The partitioning of trace transition elements in crystal structures: a provocative review with applications to mantle geochemistry

Interrelationships between chemical compositions and crystal structures of minerals pioneered by Goldschmidt have been overlooked by modern geochemists. While analytical techniques and data for trace elements have become more sophisticated, progress has been slow in relating abundance data of individual elements to their relative enrichments in specific sites in mineral structures. The concept of diadochy has degenerated into an analytical relationship between major and trace elements, instead of its original crystallographic basis of replacement of one atom by another at a specific site in a crystal structure. Future interpretations of trace element data must consider the partitioning of atoms between different coordination sites in multisite mineral structures.The well-known partitioning of nickel and chromium into the earliest minerals during magmatic crystallization is extended to magma evolution in the mantle. The strong preference of Ni²⁺ and Cr³⁺ for octahedral sites in minerals leads to their enrichment in certain Iherzolites which are refractory residua during partial fusion of the mantle.