Chloride partitioning and solubility in hydrous phonolites from Erebus volcano: A contribution towards a multi-component degassing model

Abstract

We present results from a series of experiments on the partitioning of chlorine between a hydrous fluid phase and a phonolitic melt that we then use to model specific aspects of volcanic degassing. Experiments were performed from 250 to 10 MPa on a phonolite from Erebus lava lake, Antarctica, at 1000 °C near the QFM solid buffer. Only one of 48 experimental samples shows coexistence of low-density vapour and high-density brine in the fluid phase while 35 samples are unambiguously in the vapour field. Large uncertainties in the H₂O–NaCl phase diagram at the P–T considered do not allow us to assign reliable phase behaviour to the remaining samples. We select a vapour-dominated subset of our dataset to establish an empirical HCl solubility law valid at low pressures and salinities. This law is incorporated into a thermodynamical model of degassing, which we use to compute equilibrium temperatures from gas measurements made at Erebus in 2010. The quiescent lake activity features cyclic temperature variations between 1000 and 1050 °C, which is consistent with thermal convection within the shallow plumbing system. Backward tracking of representative gas compositions and temperatures shows the evolution with pressure of the molar ratio of SO₂/HCl in the gas, a quantity that is often measured in volcanic plumes. Model outputs suggest that this ratio can vary by up to an order of magnitude when the pressure changes from atmospheric to 100 MPa, depending on degassing style (coupled vs. decoupled ascent of gas and melt).