Sericitization of Tourmaline in a Pegmatite: a HRTEM Study

페그마타이트에서 산출하는 전기석의 운모화작용: 고분해능 투과전자현미경(HRTEM) 연구

Partially sericitized tourmaline from a pegmatite, Black Hills, South Dakota, U.S.A., was investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Muscovite occurs as the only alteration product of tourmaline, and it is developed extensively as narrow veinlets along the {110} and {100} cleavage directions of tourmaline, indicating that a cleavage-controlled alteration mechanism was dominant. Muscovite was characterized mainly as two-layer polytypes with minor stacking disorder, but tourmaline is almost free of structural defects. HRTEM images of tourmaline-muscovite interfaces revealed that the interfaces between two minerals are composed of well-defined {110} and {100} boundaries of tourmaline. The (001) of muscovite is in general parallel to the c-axis of tourmaline, but tourmaline and replacing muscovite do not show specific crystallographic orientation relationship; muscovite consists of numerous 100-1000$\AA$ thick subparallel packets, and the angles between the (001) of muscovite and (110) of tourmaline is highly variable. Al/Si ratios of both minerals suggest that tourmaline to muscovite alteration by late magnetic fluids has been facilitated by their similar Al/Si ratio in the incipient alteration stage, in that the hydration reaction with preservation of Al and Si would require only addition of K+ and H2O. Aluminous minerals other than muscovite were not characterized as the alteration products of tourmaline, indicating that tourmaline reacted directly to muscovite; the tourmaline alteration apparently occurred by the presence of residual fluids in which K+ is available and silica was not undersaturated.