Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:16:22.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An application of cathodoluminescence microscopy to the study of textures and reactions in high-grade marbles from Connemara, Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

B. W. D. Yardley
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
G. E. Lloyd
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.

Abstract

Upper amphibolite facies dolomite and calcite marbles from the Dalradian Connemara Marble Formation of western Ireland display a wide range of textures when viewed in cathodoluminescence that are invisible in transmitted light. Examples observed include growth zones in calcite that appear to represent the infilling of a metamorphic secondary porosity, produced by the large reduction in solid volume accompanying growth of tremolite from dolomite and quartz. Retrograde phenomena are widespread, and include both carbonate pseudomorphs after tremolite and coarse veining, which is in optical continuity with peak metamorphic calcite but otherwise indistinguishable from it. Admixture of such widely differing calcite types may account for scatter in some stable isotope studies of marbles.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Frank, J. R., Carpenter, A. B. & Oglesby, T. W. 1982. Cathodoluminescence and composition of calcite cement in the Taum Sank limestone (upper Cambrian), southeast Missouri. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 52, 631–8.Google Scholar
Giggenbach, W. F. 1980. Geothermal gas equilibria. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 44, 2021–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leake, B. E., Tanner, P. W. G. & Senior, A. 1975. The composition and origin of the Connemara dolomitic marbles and ophicalcites, Ireland. Journal of Petrology 16, 237–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leverenz, H. W. 1968. An Introduction to the Luminescence of Solids. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Long, J. V. P. & Agrell, S. O. 1965. The cathodoluminescence of minerals in thin section. Mineralogical Magazine 34, 318–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, D. J. 1988. Cathodoluminescence of Geological Materials. Boston: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Martin, H. & Zeegers, H. 1969. Cathodo-luminescence et distribution du manganèse dans les calcaires et dolomies du Tournaisien supérieur au Sud de Dinant (Belgique). Comptes rendus de l'académie des sciences, Paris 269, 1922–4.Google Scholar
Medlin, W. L. 1959. Thermoluminescent properties of calcite. Journal of Chemical Physics 30, 451–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medlin, W. L. 1961. Thermoluminescence in dolomite. Journal of Chemical Physics 34, 672–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, B. J. 1981. The control of cathodoluminescence in dolomite by iron and manganese. Sedimentology 28, 601–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumble, D., Ferry, J. H., Hoering, T. C. & Boucot, A. J. 1982. Fluid flow during metamorphism at the Beaver Brook fossil locality, New Hampshire. American Journal of Science 282, 886919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackleton, R. M. & Tanner, P. W. G. 1979. Structure and stratigraphy of the Dalradian rocks of the Bennabeola area, Connemara, Eire. In The Caledonides of the British Isles – Reviewed (eds Harris, A. L., Holland, C. H. and Leake, B. E.), pp. 243–56. Geological Society of London Special Publication no. 8.Google Scholar
Trommsdorff, V. & Skippen, G. 1986. Vapour loss (‘Boiling’) as a mechanism for fluid evolution in metamorphic rocks. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 94, 317–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yardley, B. W. D. & Bottrell, S. H. 1988. Immiscible fluids in metamorphism: implications of two-phase flow for reaction history. Geology 16, 199202.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yardley, B. W. D., Barber, J. P. & Gray, J. R. 1987. The metamorphism of the Dalradian rocks of western Ireland and its relation to tectonic setting. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A 321, 243–70.Google Scholar