Terminology(ies) of

Metamorphic Rocks
 The purpose of a name should be to identify a particular rock and to
convey useful information about it. There are four main criteria for
naming metamorphic rocks:
- The nature of the parent rock
- The metamorphic mineralogy
- The texture of the rock
- Any special name
1. The nature of the parent material
 May be very general e.g. metasediment or more specific, marble
 Such names may be used as nouns with or without additional
qualification e.g. diopside marble or as adjectives qualifying a textural
name as pelitic schist
 It is common to prefix igneous or sedimentary rock name by "meta"
to indicate the metamorphic equivalent as metabasic
2. Metamorphic mineralogy
 The name of significant metamorphic minerals is used in metamorphic rock
names e.g garnet-mica-schist, diopside-marble. There are two ways:
a) The mineral names may be given in order of abundance to denote the
modal mineralogy e.g garnet-sillimanite schist, here garnet is more abundant
than sillimanite
b) The name of significant minerals can be given which indicate special
conditions of metamorphism irrespective of their abundance e.g. sillimanite-
muscovite-schist
 The naming according to (a) is suitable for field identification, but naming
according to (b) is important for petrologists
3. The texture of the rock
 It is very important for naming metamorphic rocks
 The names used for planar fabric (foliation) depend on grain size and
the appearance of the rock
 Deformation and metamorphism of clay bearing sediments give rise
to the following sequence of rocks with characteristic fabric in order
of increasing grade of metamorphism
• Slate: a strongly cleaved rock in which the cleavage planes developed
throughout the rock due to orientation of very fine phyllosilicate
grains. The individual grains are too small to be seen by the naked
eye. The rock has a dull appearance on fresh surface
• Phyllite: similar to slate but slightly coarser than slate and the
phyllosilicate gives a silky appearance to the cleavages surface. The
cleavage surfaces are less perfectly planar than in slate
• Schist: parallel orientation of moderately coarse-grained, can be seen
with the naked eye. This fabric is known as schistosity
• Gneiss: are coarse-grained with grain size of several mms and foliated
with the compositional layering
• In practice the boundaries between the above are gradational
• Myllonite: is used for fine-grained rocks produced in zones of intense
ductile deformation where the pre-existing grains have been
deformed and recrystallized as finer grains
• Contact metamorphism in the absence of deformation give rise to
random fabric of interlocking grains which produces a tough rock
known as hornfels
4. Special names
Rare in metamorphic rocks and if used are descriptive. The mineral
associations indicated by the names carry indication for the conditions
of metamorphism. Some of common names are:
• Greenschist: green foliated metabasic owing its colors to the
presence of chlorite, epidote, and actinolite
• Blueschist: dark, foliatied metabasic rock, its color due to the
presence of sodic amphibole gluecophane
• Amphibolite: dark green rock made up of hornblende and plagioclase
Most amphibolites are metabasic (ortho-amphibolite)
Some may me metamorphosed calcareous sediments (para-
amphibolite)
• Serpentinite: green, black rock composed of serpentine formed by
hydration of igneous or metamorphic peridotites
• Migmatite: mixed rocks of schistose or gneissose portion and igneous
looking portion of quartz-feldspar material
• Granulite: equidimensional, straight sided polygonal grains of high-
grade metamorphism
Granulite facies

 Each of the assemblage listed below is typical of the granulite facies at

its maximum stage of dehydration and widely developed in many
granulite regions
 Some assemblages in individual areas is complicated by the presence
of hornblende and /or biotite whose quantity decrease with
increasing grade
Pelitic:
• Quartz + perthite + garnet + plagioclase + sillimanite
• Quartz + perthite + garnet + cordierite + sillimanite
Quartzofeldspathic (charnockite)
• Quartz + perthite + hypersthene + garnet + plagioclase
Metabasaltic (norite, basic charnockite, pyroxene granulite, and
enderbite)
• Plagioclase + hypersthene + diopside + garnet
• Plagioclase + hypersthene + diopside (+quartz)
Calcareous:
• Calcite + diopside + scapolite + sphene
• Calcite + diopside + plagioclase + quartz
• Calcite + forsterite + diopside
• Calcite + dolomite + forsterite
Individuals minerals have characteristics typical of the facies
• hypersthene has significant Al2O3 and strongly pleochroic
• Garnets are almandine with 2- 25% pyrope 15-20% grossular
• K-feldspars: perthitic and in hand specimen tends to be strongly colored
in blues and greens
• Plagioclase: is antiperthitic
• Cordierite: is wide spread in certain areas where it is accepted as an index
of low to medium pressure
• Scapolite: May accompany or substitute for plagioclase
• Rutile or ilmenite: are the characteristic Ti minerals but never sphene
• Corundum or green spinel: may be essential phases of silica deficient
rocks and spinel may even appear in quartz-bearing assemblages. A rare
phase in silica deficient rocks rich in Mg and Al is sapphirine (greenish pink)
Charnockite

• The term charnockite is generally applied in India to rocks whose

chemical composition fall within the range of plutonic rocks (acid,
basic, and ultrabasic rocks) and whose texture are similar to those of
corresponding plutonic rocks but in which the characteristic mafic
phase is hypersthene
• Generally, charnockite is applied for granitic granulite and enderbite
for intermediate to basic granulite (two pyroxene granulite)
 Characteristic assemblages of Madras charnockite (India):
• Acidic: microcline (perthite) + plagioclase (An33) + quartz + hypersthene
• Intermediate: Plagioclase (An33) + microcline + quartz + hypersthene +
(diopside)
• Basic: labradorite + hypersthene + diopside + hornblende + ilmenite
 Zonal sequences in granulite show that there is decrease in hornblende
and biotite and the increase in pyroxene and garnet or cordierite
• Or cordierite is to be correlated with increasing metamorphic grade
Significance of cordierite
 Cordierite is an important phase in granulite areas coexisting with
garnet in textural equilibrium
 Rocks of the granulite facies form an important element in the deeper
levels of continental crust
 The extreme dehydration causes regional depletion of Th, U, and Rb
and so the capacity of granulites to garnet heat is reduced
Retrograde transition of granulite to amphibolite
 Granulite and amphibolite facies rocks cover very large areas in
Precambrian Cratons
 Due to longtime since their formation anhydrous granulites areas are
subjected to episodes of deformation and hydration and new
assemblages of the amphibolite facies are formed
 The field and mineralogical transition between the two is retrograde
 There is a question whether the prograde amphibolite-granulite
transition (should) be in fact a retrograde transition in the reverse
sense
 In many areas metamorphic transition between most granulite and
amphibolite are retrograde and of polymetamorphic nature
 Detailed field relations, microscopic study and mineral chemistry can
be used to distinguish between prograde and retrograde sense of
transition between granulite and amphibolite