Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1980-81: VUWAE 25
Skarn studies in the area between the Miers Valley and the Salmon Valley (Steven Simmons)
Skarn studies in the area between the Miers Valley and the Salmon Valley (Steven Simmons).
Six weeks were spent in the field sampling and mapping granite-marble contacts. Suitable outcrops of skarn were mainly restricted to the ridge crests where the exposure was relatively free of any scree cover. The coarsely sacchroidal Salmon Marble was often difficult to sample as specimens would readily crumble when struck with a hammer.
Contact aureoles were usually several centimetres in thickness. However, some localised pods, rich in either garnet or sulphides, were some tens of centimetres wide (Plate IVB).
The field work will be followed up at Victoria University with a mineralogical study which aims to evaluate the thermal regime of skarn formation. Preliminary rock sectioning has revealed some striking contact mineralogy; in hand specimen garnet, epidote and some sulphides are identified. Detailed petrological and microprobe studies will be made on the granite-marble samples to determine the parameters (e.g. temperature, CO2 pressure) involved in the formation of skarn.
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