Infiltration-driven dehydration and anatexis in granulite facies metagabbro, Grenville Province, Ontario, Canada

Dark hornblende + garnet-rich, quartz-absent metagabbro boudins from the Seguin subdomain, Ontario Grenville Province, are transected by anastomosing light-coloured veins rich in orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, plagioclase and sometimes quartz. The veins vary in texture from fine-grained diffuse veins and patches that overprint the metagabbro, to coarse tonalitic leucosomes with sharp borders. The diffuse veins and patches are suggestive of channellized subsolidus dehydration of the metagabbro, while the tonalitic leucosomes are suggestive of local internally-derived anatexis. All vein types grade smoothly into each other, with the tonalitic leucosomes being the latest.
Relative to the host metagabbro, the veins have higher Si, Na, Ba & Sr, lower Fe, Mg, Ca & Ti, and similar Al. The coarser veins are enriched in K. Plagioclase becomes steadily enriched in Na in the transition from host metagabbro (An₄₇) to the veins (An₃₅), and in the coarsest veins it is antiperthitic. Differences in composition of the other minerals between host metagabbro and vein are minor. Pressure–temperature estimates are scattered, but indicate a minimum temperature during vein formation of 700°C at about 8 kbar.
Mass balance constraints indicate that the veins formed from the metagabbro in an open system. The transecting veins are interpreted to represent pathways of Si + Na + Ba + Sr ± K ± Al-enriched, low a _H2O fluids that metasomatized the host metagabbro to form the anhydrous veins. An initial period of localized solid-state dehydration of the metagabbro, represented by the diffuse veins, was followed by a transition to localized anatexis, represented by the tonalitic leucosomes. The change to anatexis may have been due to the addition of K to the infiltrating fluid. The source and delivery mechanism of the fluids is unknown.