Motukoreaite: a Common Alteration Product in Submarine Basalts
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
American Mineralogist, Volume 74, pages 1054-1058, 1989 Motukoreaite: A commonalteration product in submarinebasalts Is,tnnl- ZaNrlnnnNo, Fnr-rcrlNo PLANA, ANroNro Ylrzeunz Instituto de InvestigacionesGeologicas "Jaime Almera" (CSIC), Marti i Franqu6ssn. 08028 Barcelona,Spain D.tvro A. Cr-,q.cuB U.S. Geological Survey, Mail Stop 999,345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, U.S.A. Ansrnlcr Motukoreaite occursin fractures and amygdulesin hyaloclastitedredged from the west- ern Mediterranean. Motukoreaite apparently forms as a low-temperature alteration prod- uct during seawater-basalticglass interaction. We report microprobe chemical analyses and the complete X-ray powder-diffraction pattern of motukoreaite to enable unambigu- ous identification in future work on submarine alteration of basaltic glasses.Comparison of our X-ray data and analysis of motukoreaite and "unknown minerals" published by severalauthors suggeststhat motukoreaite is a common basaltic alteration mineral having a widespreadoccuffence. InrnonucrroN closeproximity to the palagonitematrix. Motukoreaite is Altered basaltic sampleshave been recoveredfrom nu- the earliest mineral to form during submarine alteration precipitation merous submarine volcanic areasaround the world. An of these basalts.The complete sequenceis phillipsite, aluminum-magnesium hydrosulfatemineral has been de- motukoreaite, and calcite. The contacts be- tectedin some of these samples(Alexandersson, 1972; tween these three mineral phasesare sharp and lack any Rad, 1974; Bernoulliet al., 1978).A sulfatemineral iden- gradational zone. Some "floating" motukoreaite crystals tified as pickeringite has been reported by Robinson and suggesta time lag between their crystallization and the phillipsite petro- Flower (1977).In only a few caseshave similar minerals formation of and calcite. There is no been identified as motukoreaite(Rius and Plana, 1986; graphic evidenceof alteration of the secondaryminerals. Rodgerset al., 1977;' Brindley, 1979;Alker et al., l98l; X-ray analysis Ramanaidouand Noack, 1987).This work providesnew microprobe chemical analysesand the complete X-ray The motukoreaite usedfor X-ray analysiswas obtained powder-diffraction pattern of motukoreaite and empha- by hand-picking microcrystalline radiating fibers from a sizesthat it appearsto be a common alteration product thick rim and macrocrystalsfilling large amygdalesin the of submarine basalt. basaltic hyaloclastite from the Emile Baudot Bank. The X-ray spectrum was collected using a sIEMENSp-soo dif- Rrsur,rs AND DrscussroN Occurrenceand morphology In the summer of 1980, severalolivine basalt hyalo- clastite sampleswere dredged from Emile Baudot Bank in the westernMediterranean Sea (Zamarreflo et al., 1985). Emile Baudot Bank is a Miocene seamount located be- tween CabreraCanyon and the steep,fault-defined Emile Baudot Escarpment(Fig. l). This bank has been associ- ated with the Miocene extensionaldisplacement that pro- duced both the dislocation of the Balearic margin into separateblocks and the present physiography and sub- bottom configurationof this margin (Mauffret, 1979). Motukoreaite occurs as radiating, fibrous, crystalline rims (60 pm thick) coating veinlets or as larger platelike hexagonalcrystals (150 x 15 pm) filling amygdales(Fig. 2). The macrocrystalline variety is also typical of open- Fig. l. Bathymetric chart of Emile Baudot Bank. The star cavity growth, and the crystal size increasestoward the symbol marks the location of the dredgesample containing mo- center of the void. Motukoreaite is a very soft and col- tukoreaite.The bank is characterizedby steepslopes with a com- orlessmineral with high negative relief. It is uniaxial (+) plex surficial micromorphology and is devoid of sedimentary and hasbirefringence of about 0.012.It is paleyellow, in deposits. 0003-o04x/89/0910-1 054$02.00 1054 ZATT,TENNNfrIOET AL.: MOTUKOREAITEALTERATION IN SUBMARINEBASALTS l 055 ) <-' -r4- i'i I N )r- Fig. 2. (a) Sketch of a vesicle filled by motukoreaite generalizedfrom a scanning electron micrograph. The crystallization sequenceis thin fibrous fringe (1), followed by macrocrystallineradiating bundles (2), and macrocrystallinebooklike packagesfilling the remainder of vesicle space(3). (b) Enlargedview framed in (a) showing well-developedhexagonal motukoreaite crystalstypical of open-cavity growth. I056 ZAMARREfrTOET AL.: MOTUKOREAITEALTERATION IN SUBMARINEBASALTS TABLE1. Comoarisonof thecell dimensions of motukoreaite Reference a: b This work 9.172(21A: 3 x 3.057A 33.51(1)A:3 x 11.170A Rodgerset al (1977) 9.336A:3 x 3.112A 44.72A:4x 11.18A Rad (1974) 9.36A:3 x 3.12A 34.0A:3x 11.33A Brindley(1979) 3.062A: 1 x 3.062A 33.51A:3 x 11.170A Alkeret al.(1981) 11.2164:1x 11.216A Ramanaidouand Noack(1987) 3.065A: 1 x 3.065A 33.47A:3x 11.157A lractometerwith CuKa, : 1.5405A radiation, graphite as an internal standard. The pattern quality was im- monochromator, and scintillation counter. The X-ray proved by very gently grinding the sample. The diffrac- powder pattern obtained was scannedfrom 4' to 70 20 togram was indexed using an hexagonalcell according to with 40 kV and 20 mA at l0 s per 0.05'steps,with quartz the structuraldata ofRius and Plana (1986). TABLE2. X-ray powder-diffractondata for motukoreaiteindexed according to the hexagonalspace group R3m Ramanaidou Alker et al. and This work Rodgerset al. (1977) Brindley(1979) (1981) Rad (1974) Noack(1987) d.* (A) d"","(A) (hkt) ilh d*" (A) t (hkt) d* (A) /o* ?kt) 4* (A) t d*(A) / d"JA) / 11 .15 11.170 003 87 11.32 vvs 0004 11.26 10 003 11.22 100 11.5 100 11.10 8.48 tz 7.57 15 7.61 vw 1.012 7.61 0.5 /.5Y 6.41 5 o.J4 vw 1.0.1.4 5.58 5.585 006 59 5.58 s 0.008 5.59 4 006 5 609 45 J.CO OC 5.57 mw s.22 5.230 111 9 5.01 5.049 112 7 4.57 4.544 021 I 4.59 m 1.0.i.8 4.58 3 4.59 ms 4.24 4.244 107 2 4.24 w 1.0.1.9 4.22 1? 3.88 3.842 116 10 3.85 VW 3.72 3.723 009 100 3.72 vvs 0.0.0.12 3.72 7 009 3.786 80 3.77 70 3.73 s 3.51 3.467 12O 4 J.JC mw 2.0.2.6 3.40 3.395 122 4 3.40 S 3.044 031 , qqA [ 1.r 3.03 vw 2.1.2.2 2.98 s I 2.e4s 033 2.951 2.948 303 5 2 958 w 1 0.i.14 2785 2.792 0.0.12 8 2.784 w 0.0.0.16 S 2694 2.682 306 6 2.69 m ( -'-'t A?1 ' 101 z.ot , A4A J 128 1 2.650 mw 3.0.3.3 2.646 1 [ 2.615 222 m 2.571 2.576 223 9 2.578 s 3.0.3.5 2.576 4 103 2.57 2526 2.536 113 3 2.466 2.470 1 1.12 2 2.49 MS 2.444 2.434 134 1 2.391 2.392 226 8 2.386 mw 1.0.1.18 2.392 3 106 2.37 ms 2.345 2.362 309 I 2.34 vvw 2.2.4.1 2.34 ms 2.274 2.272 042 4 2.268 vw 2.2.4.5 2.272 0.3 2.28 2.235 2234 0.0.15 4 2.235 vw 0.0.0.20 2.25 2.159 2.158 229 6 2.158 mw 1.0.1-.20 2j60 2 109 2.16 [ 2.11 2 065 2.061 0.3.12 4 2.029 w 0.0.0.22 ] o.oo 1.972 1.970 143 3 1.983 w 1.98 1.922 1.921 2.2.12 I 1.921 ms 1.924 2.5 1.0.12 1.93 mw 1.859 1.861 0.0.18 4 1.870 vvw 1.88 1.767 1.765 330 2 1.763 vvw 1.725 1.731 241 3 1.74 1.709 1.707 2.2.15 5 1.709 m 1.710 t r.o.rs 1.72 1 597 1.596 0.0.21 1 VVVW 1.s28 060 4 1.528 m - 1.529 1 110 1.52 ms t'czz | f l.szz 2.2.18 1.515 1.51 5 603 1 1.513 m - 1.516 1 113 1.475 1.474 066 1 1.477 m - 1.476 0.5 116 I r.soz 2.2.21 2 1 367 vw roo/ l.^^^ I r.Jo\r r.c.ro Nofe.'vvs:veryverystrong,s:strong,ms:mediumstrong,m:medium,mw:mediumweak,w:weak,vw:veryweak,vvw:veryvery weak, vvvw : very very very weak. ZAMARREfrIOET AL.: MOTUKOREAITEALTERATION IN SUBMARINEBASALTS I057 Trer-e3. Severalanalyses of thechemical composition of motukoreaitein percentages Na.O 85 0.71 1.10 1.83 3.41 J.50 Mgo 28 30 22.98 31.43 27.2 26.46 24.26 26.34 27.7 27.8 Alro3 19 17.87 21.33 18.63 16.64 17.5 17.5 36 23.13 23.2 't8.2 So. 14 15 1000 13.33 10.5 11.51 11.18 9.17 18.0 sio, J.5J 0.77 3.0 3.68 0.0 0.0 Fe,03 0.73 2.14 FeO 2.88 0.11 0.15 CaO 0.92 0.04 0.42 0.00 0.00 MnO 0.70 0.02 26.34 0.00 0.00 ZnO 0.56 K.o 0.10 0.01 0.13 0.00 0.00 CO, 9.32 DA 0.25 0.25 0.21 Tio, 0.01 0.01 0.00 BaO 0.28 HrO* 19.62 H.O 10.35 Residual 36.1 40.73 Note: (1) and (2) Microprobedata from Rad (1974).