Graphites: Mineralogical and Genetic Perspective

Graphite is a common accessory mineral in high-grade metamorphic rocks, but it is more prominent in khondalites (garnet-biotite-silliminite gneiss) and leptinites (garnet-biotite gneiss) and very rarely in garnet bearing and orthopyroxene bearing anhydrous granulites (charnockite). This fact is more pronounced and can be noted in rocks from the Southern Granulite Terrain, especially in Kerala Khondalite Belt. Both syngenetic and epigenetic types of graphite have been reported from this area. In the Madurai Granulite Block (MGB), the presence of khondalites and leptinites are comparatively less and the major rock type is charnockite with very rare amounts of garnet. But graphites are mineralizing in many parts of the MGB mostly within the charnockites or associated gneisses. The nature and type of this graphite has not been studied much. The book is an initiation to elucidate the graphite mineralization in the terrain with an emphasis on its genesis and mineralogical characteristics.