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New Finding of Silica-deficient Sapphirine-bearing Granulites from NNE of Suranganar Village, Southern Madurai Block, India

  • Research Articles
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Journal of the Geological Society of India

Abstract

An infrequent occurrence of sapphirine from metapelite rocks of the Cardamom hills of South India has been reported. This report of sapphirine may not be the first from the Southern Granulite Terrane (SGT) but is essentially from a new locality. The studied metapelites are silica-undersaturated devoid of garnet and the sapphirine symplectites. The symplectites of orthopyroxene + cordierite, orthopyroxene + K-feldspar + cordierite, orthopyroxene + sapphirine + cordierite ± K-feldspar ± biotite, orthopyroxene + biotite + cordierite + K-feldspar are discernible. The textural patterns show partial to complete pseudomorphism of the initially formed orthopyroxene and sapphirine and their succeeding decomposition to present stage. The relative XMg calculated for the key minerals show the trend as: Crd > Spr > Bt > Opx. The pseudosection modelling and the calculated P-T diagram drawn from the average bulk composition of the studied metapelite connote isothermal decompression with peak pressure and temperature conditions stable at ∼10 Kbar and ∼985 °C respectively. The assemblage reported in this study has an important bearing on the crustal evolution of the high-grade metamorphism exhumed from a deeper level of the crust.

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Acknowledgement

This work has been possible through DST (SERB) research project (P-07-704) to DP and JRF (UGC) to SKR. The authors thank anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that led to substantial improvement in the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005, India

    Swapnil Kumar Rai, Divya Prakash, Roopali Yadav, Srishti Jaiswal & Chandra Kant Singh

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, 608 002, India

    R. S. Kumar

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  1. Swapnil Kumar Rai
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  2. Divya Prakash
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  3. Roopali Yadav
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Correspondence to Swapnil Kumar Rai.

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Rai, S.K., Prakash, D., Yadav, R. et al. New Finding of Silica-deficient Sapphirine-bearing Granulites from NNE of Suranganar Village, Southern Madurai Block, India. J Geol Soc India 97, 255–260 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-021-1675-5

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