Timescales of spherulite crystallisation in obsidian inferred from water concentration profiles

Castro, Jonathan M. and Beck, Pierre and Tuffen, Hugh and Nichols, Alexander R. L. and Dingwell, Douglas B. and Martin, Michael C. (2008) Timescales of spherulite crystallisation in obsidian inferred from water concentration profiles. American Mineralogist, 93 (11-12). pp. 1816-1822. ISSN 0003-004X

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Abstract

We determined the kinetics of spherulite growth in obsidians from Krafla volcano, Iceland. We measured water concentration profiles around spherulites in obsidian by synchrotron Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The distribution of OH– groups surrounding spherulites decreases exponentially away from the spherulite-glass border, reflecting expulsion of water during crystallization of an anhydrous paragenesis (plagioclase + SiO2 + clinopyroxene + magnetite). This pattern is controlled by a balance between the growth rate of the spherulites and the diffusivity of hydrous solute in the rhyolitic melt. We modeled advective and diffusive transport of the water away from the growing spherulites by numerically solving the diffusion equation with a moving boundary. Numerical models fit the natural data best when a small amount of post-growth diffusion is incorporated in the model. Comparisons between models and data constrain the average spherulite growth rates for different temperatures and highlight size-dependent growth among a small population of spherulites.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
American Mineralogist
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1906
Subjects:
?? spherulitediffusionobsidiancrystallizationgeochemistry and petrologygeophysicsge environmental sciences ??
ID Code:
26363
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
05 May 2009 12:27
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 10:28