Evaluation of garnet discrimination diagrams using geochemical data of garnets derived from various host rocks

Abstract

This work is an attempt to evaluate six different garnet discrimination diagrams (one binary diagram and five ternary diagrams) commonly used by many researchers. The mineral chemistry of detrital garnet is a useful tool in sedimentary provenance studies, yet there is no clear-cut understanding of what garnet type originates from which host lithology. Several discrimination diagrams exist for garnet showing distinct compositional fields, separated by strict boundaries that are thought to reflect specific types of source rocks. For this study, a large dataset was compiled (N=3532) encompassing major element compositions of garnets derived from various host lithologies, including metamorphic, igneous, and mantle-derived rocks, in order to test the applicability of the various discrimination schemes. The dataset contains mineral chemical data collected from the literature complemented with some new data (N=530) from garnet-bearing metamorphic and ultramafic rocks in Austria and Norway. Discrimination of the tested diagrams only works for a small group of garnets derived from mantle rocks, granulite-facies metasedimentary rocks, and felsic igneous rocks. For other garnet types, the assignment to a certain type of host rock remains ambiguous. This is considered insufficient and therefore the evaluated diagrams should be used with great care. We further apply compositional biplot analysis to derive some hints towards future perspectives in detrital garnet discrimination.