Sudoite, di/trioctahedral chlorite: A stable low-temperature phase in the system MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O

Abstract

Sudoite, ideally (Mg₂Al₃)[AlSi₃O₁₀](OH)₈, was synthesized in small quantities from a number of starting materials using seeds of the natural mineral. Because its powder X-ray diffraction pattern is very similar to that of normal, trioctahedral chlorite, a technique based on relative intensities of 001-peaks of the chlorite-type phases was used, in addition to the standard X-ray method, to determine growth or breakdown of sudoite. Seeded runs indicate that sudoite is more stable than at least five alternative mineral assemblages in the system MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO-H₂O below about 370°–390° C at water pressures up to at least 7 kbar. At higher temperatures sudoite decomposes into assemblages of normal chlorite with an Al₂SiO₅-phase and either quartz or pyrophyllite. However, the exact locations of the univariant breakdown curves could not be determined due to very low reaction rates. Schreinemakers analyses indicate that the assemblage sudoite+quartz represents the low-temperature equivalent of the common pair chlorite+pyrophyllite, and that sudoite+quartz is limited to water pressures below about 7 kbar because of its reaction to form the high-pressure phase Mg-carpholite; however, in the absence of quartz, the stability fields of sudoite and of Mg-carpholite overlap at pressures above 7 kbar.

These stability data are in general agreement with two well-documented sudoite occurrences in quartz veins cutting highly oxidized, low-pressure manganiferous metapelites, and with one occurrence in a silica-deficient high-pressure metamorphic metabauxite. Sudoites may be more common in low-grade metamorphic rocks than known thus far, but they may not be stable under surface conditions.