Megacrysts of kyanite from Baranec Mt., Western Tatra Mountains, Slovakia

Large crystals of kyanite (<15 cm in size) occur in quartz segregations in Paleozoic gneissses on Baranec Mt., Western Tatra Mountains, northern Slovakia. Blue kyanite crystals coexist with quartz and plagioclase. The kyanite contains inclusions of apatite, monazite. gamet, rutile and biotite and overgrowths of retrograde sillimanite. muscovite and biotite. The kyanite crystals are the largest found up to now in the Tatra crystalline massif or in the other Western Carpathians crystalline cores. Kyanite. with the co-existing mineral assemblage, is indicative of a HP stage duiing Hercynian metamorphism of the Western Tatra Mountains.