CEE 4303 Md Shafiul Alam,
Lecturer, CEE, IUT.
Metamorphic Rocks
- Many rocks exposed at the earth’s surface today show evidence that they have
undergone changes since they were first deposited as sedimentary rocks or weer
crystallized as igneous rocks. The changes may occur due to heat, pressure and
reaction. The rocks thus formed are metamorphic rocks.
- • “Meta” = change (Greek) &“Morph” = form (Greek). A rock that has been changed
from its original form by heat, pressure, and fluid activity into a new rock.
• Metamorphism can change the mineralogy, texture and/or the chemical
composition of a “parent rock” while maintaining its solid form
Metamorphism:
- Some sedimentary and igneous rocks have been changed while in solid state in
response to pronounced changes in their environment. These changes may bring
about modifications within the rocks themselves through the process called
Metamorphism. Metamorphism occurs within the earth crust, below the zone of
weathering and cementation and outside the zone of remelting. In this environment,
rocks undergo chemical and structural changes to adjust to conditions different from
those under which they originally formed.
- Agents of Metamorphism:
Metamorphism is limited to changes that take place in the texture or
composition of solid rocks. The agents are heat, pressure and chemically active
fluid.
o Heat:
May be the most essential agent of metamorphism.
Metamorphism appears as if it were invariably controlled by
temperature.
Pressure along with simultaneous increase in temperature produce
changes in rock.
o Pressure:
Under the influence of pressure, changes take place to reduce the
space occupied by mineral components of rock mass.
Pressure may produce a closer atomic packing of elements in a
mineral, recrystallization of mineral or formation of new mineral.
o Chemically Active Fluid:
Hydrothermal solutions released in solidification of magma often
percolate beyond the margins of magma reservoir and react on
surrounding rocks.
Sometimes these solutions move ions and substitute others. Or they
add ions to the rock minerals to produce new minerals.
When chemical reactions within the rocks or the introduction of ions
from an external source cause one mineral to grow or change into
another of different composition, the process called Metasomatism.
Fine grained rocks are more readily changed than others because they
expose greater areas of grain surface to chemically active fluids.
Some of the chemically active fluids of metamorphism is the liquid
already present in the pores of rock. Such pore liquid may often act as
catalyst which expedites changes without undergoing changes itself.
- Types of Metamorphism:
Dynamic metamorphism
- Contact metamorphism
- Seafloor metamorphism
- Subduction zone metamorphism
- Regional metamorphism
- Burial metamorphism
We shall concern ourselves here with 2 basic ones: contact metamorphism and
Regional metamorphism.
o Contact Metamorphism:
When magma is intruded into earth crust, it alters the surrounding
rock. The alteration of rocks at or near their contact with a body of
magma is called Contact Metamorphism.
Minerals formed by this process are called Contact Metamorphic
Minerals.
The type of reaction depends on the temperature, the composition of
intruding mass and the properties of intruded rock.
At the actual surface of contact, all the elements of a rock may be
changed or replaced by other elements induced by hydrothermal
solutions escaping from magma. Further away, replacement may be
partial.
Contact metamorphism occurs in zones called Aureoles. Its width
measures to be a fraction of a centimeter to few hundred meters.
These are found in bordering plutons, sills, dikes, lacoliths etc.
During this process temperature may range from 300-800 C.
2 types of contact metamorphic minerals are recognized:
• Those produced by heating up the intruded rock
• Those produced by hydrothermal solutions reacting with
intruded rock.
Many new minerals are formed during this process. When an impure
limestone is subjected to thermal contact metamorphism, its dolomite,
clay and quartz change to form different minerals:
• Quartz (SiO2) + Calcite (CaCO3) Wollastonite (CaSiO3)+ CO2
• Dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) + Quartz (SiO2) Diopside
(CaMg(Si2O6))+ CO2
Regional Metamorphism:
It is developed over extensive areas often involving thousands of
square kilometers of rock thousands of meters thick.
Regional Metamorphic Minerals: During regional metamorphism, new
minerals are developed as rocks respond in increase in temperature
and pressure. These include some silicate minerals such as sillimanite,
kyanite, andalusite,staurolite, almandite, biotite, epidote and chlorite.
•
st
the 1 three are alumino slilcates with independent SiO4
tetrahedra bound together by positive ions of aluminum.
• Staurolite structured with independent SiO4 tetrahedra bound
together by positive ions of iron and aluminum.
• Garnets have independent SiO4 tetrahedra bound together by
variety of positive ions of like magnesium, calcium, chromium
and aluminum.
• Epidote is a complex silicate of calcium, aluminum, iron in which
tetrahedral are in pairs independent of each other.
• Chlorite is a sheet silicate of calcium, magnesium, aluminum and
iron.
Regional Metamorphic Zones:
• The temperature and pressure conditions that develop under
regional metamorphism may result in rocks characteristic of
different zones: high grade, middle grade and low grade.
• High grade metamorphism occurs in rocks that have been
subjected to the most intense pressure and temperature.
• Low grade metamorphic rocks have undergone the least change
and blend along their outer margins into unchanged rocks
• Middle grade metamorphism falls between these two extremes.
• Metamorphic zones are identified by certain diagnostic
metamorphic minerals called Index Minerals. Each index
minerals gives indication of conditions at the time of formation.
o For minerals composed of Al2SiO8; temperature
and pressure conditions determine whether the resulting
minerals will be Kyanite(temperature 0-800 C+ Pressure 0-10
kBar); or Andelusite (100-700 C temperature + 0-5kBar
pressure); or Sillimanite (700-1000 C
temperature+ 0-10 kBar pressure).
Regional metamorphic zones with minerals are tabulated below:
Increasing Zone Grade Mineral
Metamorphism Chlorite Low Chlorite,Quartz
Biotite Low Biotite, Muscovite
↓ Garnet Middle Garnet, muscovite
Staurolite Middle Staurolite, garnet
Kyanite Middle Kyanite, Garnet
Sillimanite High Sillimanite, orthoclase
- Texture of Metamorphic Rocks:
o 2 types:
Unfoliated:
• Aphanitic or granular texture
• Aphanitic cannot be seen without aid
• Granular can be seen.
• No cleavage.
Foliated:
• Arranged in a parallel layers of flat or elongated grains
• Main difference in formation of cleavage.
- Clevage of Metamorphic Rocks:
o There are 4 types of metamorphic rock cleavage
Slaty: cleavage occurs along planes separated by distance of
microscopic dimensions.
Phyllitic: Cleavage produce fragments thicker than those of slaty
cleavage still cannot be seen by unaided eye.
Schistose: Cleavage produces fragments clearly visible and the surface
rougher than slaty or phyllitic cleavage.
Gneissic: Surface of breaking are from a few millimeters to a centimeter
or so apart.
- Types of Metamorphic Rocks:
o Slate:
Produced from low grade metamorphism of shale or pyroclastic
igneous rocks.
Aphanitic with slaty cleavage.
Some of the clay minerals in original shale is transformed by heat into
Chlorite and mica.
Slate is composed predominantly of small colorless mica flakes and
some chlorite.
Occurs in wide variety of colors. Dark colored slate is due to presence of
iron sulphides and carbonates.
o Phyllite:
Almost same composition of slate but minerals exists in larger units.
Formed due to further metamorphism of slate.
When slate subjected to heat greater than 250 to 300 C, the chlorite
and mica minerals of which it is composed develop large flake and
hence phyllitic cleavage.
Predominant minerals in phyllite are chlorite and muscovite.
o Schist:
Of the metamorphic rocks formed by regional metamorphism, schist is
the most abundant.
All schists are dominated by clearly visible flakes of some platy mineral
like mica.
Schists tend to break between platy minerals giving its characteristic
Schistose cleavage.
Contain large quantities of quartz and feldspar as well as less amount of
augite, garnets.
o Amphibolite:
Composed mainly of horneblende and plagioclase.
There is some foliation or lineation due to alignment of horneblende
grains.
May be green, gray or black and sometimes contain such minerals as
epidote, biotite etc.
These are products of medium grade to high grade metamorphism of
ferromagnesian igneous rocks and some calcerious sediments.
o Gneiss:
Most commonly formed during high grade regional metamorphism.
Has banded appearance making it easy to recognize.
Exhibits rock cleavage but not much pronounced.
In gniss derived from igneous rocks, component minerals arranged in
parallel layers of quartz , feldspar with ferromagnesians.
In gniss derived from clayey sedimentary rocks, component minerals
arranged in parallel layers of quartz , feldspar with platy minerals like
mica.
o Marble:
Essentially composed of calcite or dolomite.
It is granular and derived during contact or regional
metamorphism. Does not exhibit rock cleavage.
It differs from original rock in having larger grains. The
crystallographic direction of calcite nearly parallel.
Purest varity of marble is snow white. But other colours occur due to
impurity.
Black marbles due to bituminous minerals, Green marbles due to
Horneblende and red marbles due to Hematite.
o Quartzite:
Metamorphism of quartz rich sandstone forms rock
Quartzite. Quartz is firmly bonded by entry of silica in pore
spaces.
It is unfoliated and distinguishable from sandstone in two ways:
• There are fewer pore spaces in quartzite.
• The rock breaks right through the sand grains that make it up
rather than around it.
• The structure cannot be recognized without microscope.
• Pure quartzite is white, but iron or other impurities give the rock
reddish colour.
