White Mica Composition Research Articles

Hydrothermal alteration and the chemistry of ore-forming fluids in an unconformity-type uranium deposit

Compositions of hydrothermal chlorite and fine-grained white mica from the inner and outer alteration halos in the Koongarra U deposit were analyzed by electron microprobe and analytical electron microscopy. Analyses show that although chlorite and white mica compositions vary considerably outside the main ore zone, they are uniform inside the ore zone. Ore-zone chlorite has a ratio of Fe/(Fe + Mg) of 0.25 and low octahedral occupancy (average 5.5 per formula unit), which may represent a mixture of diand trioctahedral chlorite. White mica has a typical K + Na atomic content of 0.85 per formula unit. These compositions were used to calculate the activity ratios aFe+2/aH+2, aMg+2/aH+2, aK+/aH+, and aNa+/aH+ for the hydrothermal fluids associated with deposition of uraninite. Hydrothermal apatite analyses in conjunction with salinities suggested from fluid inclusion studies were used to calculate the pH of the fluids during the pre-ore alteration. The calculated pH values range from 4.8 to 6.0. Finally, the coexistence of chlorite with quartz and hematite was used to calculate oxygen fugacities. The calculated values are about 2 log units higher than for the hematite-magnetite buffer at 200°C. Consequently, the oxidation state of the fluid lay in the hematite field and U was probably transported as uranyl complexes.

Sediment- and basalt-hosted regoliths in the Huronian supergroup: role of parent lithology in middle Precambrian weathering profiles

Weathering profiles developed side-by-side on sandstone and a mafic dike provide an unusual opportunity to examine the role of parent rock bulk composition in the chemical evolution of middle Precambrian regoliths. Because the profiles are adjacent to one another, differences in topography can be eliminated in accounting for differences in the chemical evolution of the two profiles. Both profiles show upward increases in Al, Ti, K, and Rb and decreases in Mg, Ca, and Na. In addition, the mafic regolith increases upward in Zr and Nb and decreases in Zn and Ni. Total Fe decreases upward in both profiles, but the sandstone profile retains significantly more of its initial Fe than does the mafic dike. This difference in Fe loss is consistent with weathering in a low-oxygen atmosphere of rock types with very different initial Fe contents and therefore different atmospheric requirements for complete oxidation of the Fe present. The Fe in the sandstone was mostly oxidized and retained within the profile, whereas much of the Fe in the mafic dike was not oxidized and was removed from the profile in the more soluble ferrous state. Petrographic evidence indicates that both sandstone and mafic dike weathering profiles underwent preweathering diagenesis, postweathering K–Rb metasomatism, and very low-grade metamorphism. Mineral chemistry indicates that, in the absence of chlorite, white mica composition closely reflects variation in bulk composition. Where both white mica and chlorite are present, changes in bulk composition are accommodated by variations in the proportions of these two minerals rather than by variations in white mica composition.

Phase relationships in Buchan facies series pelitic assemblages: calculations with application to andalusite-staurolite parageneses in the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia

Low-pressure, medium- to high-temperature (Buchan-type) regional metamorphism of pelitic rocks in the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia, is defined by the development of biotite, staurolite-andalusite, fibrolite, prismatic sillimanite and migmatite zones. K-feldspar makes its first appearance in the prismatic sillimanite zone and here we restrict our discussion to lower grade assemblages containing prograde muscovite, concentrating particularly on well-developed andalusitestaurolite parageneses. In general, the spatial distribution and mineral chemical variation of these assemblages accord with the predictions of petrogenetic grids and P-T and T-XFe pseudo-sections constructed from the internally consistent data set of Holland and Powell (1990) in the system KFMASH, assuming a(H2O) ∼1, although analysed white mica compositions are systematically more aluminous than predicted. Importantly, the stability ranges of most critical assemblages predicted by these grids and pseudo-sections coincide closely with P-T estimates calculated using the data set of Holland and Powell (1990) from the Mount Lofty Ranges assemblages. With the exception of Mn in garnet and Zn in one staurolite-cordierite-muscovite assemblage non-KFMASH components do not significantly appear to have affected the stability ranges of the observed assemblages. An apparent local reversal in isograd zonation in which andalusite first appears down-grade of staurolite suggests a metamorphic field gradient concave towards the temperature axis and, together with evidence for essentially isobaric heating of individual rocks, is consistent with the exposures representing an oblique profile through a terrain in which heat was dissipated from intrusive bodies at discrete structural levels.