ALBERT

Notes: Abstract The compositions of liquids coexisting with experimentally grown crystals of olivine, plagioclase, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, leucite, spinel, rhombohedral oxide, melilite and potassium feldspar are used to define, through mass action expressions of liquid/solid equilibrium, compositional derivatives of the Gibbs free energy of mixing of naturally occuring silicate liquids as a function of temperature, pressure and the fugacity of oxygen. The available experimental data describe these derivatives over a range of compositions which includes basic magmas. Therefore, for silicate liquids in this composition range, the topology of the Gibbs free energy of mixing can be approximated from experimental determinations of its derivatives. The majority of the existing thermodynamic data on the liquid phase is consistent with the application of regular solution theory to model the free energy of mixing. Strictly symmetric, temperature and pressure independent, regular solution interaction parameters are calibrated from this phase equilibrium data using regression techniques which have their basis in inverse theory. These techniques generate numerically stable interaction parameters which incorporate inter-variable correlation and account for experimental uncertainty. The regular solution model fits the available data on anhydrous silicate liquids to within the accuracy of the thermodynamic database +/−550 cals). Extensions to regular solution theory allow water solubility in more silica rich liquids to be modelled somewhat less accurately (+/−750 cals). The topology of the excess free energy of mixing surface is strongly asymmetric, possessing a single multicomponent saddle point which defines a spinodal locus. Given this prediction of a multicomponent spinode, a mathematical procedure based upon minimisation of the Gibbs free energy of mixing is developed for the calculation of the compositions of coexisting immiscible liquids. Predicted binodal compositions substantially agree with elemental liquid/liquid partitioning trends observed in lavas. Calculations suggest that an immiscible dome, in temperature-composition space, intersects the liquidus field of the magma type tholeiite. Immiscible phenomena are predicted at sub-liquidus temperatures for the bulk compositions of more basic or alkalic lavas, but are absent in more siliceous rock types for temperatures of the metastable liquid down to 900 K. The regular solution model is used in four petrological applications. The first concerns a prediction of the binary olivine-liquid phase diagram. The calculated geometry exhibits a minimum near Fa75, which, though not in accord with experimental results on the pseudobinary system, compares quite favorably with olivine-liquid phase equilibria interpreted from rhyolites, namely that the olivine phenocrysts of rhyolites are more iron rich than their coexisting liquids. The second petrological example concerns estimating the depth of the source regions of several basic lavas whose compositions cover a range from ugandite to basaltic andesite. The third application is a calculation of the saturation temperatures and compositions of plagioclase and olivine in four experimental basaltic liquids and a prediction of the liquidus temperatures and first phenocryst compositions of the Thingmuli lava series of Eastern Iceland. Lastly, enthalpies of fusion are computed for a variety of stoichiometric compounds of geologic interest. These demonstrate good agreement with calorimetrically measured quantities