Ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism in the magnesite + aragonite stability field: evidence from two impure marbles from the Dabie-Sulu UHPM belt.

Two magnesite-bearing impure dolomitic marbles from the Dabie–Sulu ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) region have been investigated to clarify if they had actually attained P–T conditions outside the dolomite stability field, limited by the reaction dolomite = aragonite + magnesite, and to test their potential for recording (U)HP conditions. In both cases, the silicate mineral assemblage records conditions around the terminal amphibole breakdown reaction: amphibole + aragonite ± quartz = clinopyroxene + talc, which is a good geobarometer between at least 2.0 and 2.6 GPa. At higher pressures, the terminal breakdown of talc to clinopyroxene + coesite is the last P–T milestone below 4 GPa recordable by the silicate assemblage, but evidence of former coesite is ambiguous. The dolomite dissociation curve becomes strongly divariant in Fe-bearing marbles and may thus be attainable during cold subduction near the 5 C km)1 geotherm. At least one of the samples (from Xinyan village, near Taihu, Dabie Shan) preserved relicts of both magnesite and aragonite and most likely attained conditions within the aragonite + magnesite stability field. For the second sample from Sanqingge village in the Sulu terrane, no certain evidence has been found in this study. Impure dolomitic marbles have considerable potential to preserve (ultra)high-pressure relicts. Particularly, massive impure marbles that have not been pervasively infiltrated by fluids during exhumation are considered to preserve high-pressure relicts better than metapelites, paragneisses and orthogneisses, and perhaps almost as well as eclogites or metaperidotites. The inconspicuous mineral assemblage clinopyroxene + talc or quartz (after former coesite) may in fact record UHP conditions.