Experimental calibration of Forsterite Anorthite–Ca-Tschermak–Enstatite (FACE) geobarometer for mantle peridotites.

The crystallization of plagioclase-bearing assemblages in mantle rocks is witness of mantle exhumation at shallow depth. Previous experimental works on peridotites have found systematic compositional variations in coexisting minerals at decreasing pressure within the plagioclase stability field. In this experimental study we present new constraints on the stability of plagioclase as a function of different Na2O/CaO bulk ratios, and we present a new geobarometer for mantle rocks. Experiments have been performed in a single-stage piston cylinder at 5–10 kbar, 1050–1150 °C at nominally anhydrous conditions using seeded gels of peridotite compositions (Na2O/CaO = 0.08–0.13; XCr = Cr/(Cr + Al) = 0.07–0.10) as starting materials. As expected, the increase of the bulk Na2O/CaO ratio extends the plagioclase stability to higher pressure; in the studied high-Na fertile lherzolite (HNa-FLZ), the plagioclase-spinel transition occurs at 1100 °C between 9 and 10 kbar; in a fertile lherzolite (FLZ) with Na2O/CaO = 0.08, it occurs between 8 and 9 kbar at 1100 °C. This study provides, together with previous experimental results, a consistent database, covering a wide range of P–T conditions (3–9 kbar, 1000–1150 °C) and variable bulk compositions to be used to define and calibrate a geobarometer for plagioclase-bearing mantle rocks. The pressure sensitive equilibrium:(Formula presented.)has been empirically calibrated by least squares regression analysis of experimental data combined with Monte Carlo simulation. The result of the fit gives the following equation:(Formula presented.)where P is expressed in kbar and T in kelvin. K is the equilibrium constant K = aCaTs × aen/aan × afo, where aCaTs, aen, aan and afo are the activities of Ca-Tschermak in clinopyroxene, enstatite in orthopyroxene, anorthite in plagioclase and forsterite in olivine. The proposed geobarometer for plagioclase peridotites, coupled to detailed microstructural and mineral chemistry investigations, represents a valuable tool to track the exhumation of the lithospheric mantle at extensional environments.