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A new oxygen barometer for solar system basaltic glasses based on vanadium valence

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1008913

An oxybarometer based on vanadium valence and applicable to basaltic glasses covers eight orders of magnitude in oxygen fugacity. The determination of oxidation conditions for basaltic magmas derived by the melting of planetary mantles is critical to our understanding of the nature and evolution of planetary interiors. Yet, these determinations are compromised in terrestrial and especially extraterrestrial basalts by our analytical and computational methods for estimating oxygen fugacity (fO{sub 2}). For example, mineralogical barometers (1, 2) can be reduced in effectiveness by subsolidus re-equilibration of mineral assemblages, inversion of mineralogical data to melt characteristics, and deviations of the natural mineral compositions from ideal thermodynamic parameters. Likewise, techniques to estimate fO{sub 2} based on the valence state of Fe (i.e. Fe{sup 3+}/Fe{sup 2+}) are ineffective for materials that crystallized at or below the IW buffer, and only contain Fe{sup 2+} and Fe{sup 0} (3). For these reasons, we have developed an oxybarometer based on the valence state of vanadium in basaltic glasses. This oxybarometer has enormous potential because (1) V valence is measured in basaltic glasses that have been quenched at near liquidus temperatures, thereby recording magmatic fO{sub 2} conditions, and (2) V is a multivalent element, existing as V{sup 2+}, V{sup 3+}, V{sup 4+}, and V{sup 5+}, thus allowing for applicability over a range of redox conditions from the most reduced materials in the solar system, (e.g. calcium aluminum rich inclusions in chondritic meteorites [4]) to the most oxidized terrestrial magmas (this work).

Research Organization:
Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1008913
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH