Ali Mohammad Ramezani; Mohsen Nasrabady; Kazem Gholizadeh; AmirMohamad Mosazai
Abstract
The cratonic basement in the Kabul district is dominated by gneiss, migmatite, schist, and amphibolite and is characterized by extensive outcrops. Orthopyroxene and garnet are ...
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The cratonic basement in the Kabul district is dominated by gneiss, migmatite, schist, and amphibolite and is characterized by extensive outcrops. Orthopyroxene and garnet are the index minerals of some of the gneisse, hence, they are considered as charnockite. Biotite, quartz and feldspar are the rock-forming minerals of the migmatites and their modal abundances vary between melanosome and leucosome. The predominant minerals of the schistic samples are garnet, kyanite, quartz, feldspar, muscovite and biotite. Amphibole (pargasite), garnet and plagioclase are the essential minerals of amphibolitic samples. Based on thermocalc software, petrogenetic grade and conventional thermobarometers the calculated average pressure and temperature for charnockitic, schistic and garnet-amphibolitic samples are 7.03 kbar and 590 ℃, 9.94 kbar and 518 ℃ and 9.24 kbar, 664 ℃ respectively. The mineralogical paragenesis and the geothermal gradient resulted from thermobarometry calculations of metamorphic basement of the Kabul block is in accordance with metamorphic gradient of collisional orogenic belts. The cratonic basement of the Kabul block is possibly representing metamorphic rocks of the deep level of Proterozoic collisional orogenic belts during the formation of Columbia and Rodinia supercontinents.
