Precipitation of rutile and ilmenite needles in garnet: Implications for extreme metamorphic conditions in the Acadian Orogen, U.S.A.

Abstract

We report the discovery of oriented needles of rutile and ilmenite in garnet crystals from granulite facies metapelitic rocks of the Merrimack synclinorium, Connecticut, and present a precipitation model for their origin. The rocks were strongly metamorphosed and deformed during the Devonian Acadian orogeny. The needles are primarily elongated parallel to in garnet. Rutile has anomalous extinction angles as great as ~35° (cf. Griffin et al. 1971). Rutile and ilmenite needles are typically a few hundred nanometers to several micrometers in diameter and are several tens of micrometers to nearly a millimeter long. Other oxide inclusions that may be present include submicrometer- to micrometer-scale twinned rutile bicrystals, as well as srilankite and a crichtonite group mineral. Some garnet cores have unusual, box-shaped quartz inclusions, which coexist with Ti±Fe oxide needles and commonly contain micrometer-scale rods of F-OH-Cl apatite. Negative garnet crystal “pores” are also widespread. Ti±Fe oxide needles are restricted to garnet core regions; rims have a distinctly different inclusion population dominated by granulite facies minerals including sillimanite, spinel, cordierite, and K-feldspar. Consequently, the garnet core regions represent an earlier, distinct period of growth relative to the rims. Garnet cores contain ~25–35% pyrope, and a host of minor and trace constituents including TiO2 (0.07–0.6 wt%), Cr2O3 (0.01–0.10 wt%), Na2O (0.01–0.03 wt%), P2O5 (0.01–0.09 wt%), and ZrO2 (up to ~150 ppm). Na2O and ZrO2 correlate positively with TiO2. Titanium zoning is preserved in some garnets; zoning profiles and two-dimensional chemical mapping show that Ti and, to a lesser degree, Cr are depleted around Ti±Fe oxide inclusions. Therefore, we conclude that the needles are precipitates that formed from Ti-bearing garnet during exhumation and cooling. Garnet contained sufficient Ti to form precipitates; no Ti source external to garnet was necessary. Titanium-bearing garnets that contain oriented Ti±Fe oxide needles are known primarily from ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks, mantle peridotites and pyroxenites, and high-pressure granulites. Thus, the presence of needle-bearing garnets in Connecticut strongly suggests that a previously unrecognized domain of extreme pressure and/or temperature metamorphism exists in the Acadian orogen.