An experimental investigation on diffusion of water in haplogranitic melts

  The diffusivity of water has been investigated for a haplogranitic melt of anhydrous composition Qz₂₈Ab₃₈Or₃₄ (in wt %) at temperatures of 800–1200°C and at pressures of 0.5–5.0 kbar using the diffusion couple technique. Water contents of the starting glass pairs varied between 0 and 9 wt %. Concentration-distance profiles for the different water species (molecular water and hydroxyl groups) were determined by near-infrared microspectroscopy. Because the water speciation of the melt is not quenchable (Nowak 1995; Nowak and Behrens 1995; Shen and Keppler 1995), the diffusivities of the individual species can not be evaluated directly from these profiles. Therefore, apparent chemical diffusion coefficients of water (D _water) were determined from the total water profiles using a modified Boltzmann-Matano analysis. The diffusivity of water increases linearly with water content <3 wt % but exponentially at higher water contents. The activation energy decreases from 64 ± 10 kJ/mole for 0.5 wt % water to 46 ± 5 kJ/mole for 4 wt % water but remains constant at higher water contents. A small but systematic decrease of D _water with pressure indicates an average activation volume of about 9 cm³/mole. The diffusivity (in cm²/s) can be calculated for given water content (in wt %), T (in K) and P (in kbar) by in the ranges 1073 K ≤ T ≤ 1473 K; 0.5 kbar ≤ P≤ 5␣kbar; 0.5 wt % ≤ C _water ≤ 6 wt %. The absence of alkali concentration gradients in the glasses after the experiments shows that interdiffusion of alkali and H⁺ or H₃O⁺ gives no contribution to the transport of water in aluminosilicate melts. The H/D interdiffusion coefficients obtained at 800°C and 5 kbar using glass pieces with almost the same molar content of either water or deuterium oxide are almost identical to the chemical diffusivities of water. This indicates that protons are transported by the neutral component H₂O under these conditions. Received: 26 March 1996 / Accepted: 23 August 1996