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Ca-W metasomatism in high-grade matapelites: an example from scheelite mineralization in Kerala Khondalite Belt, southern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

K. P. Shabeer*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
T. Okudaira
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
M. Satish-Kumar
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
S. S. Binu-Lal
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
Y. Hayasaka
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan

Abstract

Scheelite mineralization in the granulite-facies supracrustal sequences of the Kerala Khondalite Belt, southern India is reported. The supracrustal sequences where the mineralization is found comprise granulite-grade metasediments which underwent metamorphism at ∼550 Ma. The mineralization is assumed to have formed by late-stage metasomatism that overprinted the regional metamorphism of the country rock (garnet-biotite gneiss) and occurs along a quartz vein that intrudes the regional foliation. The paragenetic data from the vein demonstrate unambiguously a separate cycle of hydrothermal activity, resulting in metasomatism and mineralization. Scheelite is found in both the altered host rock along the foliation plane and in the quartz vein. Fluid inclusions preserved in the vein suggest that the mineralizing fluids were saline-aqueous in composition, while those in the country rocks were predominantly CO2-rich. The mineral chemistry and bulk-rock chemical composition of the mineralized domain reveal the unusual enrichment of Ca in the mineralised zone with the depletion of K. We propose that fluid discharging from a crystallizing deep-seated magma, mixing with deep circulating Ca-bearing palaeo-groundwater gave rise to the deposition of scheelite. The scheelite mineralization and the quartz vein emplacement occurred after the Pan-African regional metamorphism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2003

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