Argon diffusion domains in K-feldspar II: kinetic properties of MH-10

Viewing K-feldspars as containing a discrete distribution of diffusion domain sizes reconciles otherwise disconsonant features common in their ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age spectra and Arrhenius plots but raises a fundamental question. What are the features in K-feldspar that endow it with this behavior? We report here the results of two different kinds of experiments that help isolate the nature of the responsible diffusion properties. To assess the thermal stability of the diffusion domains during laboratory treatment, MH-10 K-feldspar was step-heated to 850°C, removed from the furnace and split. One split was reirradiated and the other returned to the furnace and completely degassed. Following re-irradiation, the original heating schedule was used to degas the second aliquot. Apart from the first 5% of gas released, the diffusion properties show little change relative to the original result but, it appears, the physical character of a portion of the smallest domain has been altered. Results of duplicate step-heating experiments of samples treated at 750°C, 950°C and 1100°C prior to irradiation are consistent with the conclusions of the double irradiation experiment. In a second series of experiments, sized aggregates of MH-10 K-feldspar were analyzed by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar step-heating method. The resultant log(r/r _o) plots reveal that the largest domain is annihilated when the particle size is reduced to about 50 μm. From this result we infer that the largest diffusion domain size is between 60 and about 130 μm in diameter. This estimate, together with knowledge of the relative domain size distribution obtained from modeling the log(r/r _o) plot, sets the size of the smallest domain to be less than about 1 μm. Microstructural examination of MH-10 K-feldspar identifies sub-grain features that correspond in size to our independent estimates for the largest and smallest diffusion domains. These results strongly support the view that low-temperature K-feldspars contain a distribution of diffusion length scales that are well approximated as discrete domain sizes and that laboratory heating below the onset of melting does not significatly affect the ability to obtain thermal reconstructions from the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar systematics.