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SEM Petrography of Hydrothermally Altered, Metamorphic Monazite in the Quetico Sub-Province of Northeastern Minnesota

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

L. Payne
Affiliation:
Geological Sciences Department, University of Missouri - Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211
L. Ross
Affiliation:
Electron Microscopy Core, University of Missouri - Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211
R. Bauer
Affiliation:
Geological Sciences Department, University of Missouri - Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, 65211
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Abstract

Metasedimentary rocks of the Archean Quetico subprovince of the Superior province in northeastern Minnesota contain monazite that has undergone low-grade hydrothermal alteration and disseminated sulfide mineralization. The area contains multiply deformed, metasedimentary rocks with abundant granitic veins that were subjected to deep burial, deformation, and syntectonic Barrovian metamorphism ranging from kyanite-staurolite grade to sillimanite-muscovite grade. Continued deformation and concomitant granitic intrusion produced rapid decompression and a well-developed high-temperature, low-pressure thermal aureole adjacent to the granitic intrusive bodies. This second metamorphic event is characterized by mineral assemblages containing cordierite or andalusite after staurolite. Subsequent reburial of the area produced prennite/pumpellyite facies regional metamorphism that is widespread but only locally recognized.

The initial aim of this study was to determine the petrographic relationships between monazite, a light rare-earth phosphate, and the surrounding minerals as a basis for absolute age dating, by electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA), of deformation and related metamorphic events.

Type
Microscopy in the Real World: Natural Materials
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2001

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References

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