A study of iron-bearing rutiles in the paragenesis TiO2-Al2O3-P2O5-SiO2

Abstract
Summary: Hydrothermal ruffles from a suite of rocks at Mount Perry, Queensland, have been studied in thin section, by electron microprobe analysis, and by transmission electron microscopy. The iron-bearing rutiles, while originally singte-phase, are found to exsolve a sequence of iron-rich precipitates on experimental annealing, with hematite being formed as the stable equilibrium precipitate. Experiments at different temperatures and annealing times enable a time-temperature-transformation plot to be drawn for the exsolution process. The kinetics of this process are used to conclude that the rutiles formed below about 450 °C.
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