A Study of Iron-Bearing Rutiles in the Paragenesis TiO2-Al2O3-P2O5-SiO2

A. Putnis and M. M. Wilson
Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EW
Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4067

Summary: Hydrothermal ruffles from a suite of rocks at Mount Perry, Queensland, have been studied in thin section, by electron microprobe analysis, and by transmission electron microscopy. The iron-bearing rutiles, while originally singte-phase, are found to exsolve a sequence of iron-rich precipitates on experimental annealing, with hematite being formed as the stable equilibrium precipitate. Experiments at different temperatures and annealing times enable a time-temperature-transformation plot to be drawn for the exsolution process. The kinetics of this process are used to conclude that the rutiles formed below about 450 °C.

Mineralogical Magazine; June 1978 v. 42; no. 322; p. 255-263; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1978.042.322.14
© 1978, The Mineralogical Society
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