Compositions concerning sodic amphiboles (glaucophane) in the system Na₂O-Al₂O₃-MgO-SiO₂-H₂O have been studied at P_H1O ⩽ 3 kb, 380 °C < T < 700 °C. The study attempts to establish the mineral parageneses under these physical conditions as they define the clay mineral (saponite-hectorite smectite) and greenschist (chlorite-albite) facies. The occurence of sodic amphiboles is defined by compositional parameters. Glaucophane does not appear in the present investigation.

The method of ‘reaction reversal’, i.e. using precrystallized mineral assemblages to form new ones, has been used to establish the three reactions: albite + chlorite → paragonite + saponite, paragonite + chlorite → saponite + cordierite, and saponite + paragonite → albite + cordierite. In general, the clay mineral → greenschist transformation is favoured by an increase in pressure in the system studied. The amphibole present is a sodic richterite with the type substitution Na_A + Mg_X + 2Mg + 2Mg_Y = Na_X + 2Al_Y