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Garnet-orthopyroxene-plagioclase-quartz barometry: refinement and application to the English River subprovince and the Minnesota River valley

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Abstract

Recent experimental, theoretical, and thermodynamic studies permit better calibration of two reactions for geobarometry: grossular+pyrope+quartz=anorthite+enstatite grossular+almandine+quartz=anorthite+ferrosilite If both reactions are applied using the same thermodynamic data and activity models they should yield the same pressure for a given garnet-pyroxene-plagioclase-quartz assemblage. Application to a variety of high-grade terrains generally yielded excellent results. However, poor results have been obtained for high-Fe rocks which can be traced to errors in activity models for garnet and/or pyroxene. Either a two-site ideal mixing model for orthopyroxene (cf. Wood and Banno 1973) underestimates enstatite activity for high-Fe orthopyroxenes or the Ganguly and Saxena (1984) model overestimates pyrope activity in low-Mg garnets.

Application of both barometers to a variety of high-grade terrains gives the following average pressures:

Terrain

Mg-reaction

Fe-reaction

Adirondacks, New York

11.2

8.0

Buksefjorden, Greenland

9.5

8.89

Doubtful Sound, New Zealand

12.6

12.0

Enlish River subprovince, Ontario

4.7

5.4

Furua Complex, Tanzania

10.8

10.6

Granite Falls, Minnesota

5.3

6.9

Huntley-Portsoy, Scotland

3.8

4.1

Inarijärvi Complex, Finland

6.0

6.7

Indian Shield

8.9

9.5

Kapuskasing Zone, Ontario

7.8

8.2

Lachnagar, Scotland

3.9

2.6

Molodezhnaya Station, Antartica

7.1

7.5

Nain Province, Labrador

3.6

1.6

Otter Lake, Quebec

9.3

7.7

Qianxi Country, China

11.0

10.7

The above pressures are, in general, in excellent agreement with previous estimates.

The results for the English River subprovince and for the Minnesota River Valley further support the idea that the Archean crust was, in some areas, in excess of 20 km thick.

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  1. Department of Geology and North Dakota Mining and Mineral Resources Research Institute, University of North Dakota, University Station, Box 8103, 58202, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA

    Dexter Perkins III & Steve J. Chipera

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  1. Dexter Perkins III
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Perkins, D., Chipera, S.J. Garnet-orthopyroxene-plagioclase-quartz barometry: refinement and application to the English River subprovince and the Minnesota River valley. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 89, 69–80 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01177592

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