Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T13:17:13.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A corundum-quartz assemblage in altered volcanic rocks, Bond Range, Tasmania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

R. S. Bottrill
R. S. Bottrill*
Affiliation:
Mineral Resources Tasmania, P.O. Box 56, Rosny Park, Tasmania, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Unusual corundum-bearing rocks occur in the Bond Range, northern Tasmania, in a hydrothermally altered Cambrian quartz porphyry. The assemblage exhibits quartz and corundum in mutual contact, a rare phenomenon, in association with andalusite, pyrophyllite, diaspore and other minerals. This metastable assemblage apparently resulted from advanced argillic alteration at moderate temperature and low pressure, followed by rapid depressurisation accompanying boiling of hydrothermal, granite-derived fluids. This corundum occurrence appears to be unrelated to the sapphires in placer deposits in Tasmania.

Keywords

CorundumquartzdiasporepyrophylliteandalusiteTasmaniaadvanced argillic alteration
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , June 1998 , pp. 325 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Althaus, E., Nitsch, K.M., Karothe, E. and Winkler, H.G.F. (1970) An experimental re-examination of the upper stability limit of muscovite plus quartz. Neues Jahrb. Mineral. Mh., 1970, 325–36.Google Scholar
Astashenko, K.I. (1940) Alunite-bearing secondary quartzites in the Central Balkash region. Doklady Acad. Sci. USSR., 27, 142, 477.Google Scholar
Bottrill, R.S. (1996) Corundum and sapphire in Tasmania. Tasmanian Geological Survey, Record 1996/05.Google Scholar
Coenraads, R.R., Sutherland, F.L. and Kinny, P.D. (1990) The origin of sapphires: U-Pb dating of zircon inclusions sheds new light. Mineral. Mag., 54, 113–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbett, K.D. (1992) Stratigraphic-volcanic setting of massive sulphide deposits in the Cambrian Mount Read Volcanics, Tasmania. Econ. Geol., 87, 564–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deer, W.A., Howie, R.A. and Zussman, J. (1962) Rock Forming Minerals, Vol. 5: Nonsilicates. Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Evans, A.M. (1980) An Introduction to Ore Geology. Blackwell. Oxford.Google Scholar
Green, G.R. (1990) Palaeozoic Geology and Mineral deposits of Tasmania. In: Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia and Papua New Guinea (Hughes, F.E., ed.). 1207–23 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Melbourne).Google Scholar
Groves, D.I., Martin, E.L., Murchie, H. and Wellington, H.K. (1973) A century of tin mining at Mt Bischoff, 1871–971. Geol. Survey Tasm., Bull. 54.Google Scholar
Guo, J., O’Rielly, S.Y. and Griffin, W.L. (1996) Corundum from basaltic terrains: a mineral inclusion approach to the enigma. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 122, 368–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemley, J.J., Montoya, J.W., Marinenko, J.W. and Luce, R.W. (1980) Equilibria in the system Al2O3–SiO2– H2O and some general implications for alteration/mineralisation processes. Econ. Geol., 75, 210–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R.W. (1990 ) Corundum. Butterworth-Heinemann, London.Google Scholar
Kwak, T.A.P. (1987) W-Sn skarn deposits and related metamorphic skarns and granitoids.Developments in economic geology, 24, Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Matthews, W.L. and Bottrill, R.S. (1993) Occurrences of Gemstone Minerals in Tasmania. 7th edition. Mineral Resources Tasmania, Hobart.Google Scholar
Motoyoshi, Y., Hensen, B.J. and Matsueda, H. (1990) Metastable growth of corundum adjacent to quartz in a spinel-bearing quartzite from the Archaean Napier Complex, Antarctica. J. Metam. Geol., 8, 125–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pemberton, J. and Vicary, M.J. (1989) Geology of the Winterbrook-Moina area. 1:25,000 Mt Read Volcanics map series. Geol. Surv. Tasmania.Google Scholar
Sutherland, F.L. (1996) Alkaline rocks and gemstones, Australia: a review and synthesis. Austral. J. Earth Sci., 43, 323–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, D.M. (1976) Gemstones. In: Geology of Victoria. Geological Society of Australia, Special Publication 5, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Thureau, G. (1882) Report on the Mineral Resources and permanancy of the Lisle goldfield. House of Assembly Paper Tasmania, 46.Google Scholar
Tracey, R.J. and McLellan, E.L. (1985) A natural example of the kinetic controls of compositional and textural equilibration. In: Metamorphic Reactions: Kinetics, Textures and Deformation. (Thompson, A.B. and Rubie, D.C., eds). 118–37. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar