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The high-pressure stability of chlorite and other hydrates in subduction mélanges: experiments in the system Cr2O3–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O

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Abstract

The solubility of chromium in chlorite as a function of pressure, temperature, and bulk composition was investigated in the system Cr2O3–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O, and its effect on phase relations evaluated. Three different compositions with X Cr = Cr/(Cr + Al) = 0.075, 0.25, and 0.5 respectively, were investigated at 1.5–6.5 GPa, 650–900 °C. Cr-chlorite only occurs in the bulk composition with X Cr = 0.075; otherwise, spinel and garnet are the major aluminous phases. In the experiments, Cr-chlorite coexists with enstatite up to 3.5 GPa, 800–850 °C, and with forsterite, pyrope, and spinel at higher pressure. At P > 5 GPa other hydrates occur: a Cr-bearing phase-HAPY (Mg2.2Al1.5Cr0.1Si1.1O6(OH)2) is stable in assemblage with pyrope, forsterite, and spinel; Mg-sursassite coexists at 6.0 GPa, 650 °C with forsterite and spinel and a new Cr-bearing phase, named 11.5 Å phase (Mg:Al:Si = 6.3:1.2:2.4) after the first diffraction peak observed in high-resolution X-ray diffraction pattern. Cr affects the stability of chlorite by shifting its breakdown reactions toward higher temperature, but Cr solubility at high pressure is reduced compared with the solubility observed in low-pressure occurrences in hydrothermal environments. Chromium partitions generally according to \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{spinel}}\) ≫ \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{opx}}\) > \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{chlorite}}\) ≥ \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{HAPY}}\) > \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{garnet}}\). At 5 GPa, 750 °C (bulk with X Cr = 0.075) equilibrium values are \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{spinel}}\) = 0.27, \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{chlorite}}\) = 0.08, \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{garnet}}\) = 0.05; at 5.4 GPa, 720 °C \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{spinel}}\) = 0.33, \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{HAPY}}\) = 0.06, and \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{garnet}}\) = 0.04; and at 3.5 GPa, 850 °C \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{opx}}\) = 0.12 and \(X_{\text{Cr}}^{\text{chlorite}}\) = 0.07. Results on Cr–Al partitioning between spinel and garnet suggest that at low temperature the spinel- to garnet-peridotite transition has a negative slope of 0.5 GPa/100 °C. The formation of phase-HAPY, in assemblage with garnet and spinel, at pressures above chlorite breakdown, provides a viable mechanism to promote H2O transport in metasomatized ultramafic mélanges of subduction channels.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Andrea Risplendente for assistance at electron microprobe. The authors are thankful to H. Marschall, S. Klemme, and D. Jenkins for their review and to Max W. Schmidt for his valuable work as editor. The authors acknowledge ESRF for experimental activity (EC734 experiment; BM08 and ID09 in-house research time). This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) [PRIN-2009XRH8JJ].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Della Terra “Ardito Desio”, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Botticelli 23, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Patrizia Fumagalli, Stefano Poli, Johannes Fischer & Marco Merlini

  2. Center for Nanotechnology Innovation@NEST, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pisa, Italy

    Mauro Gemmi

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  1. Patrizia Fumagalli
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  2. Stefano Poli
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Correspondence to Patrizia Fumagalli.

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Communicated by T. L. Grove.

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Fumagalli, P., Poli, S., Fischer, J. et al. The high-pressure stability of chlorite and other hydrates in subduction mélanges: experiments in the system Cr2O3–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O. Contrib Mineral Petrol 167, 979 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-014-0979-5

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