petrography, mineral chemistry and geothermobarometry of andalusite- bearing schists north of azna (northern sanandaj-sirjan zone, iran)

introduction the area studied is located north of azna (lorestan province) in a small portion of the sanandaj – sirjan structural zone (mohajjel et al., 2003).this area is part of the zagros orogenic belt, formed by the opening and closure of neotethyan ocean. from ne to sw, it consists of three parallel tectonic regions: the orumieh-dokhtar magmatic belt, the sanandaj-sirjan structural zone and the zagros thrust-fold belt (ghasemi and talbot, 2005). the sanandaj-sirjan structural zone is a metamorphic belt composed mostly of greenschist, amphibolite and eclogite facies rocks. the development of the zonetook placeduring the opening of the tethys ocean and its subsequent closing during the cretaceous and earlytertiary convergence of the afro-arabian and eurasian plates (mohajjel and fergusson, 2000). the second stage of metamorphism and deformation of the zone, designated d2, is the most important, resulting from the opening and closure of the neotethyan ocean and the collision of the arabian plate with the southwestern part of central iran in the late cretaceous to tertiary (laramideorogenic phase) (ghasemi and talbot, 2005; aghanabati, 2004; mohajjel et al., 2003; mohajjel and fergusson, 2000; alavi, 1994). in the sanandaj-sirjanzone, which includes the azna area, cretaceous granitic intrusions into the schists were followed byfolding and faulting. the intrusions produced contact metamorphism, and have lens-shaped outlines, trendingnw-se. consequently, the azna area has a varied petrologic assemblage with polyphase metamorphism and deformation, including schists, metabasites and mylonitic granites. the phases include: 1. deformation d1, and dynamothermal metamorphism (m1),a result of the subduction of neotethysoceanic crust beneath the iranian plate in the late jurassic. 2.deformation d2, and thermal metamorphism (m2),a result of paleocene continental collision and 3. deformation d3, and dynamic metamorphism (m3). this deformation is a progressive deformation that hasproduced the current morphologyof the sanandaj-sirjan zone (shabanian borujeni, 2008). in this paper we focused on petrography and mineral chemistry and thermodynamic conditions of the metapelites. materials and methods the chemical compositions of minerals were determined by a cameca sx100 electron microprobe (emp) at universität stuttgart (germany). the instrument is equipped with five wavelength dispersive spectrometers. the beam current and acceleration voltage were 15 na and 15 kv, respectively. discussion and results the azna regional metamorphic rocks include quartz-feldspar schists, mica schists, andalusite-bearing schists and quartzites. the azna metapelites are schists, containing quartz, feldspars, andalusite, muscovite, biotite, muscovite, chlorite and garnet, in variable proportions, characterized byporphyroblastic and lepidoblastic textures. based on mineralogy, minerals of these rocks contain andalusite, garnet, feldspar, muscovite, biotite, quartz and chlorite. microprobe analyses show that the mineral compositions are as follows: white micas in the andalusite-bearing schists are muscovite, plagioclases are albite-oligoclase, garnets are almandine-spessartine with weak chemical zoning and biotites are siderophylite-annite. based on geothermobarometry, these rocks formed in the hornblende-hornfels facies and the low pressure part of the amphibolite facies,with temperatures about 562-692 °c and pressures1.07-4.12 kbar. after the regional metamorphism of these rocks,granitoidintrusions causedthermal metamorphism of these rocks and the formation of andalusite-bearing schists. acknowledgments the authors wish to thank the office of graduate studies of the university of isfahan for their support. we also thank prof. hans-joachimmassonne, who played major roles during the microprobe analysis of minerals at the institutfürmineralogie und kristallchemie, universität stuttgart (germany). references aghanabati, a., 2004. geology of iran. geological survay of iran, tehran, iran, 586 pp (in persian). alavi, m., 1994. tectonics of the zagros orogenic belt of iran: new data and interpretations. tectonophysics, 22(1): 211–238. ghasemi, a. and talbot, c.j., 2005. a new tectonic scenario for the sanandaj-sirjan zone (iran). journal of asian earth scines, 5(1):1-11. mohajjel, m. and fergusson, c.l., 2000. dextral transpression in late cretaceous contatinetal collision, sanandaj-sirjan zone (western iran). journal of structural geology, 22(1): 1125-1139. mohajjel, m., fergusson, c.l. and sahandi, m.r., 2003. cretaceous-tertiary contatinetal collision, sanandaj- sirjan zone, western iran. journal of asian earth sciences, 21(1): 397-412. shabanian borujeni, n., 2008. petrology and tectonic setting of the azna granitoid masses (sanandaj-sirjan zone, iran). ph.d. thesis, university of isfahan, iran, 192 pp.