Le Voyer M., Asimow P. D., Mosenfelder J. L., Guan Y. B., Wallace P. J., Schiano Pierre, Stolper E. M., Eiler J. M. (2014). Zonation of H2O and F concentrations around melt inclusions in olivines. Journal of Petrology, 55 (4), p. 685-707. ISSN 0022-3530.
Titre du document
Zonation of H2O and F concentrations around melt inclusions in olivines
Le Voyer M., Asimow P. D., Mosenfelder J. L., Guan Y. B., Wallace P. J., Schiano Pierre, Stolper E. M., Eiler J. M.
Source
Journal of Petrology, 2014,
55 (4), p. 685-707 ISSN 0022-3530
Studies of both naturally quenched and experimentally reheated melt inclusions have established that they can lose or gain H2O after entrapment in their host mineral, before or during eruption. Here we report nanoSIMS analyses of H2O, Cl and F in olivine around melt inclusions from two natural basaltic samples: one from the Sommata cinder cone on Vulcano Island in the Aeolian arc and the other from the Jorullo cinder cone in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Our results constrain olivine/basaltic melt partition coefficients and allow assessment of mechanisms of volatile loss from melt inclusions in natural samples. Cl contents in olivine from both samples are mostly below detection limits (0 center dot 03 +/- 0 center dot 01 ppm), with no detectable variation close to the melt inclusions. Assuming a maximum Cl content of 0 center dot 03 ppm for all olivines, maximum estimates for Cl partition coefficients between olivine and glass are 0 center dot 00002 +/- 0 center dot 00002. Olivines from the two localities display contrasting H2O and F compositions: Sommata olivines contain 27 +/- 11 ppm H2O and 0 center dot 28 +/- 0 center dot 07 ppm F, whereas Jorullo olivines have lower and proportionately more variable H2O and F (11 +/- 12 ppm and 0 center dot 12 +/- 0 center dot 09 ppm, respectively; uncertainties are two standard deviations for the entire population). The variations of H2O and F contents in the olivines exhibit clear zonation patterns, increasing with proximity to melt inclusions. This pattern was most probably generated during transfer of volatiles out of the inclusions through the host olivine. H2O concentration gradients surrounding melt inclusions are roughly concentric, but significantly elongated parallel to the crystallographic a-axis of olivine. Because of this preferential crystallographic orientation, this pattern is consistent with H2O loss that is rate-limited by the 'proton-polaron' mechanism of H diffusion in olivine. Partition coefficients based on olivine compositions immediately adjacent to melt inclusions are 0 center dot 0007 +/- 0 center dot 0003 for H2O and 0 center dot 0005 +/- 0 center dot 0003 for F. The H2O and F diffusion profiles most probably formed in response to a decrease in the respective fugacities in the external melt, owing to either degassing or mixing with volatile-poor melt. Volatile transport out of inclusions might also have been driven in part by increases in the fugacity within the inclusion owing to post-entrapment crystallization. In the case of F, because of the lack of data on F diffusion in olivine, any interpretation of the measured F gradients is speculative. In the case of H2O, we model the concentration gradients using a numerical model of three-dimensional anisotropic diffusion of H, where initial conditions include both H2O decrease in the external melt and post-entrapment enrichment of H2O in the inclusions. The model confirms that external degassing is the dominant driving force, showing that the orientation of the anisotropy in H diffusion is consistent with the proton-polaron diffusion mechanism in olivine. The model also yields an estimate of the initial H2O content of the Sommata melt inclusions before diffusive loss of 6 wt % H2O. The findings provide new insights on rapid H2O loss during magma ascent and improve our ability to assess the fidelity of the H2O record from melt inclusions.
