Estimated Age and Metamorphic Parameters of High-Pressure Blastolites in the Gonzhinskii Block, Argun Superterrane, Eastern Part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt

Abstract

Petrographic and thermobarometric data obtained on a blastolite lens hosted in sheared rocks of the Gonzhinskii block indicate that the lens contains four mineral assemblages: relict, main, an assemblage corresponding to biotitization, and that of retrograde alterations. The relict assemblage was likely eclogitic. The main mineral assemblage corresponds to zoisite amphibolite developing after eclogite. The P−T metamorphic parameters of this assemblage are P = 13.0−15.0 kbar and T = 580−670°C. However, if the calculations are done using the iron richest outer rim of amphibole 1, the P−T parameters are P = 13.0−17.0 kbar and T = 660−780°C. The mineral assemblage corresponding to the overprinted biotitization is clearly distinct texturally. The lines of the monomineral equilibria of the biotite assemblage plotted using various combinations of the composition of the garnet, biotite, and plagioclase well converge within a compact field of P = 12.5−13.2 kbar and T = 810−830°C. The latest assemblage of retrograde minerals includes low-Al amphibole 2. Our original Sm−Nd isotope date were used to calculate an isochron for a whole-rock sample, garnet, and two amphiboles. The isochron age of the rock is 171 ± 3 Ma and is interpreted as the age of the main mineral assemblage, i.e., its crystallization at the metamorphic peak.