Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T00:35:15.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chemistry and phase petrology of amphiboles and orthoamphibole–cordierite rocks, Old Woman Mountains, SE California, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Edward F. Stoddard  and
Calvin F. Miller
Edward F. Stoddard
Affiliation:
Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8208, USA
Calvin F. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Proterozoic amphibolites from Sweetwater Wash, in the Old Woman Mountains of southeastern California, contain a variety of mineral assemblages dominated by the low-Ca amphiboles anthophyllite, gedrite, and cummingtonite. Their Mg- and Al-rich, Ca-poor bulk compositions suggest that the amphibolites represent basalts that were altered prior to metamorphism. In addition to amphiboles, mineral assemblages include cordierite, biotite, garnet, Ca-rich plagioclase, and ilmenite ± rutile. Corundum, staurolite, and spinel occur locally in Al-rich enclaves associated with cordierite. Orthoamphiboles commonly exhibit complex microstructures, including twinning, intergrowths, and apparent exsolution; spot analyses show an unusually large range of chemical compositions, even within a single thin section, in several cases extending across the crest of the solvus in the orthoamphibole system. Ionic substitution within the orthoamphibole series was dominated by the Mg-tschermakitic and edenitic exchange reactions. The amphibolites are thought to have been subjected to metamorphic temperatures above the orthoamphibole solvus during both the Proterozoic and the Cretaceous. Cretaceous metamorphism was followed closely by rapid uplift and denudation, which may be responsible for the exsolution and range of compositions of the orthoamphiboles.

Keywords

amphiboliteamphiboleorthoamphibolecordieriteOld Woman MountainsCalifornia
Type
Silicate Mineralogy
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 54 , Issue 376 , September 1990 , pp. 393 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1990

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

Bender, E. E. and Miller, C. F. (1987) Petrology of the Fenner Gneiss, a major Proterozoic metaplutonic unit in the eastern Mojave Desert, California. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. with Programs, 19, 358.Google Scholar
Berg, J. H. (1985) Chemical variations in sodium gedrite from Labrador. Am. Mineral. 70, 1205-10.Google Scholar
Crowley, P. D. and Spear, F. S. (1981) The orthoamphibole solvus: P, T, X(Fe-Mg) relations. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. with Programs, 13, 435.Google Scholar
Foster, D. A., Harrison, T. M. and Miller, C. F. (1989) Age, inheritance, and uplift history of the Old Woman-Piute batholith, California and implications for K-feldspar age spectra. J. Geol. 97, 23243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleason, J. D., Miller, C. F. and Wooden, J. L. (1988) Barrel Spring alkalic complex; 1.4-Ga anorogenic plutonism in the Old Woman–Piute Range, eastern Mojave Desert, California. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. with Programs, 20, 164.Google Scholar
Harley, S. L. (1985) Paragenetic and mineral-chemical relationships in orthoamphibole-bearing gneisses from Enderby Land, east Antarctica: A record of Proterozoic uplift. J. Metamorphic Geol. 3, 179-200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawthorne, F. C. (1983) The crystal chemistry of the amphiboles. Can. Mineral. 21, 173-480.Google Scholar
Hoisch, T. D., Miller, C. F., Heizler, M. T., Harrison, T. M. and Stoddard, E. F. (1988) Late Cretaceous regional metamorphism in southeastern California. In Metamorphism and Crustal Evolution of the Western United States (Ernst, W. G., ed.). Rubey Volume VII. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 538-71.Google Scholar
Howard, K. A., John, B. E. and Miller, C. F. (1987) Metamorphic core complexes, Mesozoic ductile thrusts, and Cenozoic detachments; Old Woman Mountains-Chemehuevi Mountains transect, California and Arizona. In Geologic diversity of Arizona and its margins: Excursions to choice areas (Davis, G. H. and Vanderwolder, E. M., eds.. Arizona Bur. Geol. Mineral Techn., Spec. Pap. 5, 365-82.Google Scholar
James, R. S., Grieve, R. A. F. and Pauk, L. (1978) The petrology of cordierite-anthophyllite gneisses and associated mafic and pelitic gneisses at Manitouwadge, Ontario. Am. J. Sci. 278, 41-63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, C. F., Howard, K. A. and Hoisch, T. D. (1982) Mesozoic thrusting, metamorphism, and plutonism, Old Woman-Piute Range, southeastern California. In Mesozoic-Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Colorado River region, California, Arizona, and Nevada (Anderson-Hamilton Volume) (Frost, E. G. and Martin, D. L., eds.). San Diego, Cordilleran Publishers, 561-81.Google Scholar
Reinhardt, J. (1987) Cordierite-anthophyllite rocks from north-west Queensland, Australia: Metamorphosed magnesian pelites. J. Metamorphic Geol. 5, 451-72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, P. and Jaffe, H. W. (1969) Aluminous enclaves in gedrite-cordierite gneiss from southwestern New Hampshire. Am. J. Sci. 267, 389-421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, P., Ross, M. and Jaffe, H. W. (1971) Composition of the anthophyllite-gedrite series; comparisons of gedrite and hornblende, and the anthophyllite-gedrite solvus. Am. Mineral. 56, 1005-41.Google Scholar
Robinson, P., Spear, F. S., Schumacher, J. C., Laird, J., Klein, C., Evans, B. W. and Doolan, B. L. (1982) Phase relations of metamorphic amphiboles: Natural occurrence and theory. In Amphiboles: Petrology and experimental phase relations (Veblen, D. R. and Ribbe, P. H., eds.). Reviews in Mineralogy, 9B, Mineral. Soc. Amer., 1–228.Google Scholar
Rock, N. M. S. and Leake, B. E. (1984) The International Mineralogical Association amphibole nomenclature scheme: computerization and its consequences. Mineral. Mag. 48, 211-27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumacher, J. C. and Robinson, P. (1987) Mineral chemistry and metasomatic growth of aluminous enclaves in gedrite-cordierite gneiss from southwestern New Hampshire, USA. J. Petrol. 28, 1033-73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spear, F. S. (1980) The gedrite-anthophyllite solvus and the composition limits of orthoamphibole from the Post Pond Volcanics, Vermont. Am. Mineral. 65, 1103-18.Google Scholar
Stoddard, E. F. (1979) Zinc-rich hercynite in high-grade metamorphic rocks: A product of the dehydration of staurolite. Ibid. 64, 736-41.Google Scholar
Stone, P., Howard, K. A. and Hamilton, W. (1983) Correlation of metamorphosed Paleozoic strata of the southeastern Mojave Desert region, California and Arizona. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 94, 1135-47.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stout, J. H. (1972) Phase petrology and mineral chemistry of coexisting amphiboles from Telemark, Norway. J. Petrol. 13, 99-145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, W. M., Clark, H. S., Young, E. D., Orrell, S. E. and Anderson, J. L. (1988) Proterozoic highgrade metamorphism in the Colorado River region, Nevada, Arizona, and California. In Metamorphism and Crustal Evolution of the Western United States (Ernst, W. G., ed.). Rubey Volume VII. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 526-37.Google Scholar
Treloar, P. J. and Putnis, A. (1982) Chemistry and microstructure of orthoamphiboles from cordierite-amphibole rocks at Outokumpu, North Karelia, Finland. Mineral. Mag. 45, 55-62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallance, T. G. (1967) Mafic rock alteration and isochemical development of some cordierite-anthophyllite rocks. J. Petrol. 8, 84-96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, E. D. and Wooden, J. P. (1988) Mid-crustal emplacement of Mesozoic granitoids, eastern Mojave Desert: Evidence from crystallization barometry. Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. with Programs, 20, 244.Google Scholar