Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:40:32.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mineralogy and petrology of the Highland Border Suite serpentinites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

N. P. Ikin  and
R. S. Harmon
N. P. Ikin
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University College, Cardiff
R. S. Harmon
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prior to serpentinization, the ultramafic rocks of the ophiolitic Highland Border Suite were depleted harzburgites, dunites, and orthopyroxenites. They may have been the residual mantle after melting of primary lherzolite that produced the basaltic rocks of the Suite. Serpentinization of these peridotites occurred at low temperatures (75±50°C) and produced pseudomorphic-textured lizardite serpentinites in which the minor-element compositions of the primary phases were preserved in the lizardite grains. Olivine was almost completely serpentinized before orthopyroxene was hydrated. Concomitant peripheral alteration of chromespinels, during serpentinization of orthopyroxene, caused release of Cr and Al cations which were incorporated into the lizardite. Under greenschist-facies conditions (c. 350°C at 3–4 kbar), the lizardite serpentinites were subsequently metamorphosed and recrystallized to nonpseudomorphic-textured antigorite serpentinites. Postmetamorphic processes included high-level brittle deformation that resulted in fracturing and cross-fibre chrysotile vein-formation, and ductile shearing (T ∼ 200 °C, P < 2 kbar) which produced talc-chrysotile shear zones.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 47 , Issue 344 , September 1983 , pp. 301 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1984

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.)

Footnotes

*

Address for correspondence: 68 Shirley Drive, Heol- gerrig, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales CF48 1SF.

References

Allan, D. A. (1928) Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh. 56, 57–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. G. C. (1947) Ibid. 61, 479–515.Google Scholar
Aumento, F. (1970) Geol. Surv. Can. Pap. 69-53, 67 pp.Google Scholar
Bird, J. M., Dewey, J. F., and Kidd, W. S. F. (1971) Nature, 231, 28–31.Google Scholar
Colby, J. W. (1968) Adv. X-ray Anal. 11, 287–305.Google Scholar
Curry, G. B., Ingham, J. K., Bluck, B. J., and Williams, A. (1982) J. Geol. Soc. London, 139, 463–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dungan, M. A. (1977) Am. Mineral. 62, 1018–29.Google Scholar
Evans, B. W., Johannes, W., Oterdoom, H., and Trommsdorff, V. (1976) Schweiz. Mineral. Petrogr. Mitt. 56, 79–93.Google Scholar
Garson, M. S., and Plant, J. (1973) Nature, 242, 34–8.Google Scholar
Henderson, W. G., Fortey, N. J. et al. (In press.) Mineral Reconnaissance Programme Rep. Inst. Geol. Sci.Google Scholar
Henderson, W. G., Robertson, A. H. F. (1982) J. Geol. Soc. London, 139, 433–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ikin, N. P. (1979) The mafic and ultramafic rocks of the Highland Border. Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Ikin, N. P. (1983) J. Geol. Soc. London. In press.Google Scholar
Ikin, N. P. and Harmon, R. S. (1981) Bull. Mineral. 104, 795– 800.Google Scholar
Ikin, N. P. (1983) Geochim. Cosmochim. Ada. In press.Google Scholar
Irvine, T. N and Findlay, T. C. (1972) Spec. Pub. Earth Physics Branch, Dept. Energy Mines Res., Canada. 42, 97–128.Google Scholar
Jackson, E. D. (1968) 23rd Inter. Geol. Cong. Prague, Rept. Proc. Sec. 1, 135–50.Google Scholar
Jackson, E. D. (1969) Econ. Geol. Monograph. 4, 41–71.Google Scholar
Jehu, T. J., and Campbell, R. (1917) Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh. 52, 175–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judd, J. W. (1885) Q. J. Geol. Soc. London. 41, 399.Google Scholar
Lyell, C. (1825) Edinburgh J. Sci. 5, 112–26.Google Scholar
Martin, B., and Fyfe, W. S. (1970) Chem. Geol. 6,185–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medaris, L. G. (1972) Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 83, 41–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moody, J. B. (1976) Lithos. 9, 125–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'hara, M. J. (1967) In Ultramafic and Related rocks (Wyllie, P. J., ed.). John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Raleigh, C. B., and Paterson, M. S. (1965) J. Geophys. Res. 70, 3965–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringwood, A. E. (1975) Composition and Petrology of the Earth's Mantle. McGraw-Hill Inc. New York.Google Scholar
Roeder, P. L., Campbell, I. H., and Jamieson, H. E. (1979) Contrib. Mineral Petrol. 68, 325–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinton, J. M. (1977) J. Petrol. 18, 216–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smellie, W. R. (1916) Trans. Geol Soc. Glasgow. 15,334–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trommsdorff, V., and Evans, B. W. (1974) Schweiz. Mineral. Petrogr. Mitt. 54, 333–52.Google Scholar
Vance, J. A., and Dungan, M. A. (1977) Geol. Soc. Am. Bull 88, 1497–508.2.0.CO;2>CrossRef2.0.CO;2>Google Scholar
Wenner, D. B., and Taylor, H. P. Jr, (1971) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 32, 165–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicks, F. J., and Whittaker, E. J. W. (1977) Can. Mineral 15, 459–88.Google Scholar