Significance of hydrous silicate lamellae in pyrope-rich garnets from the Garnet Ridge in the Colorado Plateau

Pyrope-rich garnets originated from the upper mantle underneath the Colorado Plateau occur at the Garnet Ridge. These garnets contain the following lamellae of hydrous and anhydrous minerals; Rt, Ilm, crichtonites, Cr-Spl, Amp, Cpx, Chl, rarely Apt, srilankite and carmichealite. The origin of these lamellae in the garnets is controversial; exsolved origin or epitaxial growth. We emphasize here the close relations between the presence of hydrous lamellae and the OH concentrations in the host garnets. Lamella phases were identified with a standard-less quantitative EDS system and a laser Raman spectrometer with Ar⁺ laser (514.5 nm). OH concentrations in garnets were quantitated on the basis of IR absorption spectra of garnet by micro FT-IR method using IR absorption coefficient (8770 L/mol/cm², Katayama et al., 2006).

Pyrope-rich reddish brown garnet (group B by Sato et al., AGU2014F) has large variations of major chemical compositions (Prp: 49-76, Alm: 6-43, Grs: 6-26 mol%), and OH contents (2-177 ppm wt. H₂O). Among this group garnets, Ca-rich ones (Prp: 49-66; Alm: 18-28; Grs: 16-26 mol%) have lamellae of both hydrous (Amp and Chl) and anhydrous (Rt, Ilm, and Cpx) minerals. Amp and Chl lamellae are pargasitic amphibole and clinochlore, respectively, and their host garnets contain significantly low amounts of OH (2-42 ppm).

Cr and pyrope-rich garnet (group A by Sato et al., AGU2014F) has chemical compositions of Prp: 67-74, Alm: 13-18, Grs: 7-11 mol% with Cr₂O₃ up to 5.9 wt.%, and contains lamellae of anhydrous minerals (Rt, Ilm, crichtonites, and Cr-Spl). The host garnet with these anhydrous lamellae contains a little higher OH ranging 24 to 115 ppm.

Summarizing the present results, the OH contents of the host garnets depend on the presence of hydrous silicate lamella phase; OH in the garnet with hydrous silicate lamellae is lower than that in the garnet with anhydrous lamellae. The precursor OH incorporated in the host garnet structure was exsolved as hydrous silicate lamellae.