The role of acidity–basicity in evaporating refractory inclusions in chondrites
O. I. Yakovlev, K. M. Ryazantsev, S. I. Shornikov
Geochemistry International
March 2017, Volume 55, Issue 3, pp 251–256
First Online: 12 March 2017
“When melts of Ca–Al inclusions in chondrites, which are dominated by the oxides SiO2, MgO, CaO, and Al2O3, evaporate at high temperatures, the SiO2 and MgO fugacities are inverted: SiO2, which is more volatile than MgO, becomes less volatile when melts rich in refractory CaO and Al2O3 evaporate. This fugacity inversion can be realistically explained within the framework of D.S. Korzhinskii’s theory of acid–base interaction between components in silicate melts. According to this theory, an increase in CaO concentration in the melt increases its basicity, and this, in turn, increases the activity (and hence, also fugacity) of MgO and decreases those of SiO2. In the real compositions of the Ca–Al inclusions in chondrites, the MgO/SiO2 ratio systematically decreases with an increase in the CaO concentration under the effect of acid–base interaction.”
