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Kyanite is a typically blue aluminosilicate mineral, found in aluminium-rich metamorphic pegmatites and sedimentary rock. It is the high pressure polymorph of andalusite and sillimanite , and the presence of kyanite in metamorphic rocks generally indicates metamorphism deep in the Earth's crust .
The minerals in a metamorphic rock and their age relations can be studied by optical microscopy or scanning electron microscopy of thin sections of the rock. Apart from the metamorphic facies of a rock, a whole terrane can be described by the abbreviations LT, MT, HT, LP, MP, HP (from low, medium or high; pressure or temperature).
Andalusite, kyanite, and sillimanite are the principal aluminium silicate minerals. [2] [3] [4] The triple point of the three polymorphs is located at a temperature of 500 °C (932 °F) and a pressure of 0.4 GPa (58,000 psi). These three minerals are commonly used as index minerals in metamorphic rocks.
An example is provided by the aluminium silicate minerals, kyanite, andalusite, and sillimanite. All three have the identical composition, Al 2 SiO 5. Kyanite is stable at surface conditions. However, at atmospheric pressure, kyanite transforms to andalusite at a temperature of about 190 °C (374 °F).
Andalusite is a common metamorphic mineral which forms under low pressure and low to high temperatures. The minerals kyanite and sillimanite are polymorphs of andalusite, each occurring under different temperature-pressure regimes and are therefore rarely found together in the same rock. Because of this the three minerals are a useful tool to ...
Because minerals change composition in response to changes in pressure and temperature, mineral compositions can be used to calculate pressure and temperature; for UHP eclogite the best geobarometers involve garnet + clinopyroxene + K-white mica and garnet + clinopyroxene + kyanite + coesite/quartz. [5]
It has the characteristic mineral assemblage of kyanite + talc, responsible for its white colour. The name was introduced in 1973 by German mineralogist and petrologist Werner Schreyer. [1] This rock is associated with the metamorphism of some pelites, evaporite sequences or altered basaltic or felsic intrusions.
Staurolite is a regional metamorphic mineral of intermediate to high grade. It occurs with almandine garnet, micas, kyanite; as well as albite, biotite, and sillimanite in gneiss and schist of regional metamorphic rocks. [7] It is the official state mineral of the U.S. state of Georgia and is also to be found in the Lepontine Alps in Switzerland.