Abstract
For the origin of fuchsite- and alusite-corundum rocks occurring as lenses within ultramafic schists at O'Briens, Zimbabwe, a model is presented, according to which an ultramafic komatiite flow is altered locally, during postvolcanic near-surface processes, anto chromiferous alunite, that in turn broke down, during subsequent low-grade metamorphism, into fuchsite, or andalusite, or ruby, or assemblages thereof, depending on the availability of silica and on solution chemistry. Pseudomorphs of corundum and andalusite after preexisting euhedral alunite, or after other minerals with alunite structure, support this model. Fuchsite-kyanite- and alusite-quartz schists from the Yilgarn Block of Western Australia forming conformable layers in metasediments may also have originated from alunitequartz rocks, but no textural evidence could be provided. However, in neighboring kyanite- and alusite quartzites the typical cross sections of leached out alunite-group minerals as well as the mineral natrojarosite were discovered within the metamorphic quartz fabric, which appears to indicate that alunite-type minerals coexisted during metamorphism with quartz and kyanite. Alunite-bearing sedimentary educts are not necessarily of postvolcanic origin but may also form under specila climatic conditions.
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