Strain-driven disordering of low microcline to low sanidine during partial phase separation in microperthites

Abstract

Microperthitic feldspar crystals containing low microcline in a braid intergrowth often have distinctive microtextures including coarse semi- to in-coherent grain-boundary pleated rims and fine coherent intracrystalline Ab- and Or-rich pleats (Lee et al. 1997). The coarser pleated rims are generally separated from the braid microtexture in the crystal interior by a coherent to semi-coherent transitional zone. Partial phase separation has occurred in the transitional zone in step with that in the Ab- and Or-rich pleats at the grain boundaries, such that Ab-rich lamellar film micro-antiperthite alternates along (010) with more Or-rich lamellar film microperthite; the microtextures and phases are those expected for the respective local bulk compositions. Lamellar microtextures contain tweed orthoclase, whereas low microcline is the only K-feldspar in the fine coherent pleats and braid microperthite. We propose that the small coherent pleats developed from the braid microtexture by interaction of the spontaneous coherency strains with discontinuities within or at the surface of the crystal, and that their initial spacing is guided by that of the braid microperthite. We infer that the transitional zone formed by straightening of the zig-zag braid microtexture above the pleat heads during coarsening and partial phase separation. We further infer that the resulting coherency shear strains induced a reversal of the K-feldspar phase transformation, involving Si, Al disordering of low microcline into low sanidine, now tweed orthoclase, although the crystal was at a T within the hydrostatic T-stability of microcline.