Abstract Alkaline schorlitic tourmaline with domains of myrmekitic quartz and tourmaline intergrowths is reported for the first time from quartzo-feldspathic gneisses of the Tso Morari Crystalline Complex (TMCC), eastern Ladakh Himalaya. Except for schorlitic tourmaline, the brown-green dravitic tourmaline occurs in melanocratic layers of the gneiss. The schorlitic tourmaline contains REE-rich apatite, which is a typical mineral formed under high-pressure (HP) conditions. The observed myrmekite, marked by vermicular quartz and tourmaline intergrowths, was probably formed during decompression as a consequence of excess silica released from recrystallized tourmaline. The recalculated composition of the tourmaline with quartz myrmekite suggests that Si also occupied the tourmaline octahedral Z site during the HP regime. During decompression excess Si from this tourmaline was replaced by Mg and Fe 3+ . At an early stage of exhumation needle-shaped schorlitic tourmaline II and mosaic zoning were formed. The excess of silica and the structural disorder suggest that the Si-oversaturated tourmaline was stable at high-pressure–ultrahigh-pressure (HP–UHP) conditions. The greater stability of dravitic tourmaline compared to schorlitic tourmaline at HP conditions is evidently recorded at the TMCC. The tourmaline-bearing gneisses of the TMCC most probably shared the same metamorphic conditions during Tertiary collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, similar to that observed for the associated UHP eclogites.

Abstract The origin of tourmaline nodules, and of their peculiar textures found in peripheral parts of the Moslavačka Gora (Croatia) Cretaceous peraluminous granite are connected with the separation of a late-stage boron-rich volatile fluid phase that exsolved from the crystallizing magma. Based on field, mineralogical and textural observations, tourmaline nodules were formed during the final stage of granite evolution when undersaturated granite magma intruded to shallow crustal horizons, become saturated and exsolved a fluid phase from residual melt as buoyant bubbles, or pockets. Calculated P–T conditions at emplacement level are c. 720 °C, 70–270 MPa, and water content in the melt up to 4.2 wt%. Two distinct occurrence types of tourmalines have been distinguished: disseminated and nodular tourmalines. Disseminated tourmaline, crystallized during magmatic stage, is typical schorl while nodular tourmaline composition is shifted toward dravite. The increase of dravite in nodular tourmaline is attributed to mixing of the fluid phase from the residual melt with fluid from the wall rocks. The pressure decrease and related cooling at shallow crustal levels can be considered as a major factor controlling fluid behaviour, formation of a volatile phase, and the crystallization path in the Moslavačka Gora granite body.