Mineral/melt trace element partition coefficients, D-i(mineral/melt) (=concentration ratio, mineral/melt), can vary by up to two orders of magnitude in the melt composition range of natural magmatic liquids. As most geochemically interesting minor and trace elements are network-modifiers in silicate melts, one would expect, as observed, positive correlation between mineral/melt partition coefficients, D-i(mineral/melt), and the degree of polymerization of the silicate melt, NBO/T. Linear relationships between D-i(mineral/melt) and NBO/T sometimes exist over restricted NBO/T-ranges where the type of Q"-species in the melt does not change and their abundance does not vary greatly. Other experimental D-i(mineral/melt) vs. NBO/T data suggest log-linear or log-log relations in some cases, whereas in other studies, there are no simple relationships between D-i(mineral/melt) and NBO/T of the melt. When relating mineral/melt partition coefficients to degree of melt polymerization, NBO/T, it is assumed that a principal melt structural control on D-i(mineral/melt) is the activity of nonbridging oxygen in the melt, a(NBO). The a(NBO) is related to NBO/T. The NBO/T is not, however, a quantitative measure of a(NBO) because the nonbridging oxygens in coexisting Q-species in melts are energetically non-equivalent. This is evident in relationships between activity coefficient ratios of melt network-modifying cations, y(i)/y(j), where the ionization potentials of i and j differ, and NBO/T of the melt. Such relationships are parabolic with minima or maxima at NBO/T near 1 and resemble the relations of abundance ratio, X-Q3/X-Q2, vs. NBO/T of the melt. Interestingly, this NBO/T-value is near that of natural basalt melt. These observations suggest that i-NBO(Q(3)) and j-NBO(Q(2)) bond characteristics differ from one another, govern trace element solution behavior in silicate melts and, therefore, control the effect of melt composition on mineral/melt partitioning in silicate systems. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We report spectroscopic evidence for the pressure-induced structural changes in B2O3 glass quenched from melts at pressures up to 6 GPa using solid-state NMR. While all borons are tri-coordinated at 1 atm, the fraction of tetra-coordinated boron increases with pressure, being about 5% and 27% in the B2O3 glass quenched from melts at 2 and 6 GPa, respectively. The fraction of boroxol ring species increases with pressure up to 2 GPa and apparently decreases with further compression up to 6 GPa. Two densification mechanisms are proposed to explain the variation of boron species with pressure.

A suite of six hydrous (7 wt.% H2O) sodium silicate glasses spanning sodium octasilicate to sodium disilicate in composition were analyzed using Si-29 single pulse (SP) magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, H-1-Si-29 cross polarization (CP) MAS NMR, and fast MAS H-1-NMR. From the Si-29 SPMAS data it is observed that at low sodium compositions dissolved water significantly depolymerizes the silicate network. At higher sodium contents, however, dissolved H2O does not affect a significant increase in depolymerization over that predicted based on the Na/Si ratio alone. The fast MAS H-1-NMR data reveal considerable complexity in proton environments in each of the glasses studied. The fast MAS 1H-NMR spectra of the highest sodium concentration glasses do not exhibit evidence of signficantly greater fractions of dissolved water as molecular H2O than the lower sodium concentration glasses requiring that the decrease in polymerization at high sodium contents involves a change in sodium solution mechanism. Variable contact time H-1-Si-29 cross polarization (CP) MAS NMR data reveal an increase in the rotating frame spin lattice relaxation rate constant (T-1 rho*) for various Q(n) species with increasing sodium content that correlates with a reduction in the average H-1-Si-29 coupling strength. At the highest sodium concentration, however, T-1 rho* drops significantly, consistent with a change in the Na2O solution mechanism. Copyright (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd.

Partitioning of Ca, Mn, Mg, and Fe2+ between olivine and melt has been used to examine the influence of energetically nonequivalent nonbridging oxygen in silicate melts. Partitioning experiments were conducted at ambient pressure in air and 1400 degrees C with melts in equilibrium with forsterite-rich olivine (Fo > 95 mol%). The main compositional variables of the melts were NBO/T and Na/(Na+Ca). In all melts, the main structural units were of Q(4), Q(3), and Q(2) type with nonbridging oxygen, therefore, in the Q(3) and Q(2) units.

The structure of multi-component silicate melts and glasses (e.g., Ca-Mg and Ca-Na aluminosilicates) can provide insight into the properties of natural silicate melts and has implications for relevant magmatic processes. In spite of its importance, the atomic and molecular structure of most multicomponents (e.g., quaternary) melts and glasses has not been fully described, primarily because of insufficient resolution obtained with conventional spectroscopic and scattering methods; the information obtained by these methods is compromised by severe inhomogeneous peak broadening due to structural complexity. Here we report the first O-17 and Al-27 3QMAS NMR spectra for quaternary, Ca-Mg and Ca-Na peralkaline aluminosilicate glasses (i.e., M/Al > 1, M is one monovalent or one-half a divalent cation). These data reveal new details into the molecular structure of multi-component aluminosilicate melts, which include the presence of a substantial fraction of Al-V in the Ca-Mg aluminosilicate glasses and Al-IV-O-Al-IV in both glasses at 1 atm. Traditional models of glass structure do not support the presence of such species given these high-silica, peralkaline compositions. These results suggest that Al avoidance is violated in the multi-component peralkaline aluminosilicate glasses, and that the presence of Mg2+ in the melts increases the extent of disorder in the melts (compared with Call and Na+). These factors lead to an increase in configurational entropy and the activity coefficients of the oxides, and may provide an explanation for the decrease in viscosity of these complex melts.

Solubility mechanisms of water in depolymerized silicate melts quenched from high temperature (1000 degrees-1300 degrees C) at high pressure (0.8-2.0 GPa) have been examined in peralkaline melts in the system Na2O-SiO2-H2O with Raman and NMR spectroscopy. The Na/Si ratio of the melts ranged from 0.25 to 1. Water contents were varied from similar to 3 mol% and similar to 40 mol% (based on O = 1). Solution of water results in melt depolymerization where the rate of depolymerization with water content, partial derivative(NBO/Si)/partial derivative X-H2O, decreases with increasing total water content. At low water contents, the influence of H2O on the melt structure resembles that of adding alkali oxide. In water-rich melts, alkali oxides are more efficient melt depolymerizers than water. In highly polymerized melts, Si-OH bonds are formed by water reacting with bridging oxygen in Q(4)-species to form Q(3) and Q(2) species. In less polymerized melts, Si-OH bonds are formed when bridging oxygen in Q(3)-species react with water to form Q(2)-species. In addition, the presence of Na-OH complexes is inferred. Their importance appears to increase with Na/Si. This apparent increase in importance of Na-OH complexes with increasing Na/Si (which causes increasing degree of depolymerization of the anhydrous silicate melt) suggests that water is a less efficient depolymerizer of silicate melts, the more depolymerized the melt. This conclusion is consistent with recently published H-1 and Si-29 MAS NMR and H-1-Si-29 cross polarization NMR data. Copyright (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd.

Iron-57 resonant absorption Mossbauer spectroscopy was used to describe the redox relations and structural roles of Fe3+ and Fe2+ in meta-aluminosilicate glasses. Melts were formed at 1500 C in equilibrium with air and quenched to glass in liquid H2O with quenching rates exceeding 200 degrees C/s. The aluminosilicate compositions were NaAlSi2O6, Ca0.5AlSi2O6, and Mg0.5AlSi2O6. Iron oxide was added in the form of Fe2O3, NaFeO2, CaFe2O4, and MgFe2O4 with total iron oxide content in the range similar to 0.9 to similar to 5.6 mol% as Fe2O3. The Mossbauer spectra, which were deconvoluted by assuming Gaussian distributions of the hyperfine field, are consistent with one absorption doublet of Fe2+ and one of Fe3+. From the area ratios of the Fe2+ and Fe3+ absorption doublets, with corrections for differences in recoil-fractions of Fe3+ and Fe2+, the Fe3+/Sigma Fe is positively correlated with increasing total iron content and with decreasing ionization potential of the alkali and alkaline earth cation. There is a distribution of hyperfine parameters from the Mossbauer spectra of these glasses. The maximum in the isomer shift distribution function of Fe3+, 401,, ranges from about 0.25 to 0.49 mm/s (at 298 K relative to Fe metal) with the quadrupole splitting maximum, Delta(Fe3+), ranging from similar to 1.2 to similar to 1.6 mm/s. Both delta(Fe3+) and delta(F2+) are negatively correlated with total iron oxide content and Fe3+/Sigma Fe. The dominant oxygen coordination number Fe 3+ changes from 4 to 6 with decreasing Fe3+/Sigma Fe. The distortion of the Fe3+-O polyhedra of the quenched melts (glasses) decreases as the Fe3+/Sigma Fe increases. These polyhedra do, however, coexist with lesser proportions of polyhedra with different oxygen coordination numbers. The delta(Fe2+) and delta(Fe2+) distribution maxima at 298 K range from similar to 0.95 to 1.15 mm/s and 1.9 to 2.0 mm/s, respectively, and decrease with increasing Fe3+/ Sigma Fe. We suggest that these hyperfine parameter values for the most part are more consistent with Fe 2+ in a range of coordination states from 4- to 6-fold. The lower delta(Fe2+)-values for the most oxidized melts are consistent with a larger proportion of Fe2+ in 4-fold coordination compared with more reduced glasses and melts. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

We report multi-nuclear (Na-23 and O-17) solid-state NMR [MAS and triple quantum (3Q) MAS] spectra for sodium tetrasilicate glasses (NS4) quenched from melts at high pressure up to 8GPa. The results show clear evidence for the pressure-induced structural changes in the glasses, forming oxygen linking Si-[4] and Si-[5,Si-6] (Si-[4]-O-Si-[5,Si-6]) with increasing pressure. Whereas the general trend in the effect of pressure is consistent with that of sodium trisilicate glasses (NS3), detailed pressure-induced structural changes for NS4 are largely different from NS3. These differences include the larger fraction of Si-[4]-O-Si-[5,Si-6] and smaller fraction of Na-O-Si-[5,Si-6] for NS4 than NS3 at isobaric conditions. Topological disorder due to Si-O bond length distribution in Si-[4]-O-Si-[4] is also larger for more polymerized NS4 than that for NS3, demonstrating the complexity in structural rearrangement with pressure in silicate glasses and melts with composition at elevated pressure.

Solubility and speciation of nitrogen in silicate melts have been investigated between 1400 and 1700 degrees C and at pressures ranging from 10 to 30 kbar for six different binary alkali and alkaline-earth silicate liquids and a Ca-Mg-alumino silicate. Experiments were performed in a piston-cylinder apparatus. The nitrogen source is silver azide, which breaks down to Ag and molecular N(2) below 300 degrees C. At high pressure and temperature, the nitrogen content may be as high as 0.7 wt% depending on the melt composition, pressure, and temperature. It increases with T, P and the polymerization state of the liquid. Characterization by Raman spectroscopy and (15)N solid state MAS NMR indicates that nitrogen is not only physically dissolved as N(2) within the melt structure like noble gases, but a fraction of nitrogen interacts strongly with the silicate network. The most likely nitrogen-bearing species that can account for Raman and NMR results is nitrosyl group. Solubility data follow an apparent Henry's law behavior and are in good agreement with previous studies when the nitrosyl content is low. On the other hand, a significant departure from a Henry's law behavior is observed for highly depolymerized melts, which contain more nitrosyl than polymerized melts. Possible solubility mechanisms are also discussed. Finally, a multi-variant empirical relation is given to predict the relative content of nitrosyl and molecular nitrogen as a function of P, T, and melt composition and structure. This complex speciation of nitrogen in melts under high pressure may have significant implication concerning crystal-melt partitioning of nitrogen as well as for potential elemental and isotopic fractionation of nitrogen in the deep Earth. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Olivine/melt partitioning of Sigma Fe, Fe2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Mn2+, Co2+, and Ni2+ has been determined in the systems CaO-MgO-FeO-Fe2O3-SiO2 (FD) and CaO-MgO-FeO-Fe2O3-Al2O3-SiO2 (FDA3) as a function of oxygen fugacity (f(O2)) at 0.1 MPa pressure. Total iron oxide content of the starting materials was similar to 20 wt%. The f(O2) was to used to control the Fe3+/Sigma Fe (Sigma Fe: total iron) of the melts. The Fe3+/Sigma Fe and structural roles of Fe2+ and Fe3+ were determined with Fe-57 resonant absorption Mossbauer spectroscopy. Changes in melt polymerization, NBO/T, as a function of f(O2) was estimated from the M6ssbauer data and existing melt structure information. It varies by similar to 100% in melts coexisting with olivine in the FDA3 system and by about 300% in the FD system in the Fe3+/Sigma Fe range of the experiments (0.805-0.092). The partition coefficients (D-i(ol-melt) = wt% in olivine/wt% in melt) are systematic functions of f(O2) and, therefore, NBO/T of the melt. There is a D-i(ol-melt)-minimum in the FDA3 system at NBO/T-values corresponding to intermediate Fe3+/Sigma Fe (0.34-0.44). In the Al-free system, FD, where the NBO/T values of melts range between similar to 1 and similar to 2.9, the partition coefficients are positively correlated with NBO/T (decreasing Fe3+/Sigma Fe). These relationships are explained by consideration of solution behavior in the melts governed by Q''-unit distribution and structural changes of the divalent cations in the melts (coordination number, complexing with Fe3+, and distortion of the polyhedra). (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.