Chemical alteration of volcanic glasses and related control by secondary minerals: Experimental studies

A detailed experimental mineralogical and geochemical study on hydrothermal alteration processes of volcanic glasses with a different chemical composition and leucites sampled in the Roman Comagmatic Region was carried out. 2g samples of different grain sizes and 50 ml of deionized water or seawater were sealed in bronze Teflon-lined autoclaves and placed in a rotating sample-holder at 200°C. The internal pressure was 16.2 bars. At arbitrary intervals, the pressure vessel was quenched to room temperature and both solids and solutions were separated by filtration. The solids were used to identify possible alteration products by means of X-ray powder diffraction, SEM and microprobe analyses. In all deionized water systems the contact solution reached pH basic values, but in the various systems the consumption of H⁺ ions occurred in different ways. This is probably linked to different concentrations of released cations. In seawater systems, however, pH values initially fell sharply but subsequently increased slightly. After 2 days, cation concentrations were clearly buffered by reaction products in all solutions. These were mainly zeolites and clay minerals. The following crystallization sequences in all glass/deionized water experiments were observed: the first reaction product was represented by phillipsite, followed by analcime and illite in the alkali-trachytic run; chabasite and analcime in the phonolitic-tephritic run; analcime and finally feldspar in shoshonitic and trachytic runs. Phillipsite and smectite crystallized together only in the basaltic run. In leucite/deionized water systems, however, the first reaction phase was illite, followed by analcime and then phillipsite. The reaction products in glass/seawater systems were smectite and anydrite. The chemical composition of synthetic zeolites was clearly controlled by the chemistry of initial glasses. These synthetic zeolites are like the natural ones in volcaniclastic products from central and southern Italy. This suggests that extensive zeolitization processes of these volcaniclastic rocks may occur through interaction of volcanic glasses with fluids at a very low salinity and a temperature close to 200°C.