Mineral magnetic properties of granodiorite, metagabbro and microgabbro of Petermann Island, West Antarctica

The research focuses on studying the magnetic properties and mineralogy of iron-bearing minerals of granodiorite, metagabbro, and microgabbro of Petermann Island, West Antarctica. The predominant iron-bearing minerals of the rocks are ilmenite, magnetite, and iron sulphides. Magnetite in metagabbro and microgabbro is pointed out to be present as two morphological types with different grain size and morphology. The rocks owe their magnetic properties to the presence of different amounts of magnetite with the Curie temperatures of 570–575°C for granodiorite, 555–560°C for metagabbro and 560–565°C for microgabbro. Magnetite in the rocks is stable under heating to 650°C. A slight decrease in magnetisation at 350–400°C is attributed to the conversion of maghemite or maghemite-like phase into hematite. Variation of the magnetite content within each sample has a strong expression in the saturation magnetisation. The latter increases in sequence: granodiorite (0.8–1.3 Am2/kg), microgabbro (1.8–3 Am2/kg) and metagabbro (3.1–3.5 Am2/kg). The saturation magnetisation of rocks increases with the increasing content of iron. However, the inverse relation is observed for metagabbro and microgabbro due to the replacement of titanite for magnetite in the latter. The magnetic fraction of microgabbro reveals the wasp-waisted hysteresis loop suggesting bimodal size distribution. According to X-Ray Diffraction, the characteristic peaks (d-spacing) of pure magnetite are identified for magnetic fraction of granodiorite and metagabbro, while magnetite of microgabbro form stable intergrowth with titanite and chlorite