e datata a 60-70 Ma. Il paragone delle condizioni metamorfiche registrate con un modello numerico di subduzione Alpina ha convalidato l’evoluzione ricostruita e ha permesso di restaurarne la posizione nel sistema di subduzione in funzione dell’evoluzione termo-barica dedotta per queste rocce. La serpentinite di Gias Vej in Valle del Tesso ha registrato un’evoluzione strutturale comune alle rocce ofiolitiche e continentali ad essa adiacenti e ha raggiunto un picco metamorfico eclogitico, come testimoniato dalle paragenesi di alta pressione a Ti-clinohumite, durante la subduzione Alpina. Presso il Lago Brocan dell’alta valle Gesso in Argentera, boudins di serpentinite e diopsidite, associati a boudins di anfibolite e marmi, si trovano avvolti e allineati dalla foliazione migmatitica regionale di età tardo-Varisica. Essi verosimilmente rappresentano, analogamente alle rocce Alpine studiate, i relitti della sutura dell’oceano Reico, riequilibrati in condizioni di alta temperatura-bassa pressione e trasposti durante la collisione Varisica ed il successivo collasso tardo orogenico. In conclusione, i risultati ottenuti mostrano come l’utilizzo integrato di tecniche laboratoriali e modellistiche, basate su un solido lavoro di terreno, possano descrivere e individuare unità tettono-metamorfiche nei domini di affinità oceanica in catene montuose risultanti da uno o più cicli di Wilson e dare un contributo alla ricostruzione delle loro evoluzione geodinamica, anche quando scaglie di crosta oceanica sono frammentate e disperse nella cicatrice profonda di un’antica sutura continentale.
The tectono-metamorphic evolution of serpentinites and associated rocks has been investigated in the Alpine ophiolitic Piemontese Zone (PZ) – in the Zermatt-Saas Zone (ZSZ) and near the Sesia-Lanzo Zone (SLZ) rim – and in the Variscan migmatites of the Argentera External Crystalline Massif (ECM). Materials selected for laboratory work contain sequences of meso- and microstructural imprints containing parts of the tectonic evolution of both mono- and poly-orogenic environments (in our case the Piemontese Zone in the Penninic of the Western Alps and the Argentera EMC – Provençal domain of the Alpine collisional front at the Alpine belt termination within the Western Mediterranean). In the Zermatt-Saas Zone serpentinite of Valtournanche, meso- and microstructural analyses have been coupled with petrological investigation, geochemistry, and radiometric dating. In Valtournanche, Créton serpentinite has been interpreted as a slice of mid-ocean ridge lithosphere, affected by gabbroic percolation and hydrothermalism, deeply involved in the Alpine subduction complex, reaching UHP conditions (2.9-3.3 GPa and 600-630 °C) prior to be exhumed at HP conditions 60-70 Ma and incorporated in a mix of slices of oceanic material of heterogeneous origin and metamorphic evolution. Gias Vej serpentinite registered Eclogite facies conditions and was coupled with slices of continental material at the southern border of the Sesia Lanzo Zone before the record of Pmax conditions. At Lake Brocan in Valle Gesso, remnants of serpentinised spinel lherzolite and diopsidite are suggested to represent a most probable vestigial suture zone of the Rheic Ocean in the External Crystalline Massif of Argentera; this relict survived repeated transpositions and dismembering during migmatisation of the deep Variscan crust related to Variscan continental collision. The obtained results indicate that investigation of ultramafic rocks by a structure-driven multidisciplinary approach, can unravel the most complete memory of the divergent and convergent tectonic evolution of old oceans. Similar investigation strategies of laboratory procedures, based on solid structural fieldwork, may more diffusely support circumscription of tectonic units in ocean-derived sequences and contribute to redefine their translational tectonic trajectories during mountain-building processes.