Chevkinite-group minerals in selected intrusions of the Mazury Complex, North-Eastern Poland: insights into the formation of a titanite-like phase by hydrothermal alteration

Abstract

Chevkinite-group minerals forming large and common (up to 0.03 vol%) accessory phases in monzodiorites and granodiorites from the Mesoproterozoic anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite (AMCG) suite intrusions, Mazury Complex, north-eastern Poland, range from pristine magmatic types to hydrothermally altered varieties. The unaltered phase is perrierite-(Ce), with the uncommon feature of having Al dominant in the C site. Hydrothermal alteration of the perrierite-(Ce) followed two main trends: one shows depletion in Ca, Fe, Si, Al and Mg, and increasing Ti contents; the other shows increases in Si, Ti and Ca and decreases in light rare-earth elements (LREE), Y and Mg, at about constant Fe content. The second trend resulted in the formation of a phase compositionally similar to titanite. Result of chemical analyses show that the transition from perrierite-(Ce) to the titanite-like phase is sharp; an electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) study shows the titanite- like material to be amorphous. The hydrothermal alteration of a chevkinite-group mineral to titanite has commonly been reported in natural sequences but this is the first record of the identification of a titanite-like phase made on the basis of a structural analysis.