14 research outputs found

    Melting phase relations in the systems Mg2SiO4-H2O and MgSiO3-H2O and the formation of hydrous melts in the upper mantle

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    High-pressure and high-temperature melting experiments were conducted in the systems Mg2SiO4–H2O and MgSiO3–H2O at 6 and 13 GPa and between 1150 and 1900 °C in order to investigate the effect of H2O on melting relations of forsterite and enstatite. The liquidus curves in both binary systems were constrained and the experimental results were interpreted using a thermodynamic model based on the homogeneous melt speciation equilibrium, H2O + O2− = 2OH−, where water in the melt is present as both molecular H2O and OH− groups bonded to silicate polyhedra. The liquidus depression as a function of melt H2O concentration is predicted using a cryoscopic equation with the experimental data being reproduced by adjusting the water speciation equilibrium constant. Application of this model reveals that in hydrous MgSiO3 melts at 6 and 13 GPa and in hydrous Mg2SiO4 melts at 6 GPa, water mainly dissociates into OH− groups in the melt structure. A temperature dependent equilibrium constant is necessary to reproduce the data, however, implying that molecular H2O becomes more important in the melt with decreasing temperature. The data for hydrous forsterite melting at 13 GPa are inconclusive due to uncertainties in the anhydrous melting temperature at these conditions. When applied to results on natural peridotite melt systems at similar conditions, the same model infers the presence mainly of molecular H2O, implying a significant difference in physicochemical behaviour between simple and complex hydrous melt systems. As pressures increase along a typical adiabat towards the base of the upper mantle, both simple and complex melting results imply that a hydrous melt fraction would decrease, given a fixed mantle H2O content. Consequently, the effect of pressure on the depression of melting due to H2O could not cause an increase in the proportion, and hence seismic visibility, of melts towards the base of the upper mantle

    Thermodynamics and phase equilibria of the silicate-fluoride-H₂O systems : implications for fluorine-bearing granites

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    The progressive enrichment in volatiles and light incompatible elements observed during upper-crustal differentiation of granitic and rhyolitic magmas leads to significant changes in melt physical-chemical properties and has important implications for ore deposition and volcanic devolatization. Thermodynamic calculations and experimental studies of melting equilibria in the Na 2O-K2O-Al2O3-SiO2-F 2O-1-H2O system are used to evaluate mineral stabilities, fluid compositions, the extent of fluoride-silicate liquid-liquid immiscibility, fluorine and water solubility limits and differentiation paths of natural fluorine-bearing silicic magmas. The interaction of fluorine with rock-forming aluminosilicates corresponds to progressive fluorination by the thermodynamic component F2O-1. Formation of fluorine-bearing minerals first occurs in peralkaline and silica-undersaturated systems that buffer fluorine concentrations at very low levels (villiaumite, fluorite). The highest concentrations of fluorine are achieved in peraluminous silica-oversaturated systems, saturated with fluorite or topaz. Thermodynamic models of fluorosilicate melts indicate clustering of silicate tetrahedra in the Na2O-SiO 2-F2O-1 system, whereas initial NaAl-F short-range order evolves into partial O-F disorder in the albite-cryolite system. Experiments performed at 520-1100°C and 0.1-100 MPa completely describe liquidus relations and differentiation paths of fluorine-bearing felsic magmas. Coordination differences and short-range order effects between [NaAl]-F, Na-F vs. Si-O lead to the fluoride-silicate liquid immiscibility, which extends from the silica-cryolite binary through the peralkaline albite-silica-cryolite ternary and closes in multicomponent, topaz-bearing systems owing to the destabilizing effect of increasing peraluminosity. Liquidus relations indicate that fluoride-silicate liquid-liquid immiscibility is inaccessible to quartz-feldspar-saturated granitic mel

    Ions surprise in Earth's deep fluids

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