The sillimanite-potash feldspar isograd in Western Maine, U.S.A.

Abstract

The techniques of electron probe microanalysis and x-ray diffractometry have been utilized in a study of the sillimanite-potassium feldspar isograd in western Maine. The isograd reaction is theoretically a discontinuous one, calling for the nearly instantaneous loss of muscovite and crystallization of sillimanite and orthoclase, with a small contribution of albite from the pre-existing plagioclase. In fact, muscovite coexists with orthoclase, sillimanite, and plagioclase for a distance of at least seven miles from the isograd (marked by the initial coexistence of orthoclase and sillimanite). In this assemblage, muscovite has an extremely narrow range of composition, about an average of Ms_93.5Pg_6.5. A possible explanation for the divariant character of the isograd reaction is that, during dehydration, PH₂O slowly increased from initial values less than P_total + rock strength, under conditions of low permeability, the actual value of PH₂O being controlled by a buffer assemblage and local conditions of P and T. An alternative explanation postulates the flattening of thermal gradients following the onset of fractional melting.

The isograd reaction is dependent in only a minor way upon the anorthite content of the plagioclase. Below the isograd, a continuous reaction takes place leading to a diminution in paragonite content of muscovite stable in the presence of quartz. It is possible that this reaction leads to the nearly ubiquitous normal zoning of the plagioclase.

Changes in the composition of biotite at the isograd are not conspicuous, and can be satisfactorily explained by the release of Mg, Fe, and Ti impurity from the muscovite, and a continuous reaction between ilmenite, quartz, and muscovite. Garnets are not abundant and are high in Mn, both facts probably due to the low pressure of metamorphism, The presence of garnet probably relates to the Mn content of the rock, and seems to be independent of the Mg/Fe ratio of the biotite. The garnets are zoned with respect to Mn and Mg, but often Mn is enriched and Mg depleted in the marginal zone. The Mg/Fe ratio of the biotite varies twofold depending on the presence or absence of pyrrhotite. The transition: microcline → orthoclase depends upon the amount of dissolved albite; the polymorph is orthoclase in the pelitic schists but microcline in the calc-silicate rocks which are much lower in sodium. The plagioclases are of “low” structural type, although$2\vartheta (131) - 2\vartheta (1\bar 31)$ is slightly greater than many other “low” plagioclases. A correlation of d(002) of muscovite and paragonite solid solution for the range 0 to 20 % paragonite is given. An appreciable positive volume of mixing for the binary system muscovite-paragonite is indicated.