Tourmalines of the Velence Granite Formation and the surrounding contact slate, Velence Mountains, Hungary

Abstract

Three distinct paragenetic and compositional types of tourmaline were described from the Velence Granite and the surrounding contact slate. Rare, pitch-black, disseminated tourmaline I (intragranitic tourmaline) occurs in granite, pegmatite, and aplite; very rare, black to greenish-gray, euhedral tourmaline II (miarolitic tourmaline) occurs in miarolitic cavities of the pegmatites; abundant, black to gray, brown to yellow or even colorless, acicular tourmaline III (metasomatic tourmaline) occurs in the contact slate and its quartz-tourmaline veins. Tourmaline from a variety of environments exhibits considerable variation in composition, which is controlled by the nature of the host rock and the formation processes. However, in similar geologic situations, the composition of tourmaline can be rather uniform, even between relatively distant localities. Tourmaline I is represented by an Al-deficient, Fe3+-bearing schorl, which crystallized in a closed melt-aqueous fluid system. Tourmaline II is a schorl-elbaite mixed crystal, which precipitated from Li- and F-enriched solutions in the cavities of pegmatites. Tourmaline III shows an oscillatory zoning; its composition corresponds to schorl, dravite, and foitite species. It formed from metasomatizing fluids derived from the granite. This is the most abundant tourmaline type, which can be found in the contact slate around the granite.