Mineral parageneses and metamorphic reactions in metasedimentary enclaves from the Archaean Gneiss Complex of north-west India

Abstract

AbstractThree metasedimentary enclaves up to a kilometre in length of contrasting compositions within the polymetamorphic Banded Gneissic Complex (> 2580Ma) have been studied for their mineral parageneses and metamorphic conditions. The largest enclave, consisting of kyanite-chloritoid-muscovite schist with quartz or corundum, and kyanite-fuchsite-corundum ± diaspore, was metamorphosed at most under lower amphibolite conditions, and is thus not isofacial with the surrounding schists and gneisses (of the ‘basement’ complex) which reached sillimanite-grade metamorphism in the last orogenic cycle (Aravalli: 1650–950Ma Orogeny) in Rajasthan.The second enclave is a calc-silicate rock which occurs as a small lens. The presence of two generations of wollastonite which formed during different metamorphic events in the calcite-quartz-grossularite-anorthite-clinopyroxene assemblage indicates polymetamorphism.The third enclave is a metabasic rock which records a complete polymetamorphic history in discontinuous zones in garnet coexisting with hornblende-chlorite-plagioclase-quartz±epidote. To explain the garnet zoning a model involving partial resorption of early garnet during the initial recrystallization stage of superimposed regional metamorphism is preferred to the alternative based on a single prograde metamorphism and retrogression.The mineralogy of the calc-silicate and metabasic enclaves gives a recrystallization temperature of c. 700°C and a pressure in the range of 8–3 kbar during the second metamorphism.