Partition of Ni between olivine and sulfide: equilibria with sulfide-oxide liquids

The partition of Ni between olivine and monosulfide-oxide liquid has been investigated at 1300–1395° C, =10^–8-9–10^–6.8, and =10^–2.0–10^–0.9, over the composition range 20–79 mol. % NiS. The product olivine compositions varied from Fo98 to Fo59 and from 0.06 to 3.11 wt% NiO. The metal/sulfur ratio of the sulfide-oxide liquid increases with increase in , decrease in , and increase in NiS content. The Ni/Fe exchange reaction has been perfectly reversed using natural olivine and pure forsterite as starting materials. The FeO and NiO contents of olivine from runs equilibrated at the same and form isobaric distributions with NiS content, which, to a first approximation, are dependent at constant temperature and total pressure on a variable term, –0.5 log ( / ). The Ni/Fe distribution coefficient (K _D3) exhibits only a weak decrease from 35 to 29 with increase in from the IW buffer to close to the FMQ buffer. At values higher than FMQ, the sulfide-oxide liquid has the approximate composition (Ni,Fe)₃±_xS₂K _D358. The present K _D3 vs O/(S+O) data define a trend which extrapolates to K _D320 at 10 wt% oxygen in the sulfide-oxide liquid. The compositions of olivine and Ni-Cu sulfides associated with early-magmatic basic rocks and komatiites are consistent, at 1400° C, with a value of -log ( / ) of about 7.7, which is equivalent to 0.0 wt% oxygen in the hypothesized immiscible sulfide-oxide liquid. Therefore, K _D3 would not be reduced significantly from the 30 to 35 range for sulfide-oxide liquids with low oxygen contents.