High-pressure and high-temperature phase relations in the systems KAlSiO4-MgAl2O4 and CaAl2O4-MgAl2O4: Stability fields of NAL phases

Abstract

Phase relations in the system KAlSiO4-MgAl2O4 were determined up to 28 GPa and 1500 °C. A hexagonal aluminous (NAL) phase is stable above 16 GPa with a narrow compositional range of (1-x)KAlSiO4·xMgAl2O4, x ≈ 0.61–0.65. The stability field of NAL phase in the CaAl2O4-MgAl2O4 system was also determined up to 29 GPa and 1200 °C, resulting in a compositional range of NAL phase of (1-x)CaAl2O4·xMgAl2O4, x ≈ 0.67–0.74. Compared with the above compositional widths of NAL phases, the stability field of NAL phase in the NaAlSiO4-MgAl2O4 system is much wider, (1-x)NaAlSiO4·xMgAl2O4, x ≈ 0.47–0.70 (Ono et al., 2009). The difference may be caused by the fact that both of Na+ and Mg2+ with similar cation sizes enter 6-fold trigonal prism sites in the NAL structure. In the system KAlSiO4-MgAl2O4, KAlSiO4 kalsilite and MgAl2O4 spinel coexist below ~8 GPa, above which an assemblage of MgAl2O4 spinel, corundum, K2Mg2Si2O7-rich phase X and pyrope becomes stable. The assemblage further changes into NAL phase at 16 GPa. These results and compositional similarity suggest that composite inclusions consisting of MgAl2O4-rich spinel and kalsilite-nepheline solid solution found in diamonds in the Juina-5 kimberlite, Brazil, were formed below ~8 GPa presumably by decomposition of K-rich NAL phase trapped in diamonds in the lower mantle conditions.