Formation of garnet-clinopyroxene coronas at orthopyroxene–plagioclase contacts during high-pressure granulite facies metamorphism, Gföhl unit, Moldanubian zone

Corona microstructures comprised of garnet (grt) and clinopyroxene (cpx) were observed at the contacts between plagioclase (pl) and Fe-rich orthopyroxene (opx) in meta-gabbroic rocks in a several 100 m sized (ultra-)mafic lens embedded in felsic granulite of the Gföhl unit (Moldanubian zone, Lower Austria).

The corona microstructures are formed around monomineralic aggregates of opx and they are comprised of two layers, an inner about 100 μm thick
layer of polycrystalline cpx and an outer, about 800 μm thick layer of polycrystalline garnet. The corona structures are surrounded by the pl-rich rock matrix. The cpx layer shows a weak but systematic chemical zoning characterized by increasing Mg and decreasing Na and Al contents from the contact with grt towards the contact with opx. The grt layer shows a pronounced and complex chemical zoning. There is a consistent trend of decreasing Mg and increasing Ca contents from the contact with the cpx layer, where the composition is Alm₂₂ Prp₆₇ Grs₁₁ towards the contact with the rock matrix, where we observe Alm₂₅ Prp₄₈ Grs₂₈. This pattern is interpreted as a primary growth zoning. Superimposed on the growth zoning there is a secondary zoning, which is evident from a decrease of the Ca content and a concomitant increase of the Mg content from the interior of the individual grains
of the grt polycrystal forming the grt layer towards the grt grain boundaries. The secondary zoning is most pronounced in the outermost portions of the garnet layer, where the primary growth zoning shows the highest Ca and the lowest Mg contents. Locally the garnet grains contain abundant primary melt inclusions. In most segments of the corona, secondary opx and pl form layers along the contact between the primary cpx and grt layer, where the opx partially replaces the cpx layer and the pl partially replaces grt. The secondary opx has higher Mg and lower Na, Al, and Ca contents than the opx
in the core of the corona structure. The secondary pl has the same composition as the matrix pl. At its outer edge, the garnet layer is locally replaced by spinel bearing cpx-pl symplectites. The primary compositional zoning of the garnet layer could be reproduced in equilibrium assemblage diagrams (pseudosections). Calculated equilibrium phase relations indicate that the grt-cpx corona formed at the contacts between opx and pl at supersolidus HP − HT conditions of P > 1.8 GPa and T > 900 °C and low H₂O content. Growth of coronal grt and cpx requires the diffusive transport of Fe and Mg from the opx to the pl and concomitant transport of Ca and Al in the opposite direction. The secondary zoning of garnet, the back reaction forming secondary opx and pl at the contact between the primary grt and cpx layer and the spinel bearing pl-cpx symplectites locally replacing garnet at the outer edge of the grt layer are related to different decompression stages. Preservation of the secondary garnet zoning indicates relatively rapid cooling during late
stages of or immediately after decompression.