Showing papers in "Journal of Petrology in 1995"

An Experimental Study of Water and Carbon Dioxide Solubilities in Mid-Ocean Ridge Basaltic Liquids. Part I: Calibration and Solubility Models

Abstract: Experiments were conducted to determine the solubilities of H_2O and CO_2 and the nature of their mixing behavior in basaltic liquid at pressures and temperature relevant to seqfloor eruption. Mid-ocean ridge basaltic (MORB) liquid was equilibrated at 1200°C with pure H_2O at pressures of 176–717 bar and H_2O—CO_2 vapor at pressures up to 980 bar. Concentrations and speciation of H_2O and CO_2 dissolved in the quenched glasses were measured using IR spectroscopy. Molar absorptivities for the 4500 cm^(−1) band of hydroxyl groups and the 5200 and 1630 cm^(−1) bands of molecular water are 0⋅67±0⋅03, 0⋅62±0⋅07, and 25±3 l/mol-cm, respectively. These and previously determined molar absorptivities for a range of silicate melt compositions correlate positively and linearly with the concentration of tetrahedral cations (Si+Al). The speciation of water in glass quenched from vapor-saturated basaltic melt is similar to that determined by Silver & Stolper (Journal of Petrology 30, 667–709, 1989) in albitic glass and can be fitted by their regular ternary solution model using the coefficients for albitic glasses. Concentrations of molecular water measured in the quenched basaltic glasses are proportional to fH_2O in all samples regardless of the composition of the vapor, demonstrating that the activity of molecular water in basaltic melts follows Henry's law at these pressures. A best fit to our data and existing higher-pressure water solubility data (Khitarov et al., Geochemistry 5, 479–492, 1959; Hamilton et al., Journal of Petrology 5, 21–39, 1964), assuming Henrian behavior for molecular water and that the dependence of molecular water content on total water content can be described by the regular solution model, gives estimates for the V^(o,m)_(H2O) of 12±1 cm^3/mol and for the 1-bar water solubility of 0⋅11 wt%. Concentrations of CO_2 dissolved as carbonate in the melt for pure CO_2-saturated and mixed H_2O-CO_2-saturated experiments are a simple function of f_(CO2). These results suggest Henrian behavior for the activity of carbonate in basaltic melt and do not support the widely held view that water significantly enhances the solution of carbon dioxide in basaltic melts. Using a ΔV^(o,m)_r of 23 cm^3/mol (Pan et al., Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 55, 1587–1595, 1991), the solubility of carbonate in the melt at 1 bar and 1200°C is 0⋅5 p.p.m. Our revised determination of CO_2 solubility is ∼20% higher than that reported by Stolper & Holloway (Earth and Planetary Science Letters 87, 397–408, 1988).

Geochemical Evidence for Subduction Fluxes, Mantle Melting and Fractional Crystallization Beneath the South Sandwich Island Arc

Abstract: The volcanoes of the South Sandwich island arc follow three distinct series: low-K tholeiitic (followed by Zavodovski, Candlemas, Vindication, Montagu and Bristol), tholeiitic (followed by Visokoi, Sounders and Bellinghausen) and calcalkaline (followed by Ltskov, Freezland and part of Cook and Thule). Flux calculations indicate that the percentage contribution of the subduction component to the mantle source of all three series varies from undetectable (e.g. Zr) through small (e.g. Nd=20%) and moderate (e.g. La, Ce, Sr = 50-80%) to dominant (e.g. Pb, K, Ba, Rb, Cs >90%) with little change along the arc. Isotope systematics (Pb, Nd, Sr) show that this subduction component obtains a greater contribution from altered oceanic crust than from pelagic sediment. Elements for which the subduction contribution is small show that the mantle is already depleted relative to N-MORB mantle (equivalent to loss of an ~2-5% melt fraction) before melting beneath the arc. After addition of the subduction component, dynamic melting of this depleted mantle then causes the variationsin K that distinguish the three series. The estimated degree of partial melting (~20%) is slightly greater than that beneath ocean ridges, though geothermometry suggests that the primary magma temperature (~1225°C) is similar to that of primary MORB. About half of the melting may be attributed to volatile addition, and half to decompression. Dynamic melting involving three-dimensional, two-phase flow may be needed to explain fully the inter-island variations.

The Late Cretaceous Impact of the Trindade Mantle Plume: Evidence from Large-volume, Mafic, Potassic Magmatism in SE Brazil

Abstract: S. A. GIBSON*, R. N. THOMPSON, O. H. LEONARDOS, A. P. DICKIN AND J. G. MITCHELL 'DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, SOUTH ROAD, DURHAM DHi 3LE, UK "DEPARTMENTO DE GEOQUIMICA E RECURSOS MINERAIS, INSTITUTO DE GEOCIENCIAS, UNIVERSIDADE DE BRASILIA, 70910 BRASILIA DF, BRAZIL 'DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY, McMASTER UNIVERSITY, is8o MAIN STREET WEST, HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA L8S 4M1 'DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, THE UNIVERSITY, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE NEi 7RU, UK.

An Experimental Study of Water and Carbon Dioxide Solubilities in Mid-Ocean Ridge Basaltic Liquids. Part II: Applications to Degassing

Abstract: Degassing processes in basaltic magmas rich in both water and carbon dioxide can be modeled using the solubilities of the endmember systems and the assumption of Henry's law. Suites of vapor-saturated basaltic melts having a range of initial CO_2/H_2O ratios and erupted over a narrow depth interval will define negatively sloped arrays on an H_2O vs CO_2 plot. It is important that all of the major volatile species be considered simultaneously when interpreting trends in dissolved volatile species concentrations in magmas. Based on measured concentrations of water and carbon dioxide in basaltic glasses, the composition of the vapor phase at 1200°C that could coexist with a basaltic melt and the pressure at which it would be vapor saturated can be calculated. The range in vapor compositions in equilibrium with submarine basalts reflects the range in water contents in the melts characteristic of each environment. The ranges in the molar proportion of CO_2 in vapor phases (X^ν_(CO2)) calculated to be in equilibrium with submarine tholeiitic glasses are 0⋅93–1⋅00 for mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB), 0⋅60–0⋅99 for glasses from Kilauea [representative of ocean island basalts (OIB)] and 0–0⋅94 for glasses from back-arc basins (BABB). MORB glasses from spreading centers ranging from slow (e.g. the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) to fast (e.g. East Pacific Rise, 9–13°N) are commonly supersaturated with respect to CO_2-rich vapor, resulting from magma ascent rates so rapid that magmas erupt on the sea-floor without having been fully degassed by bubble nucleation and growth during ascent. In contrast to the MORB glasses, volatile contents in submarine glasses from Kilauea are consistent with having been in equilibrium with a vapor phase containing 60–100 mol% CO_2 at the pressure of eruption, reflecting differences in average magma transport rates during eruptions at mid-ocean ridges and hotspot volcanoes. Degassing during decompression of tholeiitic basaltic magma is characterized by strong partitioning of CO_2 into the vapor phase. During open system degassing, CO_2 is rapidly removed from the melt with negligible loss of water, until a pressure is reached at which the melt is in equilibrium with nearly pure water vapor. From this pressure downward, the water content of the melt follows the water solubility curve. During closed system degassing, water and CO_2 contents in vapor-saturated basaltic magmas will depend strongly on the vapor composition as determined by the initial volatile concentrations. Deviation from open system behavior, toward lower dissolved H_2O and CO_2 saturation concentrations at a given pressure, will be greatest in melts having high total volatile concentrations and high CO_2:H_2O ratios. Closed system degassing of basaltic melts having the low initial H_2O and CO_2 contents typical of MORB and OIB, however, are similar to the open system case.

Petrology, Mineral and Isotope Geochemistry of the External Liguride Peridotites (Northern Apennines, Italy)

Abstract: Mantle peridotites of the External Liguride (EL) units (Northern Apennines) represent slices of subcontinental lithospheric mantle emplaced at the surface during early stages of rifting of the Jurassic Ligurian Piemontese basin. Petrological, ion probe and isotopic investigations have been used to unravel the nature of their mantle protolith and to constrain the timing and mechanisms of their evolution. EL peridotites are dominantly fertile spinel Iherzolites partly recrystallized in the plagioclase Iherzolite stability field. Clinopyroxenes stable in the spinelfacies assemblage have nearly flat REE patterns (Ce-s/ SmN = 0-6-0-8) at (10-16) xCl and high Na, Sr, Ti and %r contents. Kaersutitic—Ti-pargasitic amphiboles also occur in the spinelfacies assemblage. Their LREE-depleted REE spectra and very low Sr, %r and Ba contents indicate that they crystallized from hydrous fluids with low concentrations of incompatible elements. Thermometric estimates on the spinelfacies parageneses yield lithospheric equilibrium temperatures in the range 1000-1100°C, in agreement with the stability of amphibole, which implies T<1100°C. Sr and Nd isotopic compositions, determined on carefully handpicked clinopyroxene separates, plot within the depleted end of the MORB field CSr/Sr = 0 • 70222-0 • 70263; Nd/Nd = 0 -5130470 -513205) similar to many subcontinental orogenic spinel Iherzolites from the western Mediterranean area (e.g. Ivrea Z and Lanzo N). The interpretation of the EL Iherzolites as subcontinental lithospheric mantle is reinforced by the occurrence of one extremeh depleted isotopic composition (Sr/Sr-0-701736; Nd/Nd = 0-513543). Sr and Nd model ages, calculated assuming both CHUR and DM mantle sources, range between 2-4 Ga and 780 Ma. In particular, the 1-2-Ga Sr age and the 780-Ma Nd age can be regarded as minimum ages of differentiation. The transition from spinelto plagioclase-fades assemblage, accompanied by progressive deformation (from granular to tectonite—mylonite textures), indicate that the EL Iherzolites experienced a later, subsolidus decompressional evolution, starting from subcontinental lithospheric levels. Sm/Nd isochrons on plagioclase—clinopyroxene pairs furnish ages of ~165 Ma. This early Jurassic subsolidus decompressional history is consistent with uplift by means of denudation in response to passive and asymmetric lithospheric extension. This is considered to be the most suitable geodynamic mechanism to account for the exposure of huge bodies of subcontinental lithospheric mantle during early stages of opening of an oceanic basin.

Reaction Textures in a Suite of Spinel Granulites from the Eastern Ghats Belt, India: Evidence for Polymetamorphism, a Partial Petrogenetic Grid in the System KFMASH and the Roles of ZnO and Fe2O3

Abstract: Spinel granulites, with or without sapphirine, occur as lenses in garnetiferous quartzofeldspathic gneisses (leptynites) near Gokavaram in the Eastern Ghats Belt, India. Spinel granulites are mineralogically heterogeneous and six mineral associations occur in closely spaced domains. These are (I) spinel-quartz-cordierite, (II) spinel-quartz-cordierite-garnet-orthopyroxene-sillimanite, (III) spinel-cordierite-orthopyroxene-sillimanite, (IV) spinel-quartz-sapphirine-sillimanite-garnet, (V) spinel-quartz-sapphirine-garnet and (IV) rhombohedral (Fe-Ti) oxide-cordierite-orthopyroxene-sillimanite. Common to all the associations are a porphyroblastic garnet (containing an internal schistosify defined by biotite, sillimanite and quartz), perthite and plagioclase. Spinel contains variable amounts of exsolved magnetite and is distinctly Zn rich in the sapphirine-absent associations. X Mg in the coexisting phases decreases in the order cordierite-biotite-sapphirine-orthopyroxene-spinel-garnet-(Fe-Ti) oxides. Textural criteria and compositional characteristics of the phases document several retrograde mineral reactions which occurred subsequent to prograde dehydration melting reactions involving biotite, sillimanite, quartz, plagioclase and spinel. The following retrograde mineral reactions are deduced: (1) spinel + quartz → cordierite, (2) spinel + quartz → garnet + sillimanite, (3) garnet + quartz → cordierite + orthopyroxene, (4) garnet + quartz + sillimanite → cordierite, (5) spinel + cordierite → orthopyroxene + sillimanite, (6) spinel + sillimanite + quartz → sapphirine, (7) spinel + sapphirine + quartz → garnet + sillimanite, and (8) spinel + quartz sapphirine + garnet. A partial petrogenetic grid for the system FeO-MgO-Al 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -K 2 O-H 2 O at high fo 2 , has been constructed and the effects of ZnO and Fe 2 O 3 on this grid have been explored Combining available experimental and natural occurrence data, the high fo 2 invariant points in the partial grid have been located in P-T space. Geothermobarometric data and consideration of the deduced mineral reactions in the petrogenetic grid show that the spinel granulites evolved through an anticlockwise P-T trajectory reaching peak metamorphic conditions >9 kbar and 950 °C, followed by near-isobaric cooling (dT/dP = 150 °C/kbar). This was superimposed by an event of near-isothermal decompression (dT/dP = 15 °C/kbar). The studied spinel granulites, therefore, preserve relic prograde mineral associations and reaction textures despite being metamorphosed at very high temperatures, and bear evidence of polymetamorphism.

Ultramafic xenoliths in plio-pleistocene alkali basalts from the eastern transylvanian basin: Depleted mantle enriched by vein metasomatism

Abstract: Ultramafic xenoliths from alkali basalts in the Per§ani Mountains in the Eastern Transylvanian Basin (ETB) of Romania are mainly spinel Iherzolites, although spinel harzburgites, websterites, clinopyroxenites and amphibole pyroxenites are also present. Amphibole veins cut some spinel peridotite samples. All are derived from the shallow lithospheric upper mantle. In general, textural variations are restricted to protogranular and porphyroclastic types, compared with the more varied textures found in mantle xenoliths from the alkali basalts of the neighbouring Pannonian Basin. Also, ETB peridotites are richer in amphibole. Thus, the mantle beneath the edge of the ETB is less deformed but more strongly metasomatized than the mantle closer to the centre of the Pannonian Basin. Mineralogical and bulk-rock geochemical variations resemble those of spinel Iherzolites from other sub-continental shallow mantle xenolith suites. There is no apparent correlation between deformation and geochemistry, and much of the major and trace element variation is due to variable extraction of picritic melts. The REE patterns of separated clinopyroxenes from the peridotite xenoliths are mostly LREE depleted, although clinopyroxenes from regions adjacent to amphibole veins have experienced an enrichment in La and Ce and a change in their Sr and Nd isotopic values towards those of the vein, while still retaining an overall LREE depletion. Clinopyroxenes from the websterites and clinopyroxenites are more variable. Amphibole in the hydrous pyroxenites and amphibole veins is strongly LREE enriched and is considered to be metasomatic in origin. 87Sr/86Sr and

Constraints on the Mantle Sources of the Deccan Traps from the Petrology and Geochemistry of the Basalts of Gujarat State (Western India)

Abstract: The late Cretaceous-early Tertiary flood basalts in the Gujarat area of the northwestern Deccan Traps (Kathiawar peninsula, Pavagadh hills and Rajpipla) exhibit a wide range of compositions, from picrite basalts to rhyolites; moreover, the basaltic rocks have clearly distinct TiO2 contents at any given degree of differentiation and strongly resemble the low-titanium and hightitanium basalts found in most of the Gondwana continental flood basalt (CFB) suites. Four magma groups are petrologically and geochemically distinguished: (1) A low-Ti group, characterized by rocks with varying SiO2 saturation, and with TiO2 1.8 wt% in picrites), Nb (>19 p.p.m.) Zr/γ (av. 6.5) and Tt/V (av. 47). (3) An intermediate-Ti group, with TiO2 contents slightly lower than the high-Ti rocks at the same degree of evolution, and with correspondingly lower incompatible trace element contents and ratios, in particular K2O, Nb, Ba and Zr/Y (av. 5.2). (4) A potassium-rich group (KT), broadly similar in geochemical character to the high-Ti group but showing more extreme K, Rb and Ba enrichment (av. K20/Na20~l; Ba/Y~20). The most primitive low-Ti and high-Ti picrites, when corrected for low-pressure olivine fractionation, show distinct major (and trace) element geochemistry, in particular for CaO/AI2O3, CaO/TiO2 and Al2O3/TiO2, and moderate but significant variations in their SiO2 and Fe2Ost contents; these characteristics strongly suggest the involvement of different mantle sources, more depleted for the low-Ti picrites, and richer in cpxfor the high-Ti picrites, but with broadly the same pressures of equilibration (27-14 kbar). This, in turn, suggests a strong lateral heterogeneity in the Gujarat Trap mantle. Low-Ti picrites and related differentiates in Kathiawar are reported systematically for the first time here, and suggest the existence of HFSE-depleted mantle in the northwestern Deccan Traps, with extension at least to the Seychelles Islands and to the area of the Bushe Formation near Bombay in the pre-drift position, before the development of the Carlsberg Ridge. The absence of correlations between LILE/HFSE ratios and SiO2 argues against crustal contamination processes acting on the low-Ti picrites, possibly owing to their probably rapid uprise to the surface. Consequently, the mantle region of this rock group was probably re-enriched by small amounts of ULE-rich materials. The substantially higher, trace element enrichment of the least differentiated high-Ti picrites, relative to the basalts of the Ambe-noli and Mahableshwar Formations of the Western Ghats, testifies also to the presence of more incompatible element rich, OIB4ike mantle sources in northern and northwestern Gujarat. These sources were geochemicaily similar to the present-day Reunion mantle sources.

Silicate—Carbonate Immiscibility at Oldoinyo Lengai

Abstract: For approximately the last 50 years eruptions at Oldoinyo Lengai have produced passive natrocarbonatite lavas interspersed with mixed silicate-natrocarbonatite events approximately every 15–25 years. In 1993 an unusual blocky lava erupted and preserved detailed mixed silicate-natrocarbonatite textures clearly indicating an immiscible origin. The 1993 blocky flow consists of natrocarbonatite with small silicate crystal aggregates which constitute∼ 2–5% of the rock. These inclusions are composed of nepheline, melanite,...