Oriented quartz + calcic amphibole inclusions in omphacite from the Saualpe and Pohorje Mountain eclogites, Eastern Alps—An assessment of possible formation mechanisms based on IR- and mineral chemical data and water storage in Eastern Alpine eclogites

The composition of mineral phases and their modal proportions have been determined for three representative Eoalpine eclogites from the Saualpe type locality/Eastern Austria (sample SKP31) and the Pohorje Massif/Slovenia (CM31/03 and CM15/01) using electron microprobe, laser ICP-MS, IR spectroscopy and modal analysis to evaluate possible mechanisms for the formation of composite oriented calcic amphibole + quartz inclusions (COIs) in omphacite and to assess the relative importance of hydrous and nominally anhydrous phases as H2O carriers in these eclogites. For omphacites in CM31/03 with a zonal distribution of COIs, a comparison of water and trace element concentrations of areas containing COIs and those free of COIs and a comparison with the trace element concentration of calcic amphibole indicate that COIs have formed through an open-system alteration of clinopyroxene and not through a closed system exsolution process. In sample SKP31, both textural and mineral chemical evidence suggests that COIs did not form by exsolution involving a Ca-Eskola component in clinopyroxene but formed by progressive growth under eclogite-facies P-T conditions and prior to the onset of retrogressive symplectite formation analogous to the formation of poikiloblastic quartz–calcic amphibole grains in the matrix. Bulk H2O contents of the eclogites are between ca. 750 and 2150 ppm with 6–25% of the total water contributed by nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs). Because of high modal amounts of 37–65%, omphacite is the major nominally anhydrous water carrier, containing 145–580 ppm H2O with significant concentration variations on a thin section scale. Due to their very low H2O concentrations of  H2Oomphacite ≫ H2Ogarnet for CM31/03 and CM15/01 and H2Orutile ≈ H2Oomphacite ≫ H2Ogarnet in SKP31.