Thermal calculation for high-pressure contact metamorphism: application to eclogite formation in the Sebadani area, the Sambagawa belt, SW Japan

Abstract

Eclogite, a high-pressure–temperature metamorphic rock characterized by garnet + omphacite, is usually considered to be a product of regional metamorphism under a low geothermal gradient. However, in the Sebadani area of the Sambagawa metamorphic belt most petrologists agree that the eclogite formed by localized contact metamorphism due to intrusion of a body in the solid-state (the Sebadani mass). This process is termed `high-pressure contact metamorphism'. However, geological considerations suggest that the effect of such a process would be limited, firstly because the speed of emplacement for solid-state material will generally be much lower than that for magma and secondly because in the solid-state there is no heat of fusion in the body available for thermal effects. Thermal modelling of a solid-state intrusion, based on the heat conduction equation, allows the relationship between size of intrusion, velocity of emplacement and thermal effects to be calculated. Two cases have been considered: (1) a hot model, where none of the heat conducted into the surroundings is lost during the rise of the body; and (2) a cold model where all the heat conducted into the surroundings is lost. These models bracket possible thermal histories of the body. Calculations suggest that in the Sebadani region, production of the observed metamorphic features requires unrealistically high velocity and a much larger intruded body than is observed. These conclusions suggest that it is unlikely that eclogite in the Sebadani area was formed by high-pressure contact metamorphism, but rather that it represents the highest-grade part of the regional Sambagawa metamorphism.