The interpretation of reaction textures in Fe-rich metapelitic granulites of the Musgrave Block, central Australia: constraints from mineral equilibria calculations in the system K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O-TiO2-Fe2O3

Fe-rich metapelitic granulites of the Musgrave Block, central Australia, contain several symplectic and coronal reaction textures that post-date a peak S2 metamorphic assemblage involving garnet, sillimanite, spinel, ilmenite, K-feldspar and quartz. The earliest reaction textures involve spinel- and quartz-bearing symplectites that enclose garnet and to a lesser extent sillimanite. The symplectic spinel and quartz are in places separated by later garnet and/or sillimanite coronas. The metamorphic effects of a later, D3, event are restricted to zones of moderate to high strain where a metamorphic assemblage of garnet, sillimanite, K-feldspar, magnetite, ilmenite, quartz and biotite is preserved. Quantitative mineral equilibria calculations in the system K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O-TiO2-Fe2O3 (KFMASHTO) using THERMOCALC 3.0 and the accompanying internally consistent dataset provide important constraints on the influence of TiO2 and Fe2O3 on biotite-bearing and spinel-bearing equilibria, respectively. Biotite-bearing equilibria are shifted to higher temperatures and spinel-bearing equilibria to higher pressures and lower temperatures in comparison to the equivalent equilibria in K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O (KFMASH). The sequence of reaction textures involving spinel is consistent with a D2 P-T path that involved a small amount of decompression followed predominantly by cooling within a single mineral assemblage stability field. Thus, the reaction textures reflect changes in modal proportions within an equilibrium assemblage rather than the crossing of a univariant reaction. The D3 metamorphic assemblage is consistent with lower temperatures than those inferred for D2.