Origin and significance of tourmaline-bearing rocks in Boroujerd region, Sanandaj-Sirjan zone, western Iran

Abstract

Tourmaline minerals are a main petrogenetic tool because of their refractory nature, chemical variability, and extensive occurrence in various geological settings. The Middle-Jurassic Boroujerd igneous rocks are one of the largest bodies that located in the middle part in the Sanandaj-Sirjan Magmatic Arc (SSMA) that introduced into regional metamorphic rocks. They are mostly composed of granitoids (granodiorite, quartz-diorite, and monzogranite) and contain apatite, zircon and tourmaline as abounadant accessory minerals. Tourmalines occur in varying types of mineral assemblages, chemical compositions and individual forms including tourmalinite, quartz-tourmaline vein, as accessory mineral in the more evolved granitoids, and schists. Tourmaline crystal sizes in these rocks varies from very fine to coarse-grained. The colour is brown to black and some crystals displaying a finescale chemical zonation. Tourmaline crystals commonly exhibit cellular features. Based on electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) analyses, schorl is the most abundant type of tourmaline in granitoids but foitite and dravite are common compositions in the pegmatite and schist, respectively. Presence of several tourmaline generations and their compositional trend may indicate time-varying relatively acidic boron-bearing fluids and reflects an anatexic melts influence in their crystallization.