Gavin, Bronwyn Patricia (2004) The microstructural and metamorphic history preserved within garnet porphyroblasts from southern Vermont and northwestern Massachusetts. PhD thesis, James Cook University.

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Abstract

Garnet porphyroblasts from southern Vermont and northwestern Massachusetts typically preserve multiple generations of inclusion trails, reflecting a potentially complex deformation and metamorphic growth history. Textural discontinuities, such as inclusion trail truncations or deflection planes, are commonly preserved within these complex inclusion trails and they are dominantly sub-vertically and sub-horizontally oriented. This observation cannot be adequately explained using the rotational model of spiral inclusion trail formation, leading to the conclusion that the trails were formed by the inclusion of multiple sub-vertical and sub-horizontal foliations during episodic garnet growth without porphyroblast rotation. Foliation inflection/intersection axes preserved within porphyroblasts (FIAs) provide important information about the kinematics of deformation, particularly the direction of bulk shortening at the time they formed. Samples from this study preserve a succession of six FIA sets resulting from a progressive change in the direction of bulk shortening through time. The distribution of these FIA sets across the field area indicates that the deformation was heterogeneously partitioned and occurred at different scales throughout orogenesis. Localization of deformation is an important control on garnet growth and repartitioning during successive deformation events resulted in a heterogeneous spatial distribution of garnet growth through time. The episodic nature of garnet growth is reflected in compositional zoning anomalies in garnet porphyroblasts from the Hoosac Formation. Zones of manganese enrichment, accompanied by calcium depletion, reveal pauses in garnet growth that may have been accompanied by fluid infiltration, garnet dissolution-reprecipitation and metasomatism at crystal or greater scales. The metamorphic history of these samples was further investigated using P-T pseudosections constructed via THERMOCALC. The mineral assemblages predicted are in good agreement with the observed mineralogy of the samples and estimates of P-T conditions at the time of garnet core growth were made using compositional isopleths based on microprobe analyses of garnet core composition. The samples do not show a clear relationship between the P-T data and the FIA data, suggesting that the preservation of different FIAs is not simply a function of P-T conditions. In samples where initial garnet appears to have occurred at temperature and/or pressure conditions higher than the minimum P-T conditions predicted for garnet stability, deformation probably played an essential role in garnet nucleation and growth. These “overstepped” samples indicate a progressive increase in pressure through the different phases of orogenesis. This study reveals that garnet porphyroblasts in southern Vermont and northwestern Massachusetts grew during a complex history of deformation involving the production of multiple sub-horizontal and sub-vertical foliations with garnet growth primarily controlled by deformation partitioning, resulting in a heterogeneous spatial distribution through time. FIAs allow the relative age of different phases of garnet growth to be established and provide a framework for interpreting the relationship between deformation and metamorphism. Compositional zoning anomalies reflect the episodic nature of garnet growth and P-T modelling suggests that deformation took place under conditions of increasing pressure.

Item ID:	1377
Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	orientations, garnet porphyroblasts, Vermont, Massachusetts, inclusion trails, deformation, metamorphism, textural discontinuities, rotational model, foliation inflection/intersection axes, FIAs, Hoosac Formation, temperature, pressure, orogenesis, microstructure
Date Deposited:	21 Jan 2008
FoR Codes:	04 EARTH SCIENCES > 0403 Geology > 040306 Mineralogy and Crystallography @ 0% 04 EARTH SCIENCES > 0403 Geology > 040312 Structural Geology @ 0%
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