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Orthopyroxene thermobarometry in simple and complex systems

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Abstract

In the system FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 (FMAS), the equilibrium Al-content of orthopyroxene coexisting with olivine and spinel was reversed in 18 experiments at 1 340° C and 11 or 18 kbar, using graphite capsules and PbO flux. In the CFMAS system (+CaO), the Al-contents of ortho- and clinopyroxene coexisting with olivine and spinel were reversed in 5 experiments at 1 340° C and 18 kbar. The Al-content of clinopyroxene remains constant, while the Al-content of orthopyroxene increases with increasing Fe-content. The Ca-content of clinopyroxene is independent of the Al-content. The data were used to describe the Fe-Mg site distribution in the aluminous orthopyroxene. The Fe-Mg partitioning among orthopyroxene, olivine, spinel and garnet, combined with the Al-content of orthopyroxene, was used to calculate orthopyroxene based thermobarometers in the FMAS, CFMAS and NCFMAS (+Na2O) systems. The thermobarometers were applied to the Adirondack metagabbros, which gave equilibration temperatures of 700–800° C and pressures 7.4–10.3 kbar.

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  1. Tibor Gasparik

    Present address: Department of Earth and Space Sciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA

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  1. Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA

    Tibor Gasparik

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  1. Tibor Gasparik
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Gasparik, T. Orthopyroxene thermobarometry in simple and complex systems. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 96, 357–370 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371254

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371254

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