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Science 16 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5780, pp. 1646 - 1650
DOI: 10.1126/science.1126690
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Reports

Element Partitioning: The Role of Melt Structure and Composition

M. W. Schmidt,1* J. A. D. Connolly,1 D. Günther,2 M. Bogaerts1

We segregated coexisting gabbroic and granitic melts by centrifuging them at high pressures and temperatures and measured the trace element compositions of the melts by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Our results demonstrate that the effect of melt structure contributes about one order of magnitude to crystal/melt partition coefficients. Partitioning of alkali and alkaline earth elements strongly depends on field strength: Amphoteric and lone pair electron elements partition into the polymerized granitic melt; and rare earth, transition, and high field strength elements coordinated by nonbridging oxygens partition remarkably similar into the gabbroic melt. A regular solution model predicts these effects.

1 Institut für Mineralogie und Petrologie, Department of Earth Sciences, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
2 Department of Chemistry, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: max.schmidt{at}erdw.ethz.ch

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Liquid Immiscibility and the Evolution of Basaltic Magma.
I. V. Veksler, A. M. Dorfman, A. A. Borisov, R. Wirth, and D. B. Dingwell (2007)
J. Petrology 48, 2187-2210
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Partitioning of calcium, magnesium, and transition metals between olivine and melt governed by the structure of the silicate melt at ambient pressure.
B. Mysen (2007)
American Mineralogist 92, 844-862
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)