Thermally-induced grain growth of calcite marbles on Naxos Island, Greece

Abstract

The island of Naxos is composed of an elliptically shaped structural and thermal dome of Miocene age. Peak metamorphic temperatures within the central migmatite complex exceeded 700° C, decreasing to about 300° C at the most distant exposures on the island. Equigranular calcite marbles which outcrop together with metapelites and metabasites over the whole island show a systematic pattern of increasing grain-size towards the central migmatite complex, with a significant discontinuity in the pattern corresponding approximately with the 500° C isotherm. The microstructures and grain-size distributions in the marbles are consistent with normal grain-growth. The variation of grain-size with peak temperature attained can be explained equally well by the assumptions that (a) a maximum grainsize had developed, particularly at higher temperatures, or that (b) the grain-size had been frozen-in by a combination of cooling and coarsening, both of which combine to reduce the rate of grain-growth.