Chlorine Solubility in Silicate Melts: New Experiments and Thermodynamic Mixing Model

Abstract

We present new experimental data on Cl solubility in model basalt melts of eutectic compositions diopside (Di)–albite (Ab) and Di–anorthite ± quartz (Qtz). The starting glasses were equilibrated with aqueous NaCl–CaCl₂ fluid at 4 kbar in the temperature range of 900–1200°C. The experiments show that Cl solubility decreases with increasing NaCl in the fluid. Ca–Na partitioning between melts and fluid is weekly temperature dependent and resembles that of the plagioclase–fluid system. The newly obtained experimental data, along with previously published results on the model granite melting in the presence of (Na,K)Cl brines (Aranovich et al., 2013), are used to calibrate an empirical thermodynamic model for salt species (NaCl, KCl, and CaCl₂) in silicate melt. Calculations show that Cl solubility in haplogranite melt decreases with increasing K/Na ratio in the fluid (and correspondingly, melt). The data acquired on Ca and Na partitioning between melt and fluid make it possible to model the evolution of the Ca/Na ratio in the crystallization course of basalt melts. At a high pressure (10 kbar), Cl solubility in model granite increases with increasing Н₂О content. The calculated phase diagram for a simple pseudo-ternary system Ab–H₂O–NaCl demonstrates complex phase relations and, correspondingly, evolution of the Н₂О and NaCl concentrations in the melt. This complex evolution is illustrated by data on the composition of quartz-hosted melt and fluid inclusions from granites in the Verkhneurmisskii massif in the Badzhal volcano-plutonic zone.