Petrological implications of element redistribution during metamorphism: insights from meta-granite of the South Delhi Fold Belt, Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Meta-granites of the South Delhi Fold Belt, northwestern India, contain spectacular reaction textures formed during the metamorphic replacement of primary minerals. Textural relationships imply that amphibole was replaced sequentially in two stages. Epidote + titanite + quartz symplectite formed syn-tectonically on amphibole grain boundaries/fractures, followed by post-deformational growth of euhedral garnet overprinting amphibole grains. Besides occurring as symplectite grown during deformation, titanite in this rock also developed as a post-tectonic corona around magnetite. Parent magnetite contains exsolutions of ilmenite and/or ultrafine lamellae of Ti-rich oxide (Ti-oxd). Textures involving coronal titanite suggest their formation through a magnetite + ilmenite(/Ti-oxd) + plagioclase → titanite reaction. Compositional attributes and the calculation of the gain versus loss of components during the reaction suggest that the Mn2+ for garnet (XSpss = 0.23–0.29) that grew replacing amphibole was supplied by ilmenite (Mn2+ is 0.118–0.128 apfu) as it disintegrated to form coronal titanite. The redistribution of components between the metamorphic reaction sites connects the texturally unrelated domains and suggests that these zones were in chemical equilibrium during metamorphism. We estimated the P–T conditions of metamorphism for these post-tectonic assemblages as ∼650–700 °C from pseudosection modelling and conventional thermometry. Zircon data from this study suggest that the granitic rock crystallized at 988.8 ± 8.8 Ma. We propose that the metamorphic phases replaced the primary minerals during the mid Neoproterozoic tectonic activity reported from this terrane. The syn-tectonic symplectitic assemblage formed as the temperature increased during prograde metamorphism, and the post-tectonic minerals developed at peak conditions following the cessation of deformation.