Reaction history of garnet‐sapphirine granulites and conditions of Archaean high‐pressure granulite‐facies metamorphism in the Central Limpopo Mobile Belt, Zimbabwe

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sequential reaction textures in Archaean garnet‐corundum‐sapphirine granulites from the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt document a progression from early, coarse‐grained, high‐pressure (P > 9.5 kbar) granulite‐facies assemblages (M1) to late, low‐pressure (P <6 kbar) granulite‐facies sub‐assemblages (M2).The stable M1 assemblage was garnet (57% pyrope; Mg/(Mg + Fe) = 62) + sapphirine + corundum + gedrite + phlogopite + rutile. Late‐M1 boron‐free kornerupine grew at the expense of garnet and corundum, and coexisted with garnet, sapphirine and gedrite. Partial or complete breakdown of coarse garnet and kornerupine during M2 resulted in the development of pseudomorphs and coronas consisting of fine‐grained symplectic intergrowths of cordierite, gedrite and sapphirine (later, spinel).The majority of reaction textures can be explained in terms of a stable reaction sequence, and a model time‐sequence of mineral facies can be constructed. When compared with a qualitative petrogenetic grid of (Fe, Mg)‐discontinuous reactions in the FMASH multisystem sapphirine‐garnet‐corundum‐spinel‐cordierite‐gedrite‐kornerupine, the facies‐sequence indicates decompression at essentially constant T assuming constant a(H2O).Exhumation of M1 corundum inclusions during M2 breakdown of kornerupine resulted in production of metastable spinel by a disequilibrium reaction with gedrite. A second disequilibrium reaction of the spinel with cordierite produced sapphirine. The operation of such reaction while pressure was decreasing (the opposite dP from that implied by the texture if assumed to be the product of an equilibrium reaction) has serious implications for the use of reaction textures in the construction of P‐T vectors.Garnet‐biotite thermometry on garnet interiors and phlogopite inclusions in corundum yields temperatures of ca. 850°C for the M1 stage. A minimum late‐M1 pressure of ca. 7 kbar is indicated by the former association of kornerupine and corundum. Relict M1 kyanites reported by other workers indicate a minumum early‐M1 pressure of 9.5 kbar, implying metamorphism at depths of at least 33 km (probably 38km). The high‐pressure granulite‐facies metamorphism was followed by an almost isothermal pressure decrease of > 5 kbar, indicative of rapid uplift. The P‐T path is interpreted as the product of a single metamorphic cycle which probably took place in response to tectonic thickening of the crust. Such a process contrasts with the extensional origin recently proposed for isobarically cooled granulite‐facies terranes.