Thermodynamics and kinetics of cation partitioning between plagioclase and trachybasaltic melt in static and dynamic systems: A reassessment of the lattice strain and electrostatic energies of substitution

Abstract

Most of the solidification history of magmas beneath active volcanoes takes place in chemically and physically perturbed plumbing systems where the growth of crystals is collectively governed by a range of kinetic processes related to the dynamics of crustal reservoirs and eruptive conduits. In this context, we have experimentally investigated the partitioning of major, minor, and trace cations between plagioclase and trachybasaltic melt under conventional static (no physical perturbation) and dynamic (melt stirring) crystallization regimes. Slow interface reaction kinetics are established between the advancing crystal surface and the adjacent melt, as the result of the combined control of a small degree of effective undercooling, prolonged diffusive relaxation, and convective homogenization. The kinetic aspects of plagioclase growth influence the partitioning of trace cations during transport of structural units across the crystal-melt interface, with consequent departure from macroscopic equilibrium in the system. The type and number of charge–balanced and −imbalanced configurations produced by the accommodation of trace cations into the coordination polyhedron can be thermodynamically rationalized in terms of lattice strain and electrostatic partitioning energetics. However, the overall solution energy accompanying trace cation kinetic substitutions cannot be entirely deconvoluted from major component activities in both melt and plagioclase phases. The emerging view that slow interface kinetic processes may lead to strong compositional dependence for the partition coefficient in dynamic subvolcanic environments contrasts markedly with the conventional idea that the energetics of cation partitioning are dominantly controlled by the effect of isothermal changes in the bulk system.