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A REE-in-plagioclase–clinopyroxene thermometer for crustal rocks

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Abstract

A REE-in-plagioclase-clinopyroxene thermometer has been developed on the basis of the temperature- and composition-dependent rare-earth element (REE) partitioning between coexisting plagioclase and clinopyroxene. This two-mineral exchange thermobarometer is constructed using parameters from lattice strain models for REE + Y partitioning in plagioclase and in clinopyroxene that were independently calibrated against experimentally determined mineral-melt partitioning data. An important advantage of this REE-based thermometer is that it can provide accurate temperatures through linear least-squares analysis of REE + Y as a group. Applications of the REE-in-plagioclase-clinopyroxene thermometer to volcanic and cumulate rocks show that temperatures derived from the new thermometer agree well with independently constrained magma crystallization temperatures, which adds confidence to applications of the REE-exchange thermometer to natural rocks with a wide spectrum of composition (i.e., from basalt to rhyolite). However, systematic temperature differences appear between the REE- and Mg-exchange thermometers for the volcanic and cumulate rocks. Through numerical simulations of diffusion in plagioclase-clinopyroxene systems, we demonstrate that (1) due to their slower diffusion rates, REE in minerals preferentially records crystallization or near-crystallization temperatures of the rock, and that (2) Mg is readily rest to lower temperatures for rocks from intermediately or slowly cooled magma bodies but records the initial crystallization temperatures of rocks from rapidly cooled magmas. Given their distinct diffusive responses to temperature changes, REE and Mg closure temperatures recorded by the two thermometers can be used in concert to study thermal and magmatic histories of plagioclase- and clinopyroxene-bearing rocks.

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Sources of the experimental data are provided in Sun and Liang (2012) and Sun et al. (2017) and are also summarized in supplementary Tables S1 and S2

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jill VanTongeren, Lewis Ashwal, Fred Roelofse, Christian Tegner, and Lijing Yao for useful discussion. Thoughtful reviews by Cin-Ty Lee and an anonymous reviewer helped to improve this manuscript. C. Sun acknowledges support from the Devonshire postdoctoral scholarship at WHOI. This work was supported in part by the NSF grants EAR-1220076 and EAR-1632815, and NASA grant NNX13AH07G.

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  1. Chenguang Sun

    Present address: Department of Earth Science, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, MS-126, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Box 1846, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Chenguang Sun & Yan Liang

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    Chenguang Sun

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  1. Chenguang Sun
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Correspondence to Chenguang Sun.

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Communicated by Timothy L. Grove.

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Sun, C., Liang, Y. A REE-in-plagioclase–clinopyroxene thermometer for crustal rocks. Contrib Mineral Petrol 172, 24 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-016-1326-9

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