Experimental determination of the spinel peridotite to garnet peridotite reaction in the system MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂ in the range 900 °–1100 °C and Al₂O₃ isopleths of enstatite in the spinel field

Abstract

The univariant high-pressure reaction of aluminous enstatite and spinel to pyrope and forsterite in the MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂ system has been determined in the temperature range 900 °–1100 °C by hydrothermal reversals in the piston-cylinder apparatus using the low-friction NaCl pressure medium. A mixture of synthetic minerals, including an enstatite with 6 wt% Al₂O₃, with product and reactant assemblages in nearly equal amounts, was the starting material. The equilibrium pressure of 19.3±0.3 kbar at 1000 ° C and average dP/dT slope of 8.0 bars/ ° C confirm the strong curvature of the equilibrium below 1200 ° C deduced by Obata (1976) from a theoretical study of experimental Al₂O₃ isopleths of enstatite in the garnet field. His prediction of an absolute minimum pressure near 18 kbar of the garnet peridotite assemblage in the ternary system is undoubtedly correct.

Three reversed determinations of the equilibrium Al₂O₃ content of enstatite in the presence of spinel +forsterite were made at points adjacent to the univariant curve. The points are 5.5 wt% Al₂O₃ at 950 ° C and 20 kbar, 6.2 wt% at 1000 ° C and 20 kbar and 7.2 wt% at 1080 ° C and 20 kbar. These values are somewhat higher than given by the MacGregor (1974) isopleth set and quite close to those predicted by Fujii (1976) from experimental synthesis data at higher temperatures, using the Wood and Banno (1973) model of ideal solution of the Mg₂Si₂O₆ and MgAl₂SiO₆ components in enstatite to reduce the data.

All of the available spinel-field isopleth data can be systematized with the use of the ideal solution model. A value of ΔH ⁰ of 9000 cal fits the reduced data well, and is in agreement with the calorimetrically determined value of 8500±1900 calories. An accurate calculation of the dP/dT slope of the univariant equilibrium at 1000 ° C based on calorimetry gives 7±2bars/ °C, also in good agreement with experiment. Thus, all of the available experimental and calorimetric data are consistent with the ideal-solution aluminous enstatite model.

The dP/dT slopes of the spinel-field isopleths are too large to permit their use as an accurate geobarometric scale. They do have considerable potential as a thermometric indicator for certain natural peridotites, however. The southwestern Oregon overthrust peridotite masses of Cretaceous age have enstatite of 5.6 wt% Al₂O₃ with spinel of nearly 80 mole% MgAl₂O₄. The present reduced isopleth data directly give 930 ° C for the equilibration, assuming 12 kbar pressure. A first order correction based on ideal solution departures from the ternary system, as suggested by Stroh (1976) gives 1000 ° C. Thus, the high temperatures deduced by Medaris (1972) are confirmed. The pressure cannot be deduced independently from the pyroxene Al₂O₃ contents.