Eine Subfaziesfolge der Grünschieferfazies in den Mittleren Cévennen (Dép. Ardèche) mit Pyrophyllit aufweisenden Mineralparagenesen

Abstract

In the middle part of the Cevennes, situated at the south-eastern border of the Massif Central, there are outcrops of micaschists, gneisses and granites in which the increase of metamorphic grade was investigated along the river Beaume. This paper presents the results of the petrographic-geochemical analysis of the micaschists of the greenschist facies. Chemical analyses of the micaschist-samples examined petrographically show their nearly constant composition, a fact which e.g., is expressed by similar CaO/Na2O- and MgO/FeO-proportions. As the average values of the determined oxides approach the respective average values of analyses of graywackes recorded by Pettijohn (1957) the original sediment is likely to have been an argillaceous graywacke deficient in calcite. In enrichments of the phyllosilicates pyrophyllite was detected by X-ray diffraction; its amount is about 2 to 5 weight percent of the rocks. With increasing metamorphic grade the following parageneses were found in the metamorphic zones of the greenschist facies: Zone Ia: Quartz+chlorite+pyrophyllite+muscovite+clinozoisite. Zone Ib: Quartz+chlorite+pyrophyllite+muscovite+biotite+clinozoisite. The absence of biotite in Zone Ia, though the chemism of the rocks is practically the same, is obviously due to the different Al2O3-content of the chlorites of Zones Ia and Ib. The chlorite of Zone Ia is more deficient in Al2O3 than the one of Zone Ib. With passage from Zone Ia to Zone Ib the position of the tie line between chlorite and muscovite in the ACF-A'FK-diagram changes in such a way that in Zone Ia, because of purely chemical reasons, biotite cannot occur as coexisting mineral. The beginning of Zone II is characterized by the occurence of almandine, rich in spessartine. The following paragenesis is typical of this zone: Quartz+chlorite+pyrophyllite +muscovite+biotite+almandine+clinozoisite. Additionally the micaschists of these three zones display albite, the greater part of which is concentrated in mm-thin layers with associated minor amounts of quartz and micas. Paragonite whose formation by reaction between albite and pyrophyllite is to be expected based on experimental results (Winkler, 1967, p. 95) could not be proved by X-ray diffraction. In Zone III andalusite occurs instead of pyrophyllite. Furthermore, as chlorite and clinozoisite are absent and oligoclase occurs for the first time this zone is regarded as the first subfacies of the almandine-amphibolite-facies. The chemism and the observed mineral parageneses of the subfacies of the almandine-amphibolite-facies will be treated in a separate publication.