Migmatites and their origin

Migmatite: A composite silicate metamorphic rock, pervasively heterogeneous on a

meso- to megascopic scale.
It typically consists of darker and lighter parts.
The darker parts usually exhibit features of metamorphic rocks whereas the lighter parts
are of igneous-looking appearance.
Wherever minerals other than silicates and quartz are substantially involved, it should
be explicitly mentioned.

Anatexis: Melting of a rock. The term is used irrespective of the proportion of melt
formed, which may be indicated by adjectives such as initial, advanced, partial,
differential, selective, complete, etc.

Migmatisation: Process of formation of a migmatite.

Leucosome: The lightest-coloured parts of a migmatite.

Mesosome: Rock portion of a migmatite,that is intermediate in colour between

leucosome and melanosome. If present, the mesosome is mostly a more or less
unmodified remnant of the parent rock (protolith) of the migmatite.

Melanosome: The darkest parts of a migmatite, usually with prevailing dark minerals. It
occurs between two leucosomes or, if remnants of the more or less unmodified parent
rock (mesosome) are still present, it is arranged in rims around these remnants.

Palaeosome: Part of a migmatite representing the parent rock (cf. mesosome).

Neosome: The newly formed parts of a migmatite (metatects and restites).

Restite: Remnant of a metamorphic rock from which a substantial amount of the more
mobile components have been extracted without being replaced.

Resister: Rock offering greater resistance to granitisation than another by virtue of its
composition or its „impenetrable‟ fabric.

Anatexite: a) Rock still showing the evidence of in situ formation by anatexis.

b) Any rock showing structural and/or compositional evidence of formation by
anatexis.

Metatexis: Initial stage of anatexis where the parent rock (palaeosome) has been partly
split into a more mobile part (metatect) and a non-mobilised (depleted) restite (cf.
palaeosome, metatect, restite).

Metatexite: A variety of migmatite with discrete leucosomes, mesosomes, and

melanosomes (cf. leucosome, mesosome, melanosome).
Migmatite
The term “migmatite” was first introduced by a Finnish petrologist Jakob
Sederholm (1907) for rocks within the Scandinavian craton in Southern Finland.
The term derived from Greek word “migma” means mixed rock. Migmatite is a rock that
is mixture of metamorphic and igneous rock

PARTS IN IN-SITU MIGMATITES

1. PALEOSOME- Unaltered or slightly modified parent rock or country rock.
2. NEOSOME - Newly formed rock portion.
It is generally of two types :
Leucosome : containing more light minerals (quartz and or felspar )
with respect to the paleosome.
Melanosome : containing mainly dark minerals, such as biotite, hornblende,
cordierite, garnet, sillimanite and others.

Migmatites appear to represent the culmination of high grade metamorphism under

anhydrous condition that characterize granulite facies.
Migmatites are best developed in metapelites but also occur in metamorphosed sandy
and arkosic sediments, mafic rocks, and granitoids.
Dark colored minerals have preferred orientation .
Fabric of the leucosomes is characteristic of a rock formed by magmatic
crystallization. The foliation characteristic of gneisses is modified so that the individual
light and dark colored layers may have a thickness of a few centimeters or a tens of
centimeters or mm

Migmatites form by high temperature regional and/or thermal metamorphism

of protolith rocks where temperatures are sufficient to cause partial melting. They are
often associated with granulites and gneisses, and often are spatially associated to
granitic intrusions. The partial melting of crustal rocks (or anatexis), which results in
migmatites, is responsible for the generation of many granite magmas.Partial melting
within migmatites leads to the formation of a banded rock by segregation of viscous
partial melts and rigid resistite due to differential stress. It is a rock found in medium to
high grade metamorphic areas that can be heterogeneous at the microscopic to
macroscopic scale and consists of two or more petrographically different parts. One
must have formed by partial melting and contain rocks that are petrogenetically related
toeach other (called the neosome) and to their protolith through partial melting or
segregation of the melt from the solid fraction. This typically contains pale coloured
rocks that are quartzo feldpathic or feldspathic in composition and dark coloured rocks
that are enriched in ferromagnesian minerals.This part may simply have changed
mineralogy, microstructure, and grain size without developing separate light and dark
parts The proportions of these may differ and only some of the light colored parts have
to be petrogenetically related to the other parts. There are parts where a partial melting
has occurred melt fraction has been removed melt fraction has collected, accumulated
or been injected no melting took place Each of these has its own wide range of
morphologies or structure mineral assemblage bulk composition and Microstructure /
texture
In the lower grade parts of anatectic terranes, paleosome is dominant in the migmatite
and old pre-partial melting structures such as bedding, compositional layering, foliation,
and folds are widely preserved in it. The neosome part is characterized by narrow
bodies of leucosome of various orientations, bordered by melanosome with its residual
mineralogy and bulk composition. The bulk behavior of these migmatites hardly differs
from solid rocks that are not partially molten, although the rocks are weaker.

Toward the higher grade parts of anatectic terranes, neosomes becomes the dominant
feature in migmatites. In these migmatites leucosome is far more abundant than
residual material which occur as schlieren of mafic minerals in the leucosome, together
with schollen or rafts of paleosome and melanosome.. Except where they are preserved
as schollen or rafts, characteristically pre-partial
melting structures are absent. The transition from one morphology to another is gradual
in some migmatite terranes while abrupt in others and commonly tectonic as it coincides
with domains of high shear strain. The paleosome dominated types are metatextites
which are formed from low degrees of partial melting While The neosome dominated
ones are considered to be the result of nearly complete fusion
and are called diatextites. Diatextites are estimated to have reached temperature
range of 750 to 900oC which are commonly a little higher than in nearby metatextites. In
some terranes there may not be any significant difference in the metamorphic
temperatures between the two. In some, due to influx of hydrous fluids melting may be
promoted that cause transition from metatextite to diatextite. The composition of some
diatextite migmatites coincide with that of the protolith. From petrological and
geochemical modeling it is indicated that diatextites can form with 16% partial melting
and commonly 30 to 60% partial melting can occur.

Three principle theories

• Migmatites are formed by injection of granitic leucosome into dark high grade
schistose rocks.
• Migmatites form by localized partial melting (anatexis). The first melts are
granitoids which compose the leucosome. The melanosome is generally
considered to be the residue or the somewhat refractory residuum from which the
melt were extracted.
• Migmatites are created by metamorphic differentiation or metasomatic growth of
the leucosome and melts are not involved.

Migmatites form by high temperature regional and/or thermal metamorphism of

protolith rocks where temperatures are sufficient to cause partial melting. They are often
associated with granulites and gneisses, and often are spatially associated to granitic
intrusions. The partial melting of crustal rocks (or anatexis), which results in migmatites,
is responsible for the generation of many granite magmas.Partial melting within
migmatites leads to the formation of a banded rock by segregation of viscous partial
melts and rigid resistite due to differential stress.