A first find of retrogressed eclogites in the Odenwald Crystalline Complex, Mid-German Crystalline Rise, Germany: evidence for a so far unrecognised high-pressure metamorphism in the Central Variscides

Abstract

Metabasic rocks were recently found in the Böllsteiner Odenwald, being part of the Variscan Mid-German Crystalline Rise (MGCR), that give evidence of a so far unrecognised eclogite-facies metamorphic event and testify, for the first time, to high-pressure metamorphism in the MGCR, the assumed suture zone of the European Variscides. Eclogite-facies metamorphism is indicated by both widespread clinopyroxene–plagioclase symplectites—interpreted as breakdown products of omphacite—and the composition of symplectitic clinopyroxene with measured jadeite contents of up to 27 mol%, extending into the omphacite field. Reintegration of numerous clinopyroxene–plagioclase symplectites implies minimum jadeite contents of the former omphacite of at least 38 mol%. For the eclogite stage, the four-phase assemblage omphacite-garnet-quartz-rutile can be reconstructed. A post-eclogitic overprint led to the formation of symplectitic intergrowths of clinopyroxene and plagioclase, amphibole–plagioclase coronas around garnet and domains with recrystallised amphibole and plagioclase. Preliminary P– T estimates for the eclogite-facies metamorphism indicate minimum pressures of some 16–17 kbar and temperatures of approximately 700±50 °C. Geothermobarometry for the subsequent symplectitic breakdown of omphacite yields some 14 kbar and 700 °C. P– T estimates on retrograde amphibolite-facies domains and on prograde mineral assemblages preserved in garnet cores point to a clockwise P– T path experienced by these rocks. The eclogites formed from a tholeiitic protolith, that may have been genetically linked to a continental extension zone or a young oceanic ridge or back-arc environment.