Synthetic gedrite: a stable phase in the system MgO-Al 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -H 2 O (MASH) at 800 °C and 10 kbar water pressure, and the influence of FeNaCa impurities

Abstract

Seeded, solid-media piston-cylinder runs of unusually long duration up to 31 days indicate growth or persistence of synthetic gedrite of the composition □Mg6Al[AlSi7O22](OH)2(=6:1:7), prepared from the purest chemicals available, at 10 kbar water pressure and 800 °C. Conversely, breakdown was observed at 11 kbar and 850 °C to aluminous enstatite, Al2SiO5, and a melt of the composition MgO·Al2O3·8SiO2. Thus, pure gedrite free of iron, sodium, and calcium is likely to have only a small PT stability field in the MASH system, estimated as 10 ± 1 kbar, 800 ± 20 °C, even though metastable growth of gedrite can be observed over a larger PT range. A second starting material with the anhydrous composition 5MgO · 2Al2O3 · 6SiO2 also yielded gedrite of the composition 6:1:7, together with more aluminous phases such as kyanite, corundum or sapphirine, thus suggesting that the end-member gedrite defined as □Mg5Al2[Al2Si6O22](OH)2(=5:2:6) by the IMA Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names probably does not exist. With the use of this second starting material, which contains FeNaCa impurities, growth of 6:1:7-gedrite was observed over a still wider PT-range. Seeded runs indicate that the true stability field of such slightly impure 6:1:7-gedrites may also be larger than that of the pure MASH phase and extend at least to 15 kbar, 800 °C. There is, thus, a remarkable stabilization effect on the orthoamphibole structure by impurities amounting only to a total of less than one weight percent of oxides in the starting material. The gedrites synthesized are structurally well ordered amphiboles nearly free of chain multiplicity faults, as revealed by HRTEM. The X-ray diffraction work on the gedrites synthesized yielded the smallest cell volume yet reported for this phase. The small stability field of the pure MASH gedrite is intersected by the upper pressure stability limit of hydrous cordierite for excess-H2O conditions, thus leading to complicated phase relations for both gedrite and cordierite involving the additional phases aluminous enstatite, talc, quartz, Al2SiO5, melt and perhaps boron-free kornerupine.