Experimental early crystallization of K-feldspar in granitic systems. Implications on the origin of magmatic fabrics in granitic rocks

One of the most outstanding characteristics of some granodioritic to granitic rocks is the presence of K-feldspar megacrysts. For instance, granodiorites and monzogranites of the Spanish Central System batholith present variable amounts of large (up to 10cm in length) euhedral K-feldspar crystals. The porphyritic textures, the euhedral shape, the alignment of plagioclase and biotite inclusions and the magmatic fabrics point to a magmatic origin for these megacrysts. This work presents a phase equilibria study in a high-K2O granodioritic system. A series of experiments were conducted with a granodioritic composition (GEMbiot) to study the crystallization sequence at the emplacement conditions in the Gredos massif, i.e. 4 H2O wt.% and 0.4GPa. Experimental results show that orthopiroxene is the liquidus phase at 1010 degrees C, which reacts with the H2O-rich melt to stabilize biotite between 980 and 940 degrees C. Plagioclase crystallizes at around 910 degrees C, and K-feldspar crystallizes in the matrix between 750 and 700 degrees C when the crystal fraction is around 0.5. However, at 850 degrees C, a pelite-doped experiment shows euhedral K-feldspar (approximate to 5vol%) in both the reactive xenolith domain together with cordierite and the granodioritic domain, where the K2O wt.% rose from 4.5 in the normal experiment to 5.9 in the doped experiment. These results suggest that the bulk-assimilation process promotes the bulk and heterogeneous K2O enrichment in a huge granodioritic magma volume, which triggers an early crystallization of K-feldspar megacrysts. Because of this early crystallization of the megacrysts, the magmatic foliations defined by K-feldspar megacrysts are formed during and after the emplacement processes and are highly influenced by tectonic kinematics.