The Zebra granitic pegmatite, San Luis, Argentina

Abstract

We describe an unusual example of rhythmically layered peraluminous granitic pegmatite locally developed in the intragranitic Potrerillos NYF pegmatites derived from the A-type host granites of the Las Chacras–Potrerillos batholith, Sierra de San Luis, Argentina. The strikingly rhythmic layers in the Zebra pegmatite consist of units of albite–K-feldspar–quartz–K-feldspar–albite, with accessory tourmaline and minor muscovite. The layers crystallized from a boron-bearing melt ponded and thermally insulated in the intermediate zone. A layer of low albite 1–2 cm thick was followed by coarser-grained K-feldspar, then well-ordered microcline, which gives way to quartz grains, also coarser-grained, in optical continuity. Zoned prismatic crystals of schorl nucleated in the feldspathic layer in random orientation. Muscovite is scarce. The rock has a granitic composition enriched in Rb, Cs, and B, and is depleted in the rare-earth elements compared to its precursor. We contend that the normative composition, 35.3% Or, 38.1% Ab, and 21.3% Q, was close to the eutectic in the granite system modified by dissolved H2O, F, and B, at a P(H2O) close to 3.5 kbar and a temperature in the range 575–600 °C. Repeated incursions from the field of Ab + Or to the field of quartz and back again as the melt was producing bubbles of H2O can account for the rhythmic crystallization and the local truncation or merging of the feldspathic layers. Occasional larger crystals of K-feldspar may have become detached from the wall or roof of the chamber.