Vesiculation and vesicle loss in mid-ocean ridge basalt glasses: He, Ne, Ar elemental fractionation and pressure influence
Vesiculation and vesicle loss in mid-ocean ridge basalt glasses: He, Ne, Ar elemental fractionation and pressure influence
复制标题
大洋中脊玄武岩玻璃中的囊泡形成和囊泡损失:He、Ne、Ar 元素分馏和压力影响
DOI:
10.1016/s0016-7037(01)00863-8
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发表时间:
2002
影响因子:
5
通讯作者:
M. Moreira
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
P. Sarda;M. Moreira
Sarda and Graham (1990) proposed that in mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORBs), degassing occurs through equilibrium vesiculation followed by various extents of vesicle loss. This model predicts that in a bulk sample of MORB glass with vesicles, the rare gases represent a binary mixture between a vesicle component and a component dissolved in the melt. As vesiculation is expected to produce very different rare gas concentrations and elemental ratios in gas and melt, binary mixing systematics should be recorded in the MORB rare gas abundance data. Indeed, a large range of4He/40Ar∗ ratios was known to exist, but these binary mixing systematics remained elusive because helium was used as a proxy for rare gas abundance because helium is not affected by air addition. Here we show that using Ar instead of He, the4He/40Ar∗ ratio is higher where the Ar concentration is lower, as expected from simple binary mixing systematics. Taking advantage of the growing Ne database, we further show that the predicted binary mixing is recorded by the He-Ar and He-Ne couples, provided He concentration is not used to trace vesicle abundance. This is because a significant part of helium remains in the melt due to its higher solubility. In contrast, Ar or Ne concentrations, which can both be corrected for air addition, clearly trace vesicles and yield binary mixing patterns that hold for ridges worldwide. The model of vesiculation and vesicle loss thereby finds geochemical support in the rare gas abundance data. The He-Ne-Ar concentration data is best explained by assuming the ratio of helium to neon or argon solubility is about 5 to 15 times higher than values measured in 1 bar laboratory experiments, due to higher He and lower Ne and Ar solubilities. We propose that this is a pressure effect, and vesiculation mainly occurs during magma ascent in the mantle after melting.