Home Metastable equilibrium in the C-H-O system: Graphite deposition in crustal fluids
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Metastable equilibrium in the C-H-O system: Graphite deposition in crustal fluids

  • Dionysis I. Foustoukos EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: April 2, 2015
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

The presence of graphite in natural environments is linked to the redox and thermal conditions of C-H-O fluid/graphite equilibrium in hydrothermal veins and metasomatic contacts. A time-series experimental study was performed to investigate the graphite undersaturated C-H-O system at 600 °C and 1000 MPa, and with ƒO₂ ranging from highly reducing (10−23) to highly oxidizing (104). A nonvolatile intermediate carbon phase exhibiting the Raman spectral features of poorly ordered graphite was formed as the system evolves toward equilibrium as a function of run duration. The thermometric empirical expressions using the G and D bands in the spectra of graphite failed to accurately estimate the experimental temperature. Thus, the existing Raman geothermometers appear inadequate to address graphite formation under conditions of metastable equilibria and to account for kinetic effects such as, for example, the degree of crystallinity. The presence of poorly ordered graphitic carbon at all the redox conditions investigated suggests that the disordered structure of the mineral attains an extensive thermodynamic stability field, and that it may be more readily deposited than crystalline graphite. Metastable graphitic carbon could, therefore, function as a precursor and substrate for the formation of the well-ordered phase. Such metastable graphite may provide an intermediate state that facilitates subduction of carbonaceous material, while imposing constraints on the formation mechanisms and the 13C/12C isotopic systematics of deep seated carbonaceous fluids and minerals such as diamonds.

Received: 2011-12-22
Accepted: 2012-4-21
Published Online: 2015-4-2
Published in Print: 2012-8-1

© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Actinides in Geology, Energy, and the Environment. Petrography and geochronology of the Pele Mountain quartz-pebble conglomerate uranium deposit, Elliot Lake District, Canada
  2. Celadonite in continental flood basalts of the Columbia River Basalt Group
  3. Thermodynamics of manganese oxides: Effects of particle size and hydration on oxidation-reduction equilibria among hausmannite, bixbyite, and pyrolusite
  4. Grossular: A crystal-chemical, calorimetric, and thermodynamic study
  5. Redetermination of high-temperature heat capacity of Mg2SiO4 ringwoodite: Measurement and lattice vibrational model calculation
  6. Thermal behavior of realgar As4S4, and of arsenolite As2O3 and non-stoichiometric As8S8+x crystals produced from As4S4 melt recrystallization
  7. Thermodynamics of the magnetite-ulvöspinel (Fe3O4-Fe2TiO4) solid solution
  8. Raman spectroscopy of (Ca,Mg)MgSi2O6 clinopyroxenes
  9. In-situ Raman spectroscopic study of sulfur speciation in oxidized magmatic-hydrothermal fluids
  10. Structural anisotropy and annealing-induced nanoscale atomic rearrangements in metamict titanite
  11. Hydrous fluid as the growth media of natural polycrystalline diamond, carbonado: Implication from IR spectra and microtextural observations
  12. Metastable equilibrium in the C-H-O system: Graphite deposition in crustal fluids
  13. Controlled morphogenesis of amorphous silica and its relevance to biosilicification
  14. Structural relaxation in tetrahedrally coordinated Co2+ along the gahnite-Co-aluminate spinel solid solution
  15. Limitations of Fe2+ and Mn2+ site occupancy in tourmaline: Evidence from Fe2+- and Mn2+-rich tourmaline
  16. Isothermal compression of face-centered cubic iron
  17. Bonding and structural changes in siderite at high pressure
  18. Energetics and kinetics of carbonate orientational ordering in vaterite calcium carbonate
  19. Growth process and crystallographic properties of ammonia-induced vaterite
  20. Argesite, (NH4)7Bi3Cl16, a new mineral from La Fossa Crater, Vulcano, Aeolian Islands, Italy: A first example of the [Bi2Cl10]4− anion
  21. Experimental study of mineral equilibria in the system K2O(Li2O)-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O-HF at 300 to 600 °C and 100 MPa with application to natural greisen systems
  22. Tobelite and NH+4-rich muscovite single crystals from Ordovician Armorican sandstones (Brittany, France): Structure and crystal chemistry
  23. The enigmatic iron oxyhydroxysulfate nanomineral schwertmannite: Morphology, structure, and composition
  24. Ferric iron and water incorporation in wadsleyite under hydrous and oxidizing conditions: A XANES, Mössbauer, and SIMS study
  25. Kircherite, a new mineral of the cancrinite-sodalite group with a 36-layer stacking sequence: Occurrence and crystal structure
  26. Molecular models of birnessite and related hydrated layered minerals
  27. Letter: Gold-telluride nanoparticles revealed in arsenic-free pyrite
  28. Letter: XAS evidence for the stability of polytellurides in hydrothermal fluids up to 599 °C, 800 bar
Downloaded on 10.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.2138/am.2012.4086/html
Scroll to top button