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Diffusion of molybdenum and tungsten in anhydrous and hydrous granitic melts

  • Peipei Zhang , Li Zhang , Zhongping Wang , Wan-Cai Li EMAIL logo , Xuan Guo and Huaiwei Ni
Published/Copyright: November 28, 2018
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 103 Issue 12

Abstract

To better understand the transport of Mo and W in granitic melts and the formation mechanism of porphyry ore deposits, we have investigated the diffusivities of Mo and W in granitic melts with 0.04–5.1 wt% H2O at 1000–1600 °C and 1 GPa using a diffusion couple approach and a Mo saturation approach with Mo sheet serving as the source. The Mo and W diffusivities obtained from diffusion profiles measured by LA-ICP-MS can be described as: DMo,anhy=10−1.47±0.73exp[−(387±25)/RT],DW,anhy=10−1.28±1.05exp[−(396±35)/RT],DMo,2.7wt%H2O=10−5.37±0.52exp[−(211±18)/RT],DMo,5.1wt%H2O=10−6.87±0.69exp[−(133±20)/RT], where D is diffusivity in m2/s (with the subscripts denoting water contents and “anhy” representing nominally anhydrous melt), R is the gas constant, T is the temperature in K, and the activation energies in the exponential are in kJ/mol. When the influence of H2O is incorporated, Mo diffusivity in granitic melts with <5.1 wt% H2O can be modeled as: logDMo=−(1.94±1.58)−(0.87±0.36)w−[(19341±2784)−(2312±620)w]/T where w is H2O content in the melt in wt%. The diffusion behavior (low diffusivities, high activation energies, and strong H2O effects) of Mo and W indicates that they exist and diffuse in the melt in the form of hexavalent cations. Their low diffusivities imply that the bulk concentrations of Mo and W in exsolved hydrothermal fluid and those in the melt are probably not in equilibrium. However, because of the large fluid-melt partition coefficients of Mo and W, they can still be enriched in the hydrothermal fluid, although to a lesser extent than equilibrium partitioning would allow. Slow Mo and W diffusion can be a significant rate-limiting step for the formation of porphyry Mo/W deposits.

Keywords: Porphyry deposits; molybdenum; tungsten; diffusivity; granitic melt

Acknowledgments

We thank Ting Liang for assistance in LA-ICP-MS analyses. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41602030, 41590622, 41721002), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M592058), the 111 Project of Ministry of Education, China, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (WK2080000102).

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Received: 2018-03-27
Accepted: 2018-09-07
Published Online: 2018-11-28
Published in Print: 2018-12-19

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2018-6569
Keywords for this article
Porphyry deposits; molybdenum; tungsten; diffusivity; granitic melt

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Letter
  2. Rapid solid-state sintering in volcanic systems
  3. How geometry and anisotropy affect residual strain in host-inclusion systems: Coupling experimental and numerical approaches
  4. Special collection: Earth analogs for martian geological materials and processes
  5. Diverse mineral assemblages of acidic alteration in the Rio Tinto area (southwest Spain): Implications for Mars
  6. Special collection: From magmas to ore deposits
  7. Archaean hydrothermal fluid modified zircons at Sunrise Dam and Kanowna Belle gold deposits, Western Australia: Implications for post-magmatic fluid activity and ore genesis
  8. Special collection: Water in nominally hydrous and anhydrous minerals
  9. New high-pressure phases in MOOH (M = Al, Ga, In)
  10. Articles
  11. Nuwaite (Ni6GeS2) and butianite (Ni6SnS2), two new minerals from the Allende meteorite: Alteration products in the early solar system
  12. The role of magma mixing, identification of mafic magma inputs, and structure of the underlying magmatic system at Mount St. Helens
  13. Thermodynamic properties of natural melilites
  14. Thermal conductivity anomaly in spin-crossover ferropericlase under lower mantle conditions and implications for heat flow across the core-mantle boundary
  15. Electronic properties and compressional behavior of Fe–Si alloys at high pressure
  16. Diffusion of molybdenum and tungsten in anhydrous and hydrous granitic melts
  17. High-pressure single-crystal structural analysis of AlSiO3OH phase egg
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  21. The role of crustal melting in the formation of rhyolites: Constraints from SIMS oxygen isotope data (Chon Aike Province, Patagonia, Argentina)
  22. New Mineral Names
  23. Book Review
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