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Roches à sapphirine au contact des lherzolites pyrénéennes

Sapphirine bearing rocks along the contact of pyrenean lherzolites

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Abstract

Sapphirine bearing rocks have been found in place along the northern contact of the bodies of Lherz and the one of Bois du Fajou, both localities in the department of Ariège, pyrenean district, France. Also they have been found in the vicinity of several other pyrenean bodies by the analysis of alluvial concentrates. Their geological, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics have been studied in detail and have been compared with the characteristics of sapphirine bodies from foreign countries.

It is therefore possible to determine a primary hornblende-spinel paragenesis, gradually passing, due to the contact with the lherzolites, to a sapphirine, anthophyllite, phlogopite, kornerupine, cordierite paragenesis. Later paragenesis are represented by the formation of chlorites and vermiculites from the phlogopite, of saponite deriving from cordierite.

A chemical zonality adjusts to the mineralogical zonality; it is mainly characterized by an increase of the Mg/Ca ratio, as the lherzolites are becoming closer.

Results obtained from experiments made by a number of authors within the MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O system have been assembled in a pH2O, T diagram. From these results it is possible to deduct that conditions of formation for the sapphirine carrying rocks, have been in the vicinity of 800–900° C and 6–9 kb. This result, plus various other arguments, lead to feel that we are in presence of crustal rock types, modified at depth by contact with the lherzolites then later lifted up at the time of intrusion.

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  1. Laboratoire de Minéralogie et Cristallographie, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

    P. Monchoux

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Remerciements. Cette étude a pour base une thèse d'Etat soutenue le 2 décembre 1970 devant MM. les Professeurs L. Capdecomme, E. den Tex, M. Lelubre, M. Orliac, et M. F. Permingeat. Le présent texte bénéficie de leurs critiques et de leurs conseils; je leur en exprime ma profonde gratitude. Je remercie bien vivement M. M. Besson pour ses importantes suggestions; les membres du Laboratoire de Minéralogie et Cristallographie de Toulouse, en particulier Melle S. Laffont, M. J. Bacchin, J. J. Dedoubat, F. Fontan, L. Ortelli qui m'ont aidé dans la réalisation de ce travail.

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Monchoux, P. Roches à sapphirine au contact des lherzolites pyrénéennes. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 37, 47–64 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00377306

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