Some Zoned Skarns from Granite-Marble Contacts Near Puyvalador, in the Quérigut Area, Eastern Pyrenees, and their petrogenesis

W.A. Watters
Geological Survey Office, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

Summary: Descriptions, with chemicaland mineralogical data, are given of zoned wollastonite-grossular-clinozoisite skarns found at the contact of limestone and granite at Puyvalador, near Quérigut, France. It is shown that the silica and alumina necessary for the formation of the skarn were supplied by the adjacent granite, which in return received lime from the marble replaced by the skarn zones. The modified facies of the granite in contact with the skarn is also described; it shows evidence of migration of silica towards the contact and of accumulation of lime derived from the neighbouring marble.

Similar, but not identical, changes are found at other localities along the Quérigut granite contact with limestone. The features of the Puyvalador granite-limestone contacts are compared and contrasted with those described from some other regions. The contact rocks dealt with here are characterized by the presence of abundant clinozoisite, indicative of relatively low temperatures and abundance of water at the contact in the later stages of evolution of the granite.

Mineralogical Magazine; March 1958 v. 31; no. 240; p. 703-725; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1958.031.240.01
© 1958, The Mineralogical Society
Mineralogical Society (www.minersoc.org)