Role of water in the origin of podiform chromitite deposits |
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Authors: | Sergey Matveev Chris Ballhaus |
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Affiliation: | a Institut für Mineralogie, Universität Münster, Corrensstrasse 24, 48149 Münster, Germany b Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada TG6 2E3 |
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Abstract: | We report experiments in basalt oversaturated with water to duplicate the nodular ore textures of podiform chromitite ores. In immiscible basalt-water systems saturated with olivine and chromite, olivine will reside in the melt while chromite will collect in the fluid phase. Fractionation is physical and is driven by differential wetting properties of melt and fluid against silicate and oxide surfaces. There is no need to suppress olivine from the liquidus of a primitive basaltic melt as suggested by Irvine [Irvine, T.N., Geology 5 (1977) 273-277], to achieve chromite accumulations as observed in natural podiform ore deposits. The results imply that podiform chromitite ores will form where a primitive olivine-chromite-saturated mantle melt is sufficiently water-rich to exsolve a fluid phase during passage through the uppermost mantle. The most likely geodynamic environment for podiform chromite mineralization to take place is a supra-subduction zone setting. |
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Keywords: | podiform deposits chromitite platinum group ophiolite seawater saturation |
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