Parageneses of garnet in granulite-facies rocks, Lofoten-Vesteraalen, Norway

Garnet occurs widely as a secondary mineral in the granulite-facies rocks of the Lofoten-Vesteraalen islands of North Norway. The garnet-forming reactions may be inferred from the resulting textures and are interpreted as being retrograde reactions. Microprobe analyses show that garnets with high proportions of CaO and MgO occur in coronas around olivine grains in anorthosites, whereas the most iron-rich garnets formed by reaction between plagioclase and the very iron-rich pyroxenes of some monzonitic (mangeritic) rocks. Garnets ranging in composition between these extremes formed by reactions involving biotite, plagioclase and magnetite. Textural features indicate that these reactions have been induced by oxidation of the biotite; the liberated water has converted the pyroxenes to amphibole. The net effect of the reactions is to transform the granulite-facies assemblages to amphibolite-facies assemblages. The secondary garnet is nearly ubiquitous in the granulites of the outer Lofoten islands, which may show no other signs of retrogression. On Langöy in Vesteraalen garnet occurs only within a zone of strongly retrograded gneisses. Differences in bulk composition do not satisfactorily explain the distribution of secondary garnet. This distribution, and the observed oxidation textures, imply widespread penetration of the Lofoten granulites by a transient oxidizing fluid. On Langöy these fluids apparently affected only the narrow retrograded zone. The model suggests that the 1700 to 1800 m.y. Rb/Sr date obtained by Heier and Compston (1969) for the Lofoten granulites represents the time of oxidation, whereas the 2800 m.y. date for the Langöy granulites represents the original granulite-facies metamorphism.