Cordierite-garnet-H2O equilibrium: A geological thermometer, barometer and water fugacity indicator

Abstract

The high-grade assemblage Cd-Ga-Si-Qz can be thermodynamically modelled from available calorimetric data on the metastable reaction: (I) $$3 MgCd \rightleftarrows 2 Py + 4 Si + 5 Qz$$ naturalK D Fe-Mg between garnet and cordierite and experimental results on cordierite hydration. In the system SiO2-Al2O3-MgO-H2O, reaction (I) becomes (II) $$3 MgCd \cdot nH_2 O \rightleftarrows 2 Py + 4 Si + 5 Qz + 3 nH_2 O$$ . However, hydrous cordierite is neither a hydrate nor a solid solution between water and anhydrous cordierite and when nH2O (number of moles of H2O in Cd) is plotted against $$P_{H_2 O} $$ , the resulting isotherms are similar to adsorption isotherms characteristic of zeolitic minerals. Reaction (II) can thus be considered as a combination of reaction (I) with a physical equilibrium of the type nH2O (in Cd)⇆nH2O (in vapor phase). Starting from a point on equilibrium (I), introduction of H2O into anhydrous Mg-cordierite lowers the chemical potential of MgCd and hence stabilizes this mineral to higher pressure relative to the right-hand assemblage in reaction (I). The pressure increment of stabilization,ΔP, above the pressure limit of anhydrous cordierite stability at constantT, has been calculated using the standard thermodynamics of adsorption isotherms. Cordierite is regarded as a mixture of Mg2Al4Si5O18 and H2O. The activity of H2O in the cordierite is evaluated relative to an hypothetical standard state extrapolated from infinite H2O dilution, by using measured hydration data. The activity of Mg2Al4Si5O18 in the cordierite is then obtained by integration of the Gibbs-Duhem equation, and the pressure stabilization increment,ΔP, computed by means of the relation: $$\Delta V_s \Delta P \cong - RT\ln a_{MgCd}^{MgCd \cdot nH2O} \left( {\Delta V indepentdent of P and T} \right)$$ . Thus, one may contour theP-T plane in isopleths of nH2O=constant within the area of Mg-cordierite stability allowed by the hydration data for $$P_{H_2 O} = P_{total} $$ . The present model indicates greater stabilization of cordierite by H2O than the model of Newton and Wood (1979) and the calculated curve for metastable breakdown of hydrous MgCd is consistent with experimental data on cordierite breakdown at $$P_{H_2 O} = P_{total} $$ . Mg/(Mg+Fe) isopleths have been derived for cordierites of varying nH2O in the SiO2-Al2O3-MgO-FeO-H2O system using the additional assumptions that (Fe, Mg) cordierite and (Fe, Mg) garnet behave as ideal solutions, and that typical values of the distribution coefficient of Fe and Mg between coexisting garnet and cordierite observed in natural parageneses can be applied to the calculations. The calculated stable breakdown curve of Fe-cordierite under conditions of $$P_{H_2 O} = P_{total} $$ to almandine, sillimanite, quartz and vapor has a positive slope (dP/dT) apparently in contrast to the experimental negative slope. This may be explained by hydration kinetics, which could have allowed systematic breakdown of cordierites of metastable hydration states in the experiments. The bivariant Cd-Ga fields calibrated from the present model are, potentially, good petrogenetic indicators, as, given the iron-magnesium ratio of garnet and cordierite and the hydration number of cordierite, the temperature, pressure and water fugacity are uniquely determined. As this geothermobarometer is in part based on the water content of cordierite, it can be used only if there is some assurance that the actual hydration is inherited from high-grade metamorphic conditions. Such conditions could be realised if the slope of unloading-cooling retrograde metamorphism is more or less parallel to a cordierite isohydron.