Coexisting chloritoid and staurolite and the staurolite–chlorite isograd from the Agnew Lake area, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

SummaryChloritoid and staurolite bearing rocks from the Agnew Lake area in northern Ontario were studied petrographically and with the electron microprobe. A staurolite–chlorite isograd is postulated, above which chloritoid and staurolite coexist in equilibrium, and a Schreinemakers-type petrogenetic grid is constructed to illustrate how the isograd might fit into a paragenetic sequence.The staurolites from the area are observed to be more ‘siderophile’ than the chloritoids and this suggests that the chlorite participating in the isograd reaction is prograde. This is confirmed in the ‘real’ isograd reaction:1.559ctd+5.000and+0.009rut+0.058ilm=0.881st+0.039chl+1.366qtz+1.040H2O the coefficients of which are calculated using the mineral analyses of the ideally univariant assemblage staurolite–chloritoid–chlorite–andalusite. Variations in the activity of the unsaturated component ZnO would affect the equilibrium temperature of the reaction and the reaction coefficients.