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Assessment of the garnet–clinopyroxene Fe–Mg exchange thermometer using new experimental data
Author(s) -
GREEN T. H.,
ADAM J.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of metamorphic geology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.639
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1525-1314
pISSN - 0263-4929
DOI - 10.1111/j.1525-1314.1991.tb00528.x
Subject(s) - grossular , plagioclase , geology , olivine , spinel , mineralogy , analytical chemistry (journal) , anorthosite , mafic , thermometer , geochemistry , metamorphic rock , thermodynamics , quartz , chemistry , paleontology , physics , chromatography
A detailed high‐pressure experimental study of two mafic xenoliths, in which coexisting garnet and clinopyroxene (± plagioclase, spinel and olivine) were crystallized over a P–T range of 10–30 kbar and 950–1200°C, has revealed significant differences in temperatures from those estimated for coexisting garnets and clinopyroxenes using the Ellis & Green Fe–Mg exchange thermometer. The results show perfect matching at 30 kbar, 1150–1200°C, but increasing deviation at lower pressure and lower temperature, with the Ellis & Green calibration reaching a Δ T (overestimate) of c. 145°C at 10–12 kbar and 950°C. The grossular content of the garnet increases from c. 21 mol.% at 10 kbar to 26–31 mol.% at 30 kbar. These results confirm other recent experimental studies that show that the pressure correction, and possibly to a lesser extent the correction for grossular content, applied by Ellis & Green, are not appropriate for lower pressure conditions, and give estimated temperatures that are significantly high when applied to granulitic terranes formed at c. 10 kbar. The new reconnaissance results allow a graphical interpolation of a garnet–clinopyroxene geothermometer based on the Fe–Mg exchange reaction which should be applicable to assemblages formed under lower crustal conditions.