Specially designed experiments were carried out in the temperature range 950-1100 °C at 800 MPa to grow coexisting sapphirine and spinel-bearing metapelitic assemblages in the KFMASH system. Equilibrium phase assemblages contain these two phases with stoichiometric compositions. Compositional data obtained from the two coexisting phases indicate a strong dependence of the Mg-Fe distribution coefficient on temperature. An empirical thermometric expression has been formulated from the experimentally constrained relationship, lnKD = -6277/T(°K) + 6.4202, where KD = (XMg/XFe)Spr.(XFe/XMg)Spl. Application of this thermometer to natural mineral pairs indicate that earlier temperature estimates based on sapphirine-spinel need to be revised upward by 120-160 °C.

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