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Sapphirine-quartz and sapphirine-corundum assemblages in metamorphic rocks associated with the Semail Ophiolite (United Arab Emirates)

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Abstract

Granulite facies metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks occur imbricated with the Cretaceous Semail Ophiolite in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Peak metamorphic assemblages in highly oxidized lithologies of these rocks include sapphirine (7 : 9 : 3)-hercynitic spinel-magnetite-ilmeno-hematite-plagioclase-enstatite-quartz and sapphirine (2 : 2 : 1)-corundum-ilmeno-hematite-phlogopite-plagioclase. The observed mineral assemblages in quartzitic rocks are an example of overlapping stability of sapphirine-quartz and spinel-quartz and are therefore not diagnostic for high pressures. Both types of sapphirine occur within the stability field of Mg-rich cordierite. The common association of sapphirine and spinel with magnetite and ilmeno-hematite in quartzitic rocks suggests that sapphirine was formed by a reaction including spinel, hematite and quartz on the educt side. Metamorphic conditions estimated from associated parageneses point to temperatures of 800–850°C and pressures of 6.5–9 kbar.

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  1. Edwin Gnos

    Present address: Laboratoire de Tectonophysique, Place Eugène Bataillon, Université de Montpellier II, F-34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

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  1. Mineralogisch-Petrographisches Institut, Universität Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Edwin Gnos & Daniel Kurz

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  1. Edwin Gnos
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Gnos, E., Kurz, D. Sapphirine-quartz and sapphirine-corundum assemblages in metamorphic rocks associated with the Semail Ophiolite (United Arab Emirates). Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 116, 398–410 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00310907

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