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Basaltic glass with high-temperature equilibrated immiscible sulphide bodies with native iron from disko, central West Greenland

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Abstract

Immiscible sulphide bodies show eutectic quench textures in a basaltic glass rock (mg=66) from a native iron-bearing dyke chilled at T=1,200° C and P=250 bars. The sulphide bodies are composed of troilite (90–91%), iron (9–10%) and very scarce vanadium-rich chromite and approach a ternary cotectic in the Ni-poor part of the system Fe-Ni-S. Transition element partition between olivine (mg=83), silicate glass (mg=59) and sulphide blebs indicate that the phases were equilibrated at 1,200° C. D vanadium(olivine/glass) is close to unity and reflect the reducing nature of the rock, for which estimates of f O2∼10−12 to −13 and f S2∼10−5 have been made. D nickel, cobalt, copper (sulphide/glass)=4,300, 230 and 380 respectively, are much higher than reported experimentally determined D's onmonosulphide/basalt glass at the same temperature and show increasing positive deviation (ΔNi>ΔCo>ΔCu) with the increasingly siderophile character of the elements. K Dnickel-iron (sulphide/olivine)=63 is much higher than an experimentally reported value (33) and comparison with published thermodynamic data on Ni-partition between olivine and iron metal suggests that the positive deviation is roughly proportional to the excess metal component in the sulphide melt. The occurrence of strongly Ni-depleted reduced basalts on Disko shows that fractionation of metal and sulphides was a common and geologically important process.

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Pedersen, A.K. Basaltic glass with high-temperature equilibrated immiscible sulphide bodies with native iron from disko, central West Greenland. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 69, 397–407 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00372265

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