Phlogopite-Forming Reactions as Indicators of Metasomatism in the Lithospheric Mantle

Abstract

Phlogopite is widely accepted as a major mineral indicator of the modal metasomatism in the upper mantle within a very wide P–T range. The paper reviews data on various phlogopite-forming reactions in upper-mantle peridotites. The review includes both descriptions of naturally occurring reactions and results of experiments that model some of these reactions. Relations of phlogopite with other potassic phases, such as K-richterite, sanidine and K-titanates, are discussed. These data are taken as a basis for thermodynamic modeling of the phlogopite-forming reactions for specific mantle rocks in terms of log(aH2O) − log(aK2O) diagrams (pseudosections) using the Gibbs free energy minimization. These diagrams allow estimation of potassium-water activity relations during metasomatic transformations of mantle rocks, prediction sequences of mineral assemblages with respect to these parameters and comparison of metasomatic processes in the rocks of different composition. This approach is illustrated by examples from peridotite xenoliths from kimberlites.