Search

A telepresence-enabled cruise using remotely operated vehicle (ROV) exploration discovered an unusual tubular deposit of Fe-rich hydrothermal nontronite on a young seamount, Mashi, of the Wolf-Darwin lineament in the Galapagos Islands. X-ray diffraction, ICP-MS, ICP-AES, and SEM-EDS analyses show that this deposit is chemically and mineralogically similar to other deep-sea hydrothermal nontronites, indicating a likely formation temperature of about 30° to 50 °C by diffuse hydrothermal activity. These deposits contain mixtures of Fe-rich, Al-poor nontronite and poorly crystalline Fe-Si-oxyhydroxides with bulk compositions of 38–51 wt% SiO 2 and 40–50 wt% Fe 2 O 3 *. The presence of filamentous and spherical structures in the samples suggests that mineral deposition was in part facilitated by chemosynthetic microbes. Although hydrothermal nontronite has been sampled at a number of seafloor sites by coring and dredging, this is the first in situ documentation of its unusual sinuous, tubular structure, on the seafloor. Quantitative image-analysis of ROV imagery indicates that hydrothermal fluid pathways, developed through an underlying pillow lava sequence, likely control the distinctive sinuous morphology.

We provide measurements of thermal diffusivity (D), heat capacity (CP), and viscosity (η) for 12 remelted natural lavas and 4 synthetic glasses and melts, ranging in composition from leucogranite to low-silica basalt, and calculate their thermal conductivity. Both viscosity and the glass transition temperature decrease with decreasing melt polymerization. For basaltic glasses, D is low, ~ 0.5 mm2 s− 1 at room temperature, decreases slightly with increasing temperature, and then drops upon melting to ~ 0.25 to 0.35 mm2 s− 1. Other samples behave similarly. Despite scatter, clear correlations exist between D of glass or melt with Si content, density, NBO/T, and, most strongly, with fragility (m). Glass thermal diffusivity is represented by D = FT− G + HT, where F, G and H are fitting parameters. For melts, ∂ D/∂ T was resolved only for dacite-andesite and MORB: a positive slope is consistent with other iron-bearing samples. Glass and liquid CP depend on density and other physical properties, but not exactly in the same manner as D. We calculate thermal conductivity (k) from these data and demonstrate that k for glasses is described by a Maier-Kelly formula. Large scatter exists for k at 298 K, but silicic to intermediate melts have k between 1.8 and 1.3 Wm− 1 K− 1, whereas basaltic melts are constrained to ~ 1.4 ± 0.1 Wm− 1 k− 1. Low values for thermal diffusivity and viscosity for basaltic melts suggests that basalts transfer heat much more efficiently by advection than by conduction alone, and that partially molten zones in the mantle quickly become more thermally insulating than non-molten zones, potentially contributing to melt localization during decompression melting.

We determined the viscosity and heat capacity of a series of two basaltic liquids containing H 2 O, F, H 2 O + CO 2 , H 2 O + F, and H 2 O + CO 2 + F. One was a natural calc-alkaline basalt from Fuego volcano, Guatemala, and the other was an Fe-free synthetic analog. The viscosity measurements were performed in the low-temperature, high-viscosity range (~ 10 9 –10 12 Pa s) just above the glass transition, where the kinetics of volatile exsolution are slow. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements were performed at atmospheric pressure from room temperature up to ~ 100 K above the glass transition. The water contents ranged from nominally anhydrous to 3 wt.% H 2 O, with F contents up to 2 wt.%, and CO 2 contents up to 0.2 wt.%. Volatiles do not noticeably affect the heat capacity of glasses. The glass transition temperatures obtained from calorimetry and viscometry are in good agreement. Water has a strong viscosity-reducing effect on basaltic melts. F has a measurable viscosity-reducing effect in basaltic melts, but it is significantly smaller than that of water. The combined effects of H 2 O and F on viscosity appear to be additive on a wt.% basis. Both the effects of H 2 O and F on basaltic melts are smaller than those for more polymerized melts. Small quantities of CO 2 do not measurably affect basaltic melt viscosity, at least in the presence of > 1 wt.% water. Future viscosity models incorporating fluorine need to account for the compositional dependence of its effects on dry and hydrous melts.

We provide new viscosity data in the system SiO2-(Na,K)AlSiO4, for the nepheline-kalsilite and jadeite-leucite joins. We present a configurational entropy model for the viscosity of melts in the system as a function of Na/(Na + K) and Al/(Al + Si) ratios. Our modelling indicates that: i) Viscosity data are reproduced well by a non-ideal, symmetrical form of the parameters Sconf(Tg) and Be, ii) Na-K mixing is the main source of additional entropy in the system based on the limited dependence of Sconf(Tg) and Be parameters on Al/(Al + Si) ratio, iii) Ae likely varies as a function of Al/(Al + Si) ratio. Melt fragility in the system increases with increasing Al/(Al + Si) ratio and is greater for Na or K end-member melts than mixed melts. The viscosity of nominally fully-polymerized melts in the SiO2-(Na,K)AlSiO4 system can be modelled through chemical mixing, without explicit consideration of the important changes in structure related to changes in K/(Na + K) and Al/(Al + Si) ratios.

International audience