COMPOSITION, MINERAL ASSEMBLAGES, AND GENESIS OF SERENDIBITE-BEARING MAGNESIAN SKARNS

Abstract

Variations in the composition and mineral assemblages of boronaluminosilciates (serendibite, grandidierite, kornerupine, and tourmaline) were studied in the abyssal and hypabyssal skarns of New York and California, United States, the Taezhnyi deposit of southern Yakutia, and deposits of the Pamirs, and compared to their occurrences around the world. The genesis of the boronaluminosilicates depends on the facies of the replaced skarns and the calcareous-skarn alteration of the primary composition of the host rocks. The substitution between Mg and Fe, as well as between Al, Si, and B, was studied in complex boronaluminosilciates and associated minerals. It was shown that f of serendibite is determined by that in the replaced skarn minerals (pyroxenes, spinel, sapphirine, and grandidierite) and is inherited in the replacing tourmaline and late silicates. Unlike serendibite, kornerupine is a typomorphic mineral of only bimetasomatic skarns of the abyssal facies. Serendibite, grandidierite, kornerupine, and tourmaline crystallized during the postmagmatic stage of the evolution of boron mineralization at skarn deposits of both the abyssal and the hypabyssal facies, at contact with magnesian carbonate sequences and desilicified aluminosilicate rocks. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc. 2006.