Andradite and andradite-grossular solid solutions in very low-grade regionally metamorphosed rocks in Southern New Zealand

Almost pure andradite and intermediate members of the andradite-grossular series (gros_40-49, and _47-54, py_0-3, alm_0-3, spess_0-2, hydrogarnet_0-3), often framboidal in habit, are widespread in metabasites including lavas, minor intrusions, and volcanic sandstones and breccias metamorphosed under prehnite-pumpellyite and pumpellyite-actinolite facies conditions, possibly extending into the zeolite facies. Coexisting phases include iron-rich epidotes (100 Fe*/Fe*+Al=22-34), pumpellyite, prehnite, actinolite, and chlorite, electron microprobe analyses of which are given, as well as quartz, albite, and calcite. Zoisite (100 Fe*/Fe*+Al=1-5) and iron-poor epidote (100 Fe*/Fe*+Al=11-18) occur in 2 rocks in pseudomorphs after plagioclase together with more iron-rich epidote, but not in close association with the garnets. Coexisting pumpellyite is iron-rich (FeO* 9-14%) in the prehnite-pumpellyite facies and iron-poor (FeO* 5%) in the pumpellyiteactinolite facies. Chlorites and actinolites vary widely and sympathetically in FeO/MgO+FeO ratio. Andradite is also described from a stilpnomelane-actinolite-hematite-bearing andradite quartzite of the pumpellyite-actinolite facies. Conditions of formation involved temperatures of 300 to 400 ° or less, at pressures up to a few kilobars. A wide range of oxygen fugacities is possible, but $$\mu _{CO_2 } $$ in the fluid phase was low. Grandite and chlorite are incompatible in the pumpellyite-actinolite and greenschist facies in the presence of quartz but the 2 minerals occur together in some pumpellyite-actinolite facies assemblages as a result of incomplete reaction and/or local deficiency in silica. In the greenschist facies the association is replaced by epidote-actinolite±hematite and sodic amphibole. Whereas at medium to high grades of metamorphism andradite and grandite are characteristic of skarns irrespective of $$\mu _{CO_2 } $$ , at very low grades they are found in mafic volcanic rocks and volcanogenic sediments as well as in certain cherty rocks of unusual composition, rodingites, and serpentinites, where $$\mu _{CO_2 } $$ was very low.