Dependence of reaction kinetics on H2O activity as inferred from rates of intergranular diffusion of aluminium

Quantitative constraints on the accelerative effects of H2O on the kinetics of metamorphic reactions arise from a comparison of rates of intergranular diffusion of Al in natural systems that are fluid-saturated, hydrous but fluid-undersaturated, and nearly anhydrous. Widths of symplectitic reaction coronas around partially resorbed garnet crystals in the contact aureole of the Makhavinekh Lake Pluton, northern Labrador, combined with time-temperature histories from conductive thermal models, yield intergranular diffusivities for Al from similar to 700-900 degrees C under nearly anhydrous conditions. Those rates, when extrapolated down temperature, are approximately three orders of magnitude slower than rates derived from re-analysis of garnet resorption coronas formed under hydrous but fluid-undersaturated conditions near 575 degrees C in rocks of the Llano Uplift of central Texas, which are in turn approximately four orders of magnitude slower than rates at comparable temperatures derived from numerical simulations of prograde garnet growth in fluid-saturated conditions in rocks from the Picuris Range of north-central New Mexico. Thus, even at constant temperature, rates of intergranular diffusion of Al - and corresponding length scales and timescales of metamorphic reaction and equilibration - may vary by as much as seven orders of magnitude across the range of H2O activities found in nature.