Petrology of the nyböite-bearing eclogite in the Donghai area, Jiangsu Province, eastern China

AbstractNyböite occurs as porphyroblasts in the Jianchang eclogite in the Donghai area, northeastern Jiangsu Province, eastern China. The Jianchang eclogite contains some inclusions of quartz after coesite in clinopyroxene, garnet and epidote. It has colourless to pale-violet pleochroism. A thin rim with violet pleochroism often develops around nyb6ite and is taramitic. It is further retrogressed by the symplectite which is mainly composed of hornblende, aegirine-augite and albite. Nyböite is associated with jadeitic pyroxene in the Jianchang eclogite, although other porphyroblastic amphiboles in other Donghai eclogites are barroisitic to katophoritic and are associated with omphacite.Fe-Mg partitioning between garnet and clinopyroxene and the presence of coesite pseudomorphs indicate P-T conditions in the Jianchang eclogite of about 740 ± 60°C and more than 28 kbar. Similar P-T conditions were estimated for other porphyroblastic amphibole-bearing eclogites in the Donghai area. Nyböite can occur in the Na-Al-Fe-rich local bulk composition under the medium to high temperature and very high-pressure conditions. Retrograde rim amphibole is poorer in NaB, variable in Si content, and richer in NaA variable than the porphyroblastic amphibole in the Donghai area. This roughly implies a P-T path where P decreases without a large decrease of T.