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Vanadium partitioning and the oxidation state of Archaean komatiite magmas

Nature volume 389, pages 842–845 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

The MgO content of komatiite lavas is an important measure of their formation temperature deep in the Archaean mantle, and forms the basis for models of the early Earth's thermal and chemical evolution1,2,3,4,5. Estimates of the primary MgO content of komatiites are sensitive to the oxidation state—characterized by the oxygen fugacity ( f O 2 )—assumed for the magmas during their crystallization. Despite two decades of study, however, f O 2 is still poorly constrained for these lavas. Here I present an estimate of the f O 2 for komatiite flows, based on the systematics of vanadium partitioning between komatiitic liquid and olivine in six well-characterized komatiite flows of varying ages. This approach shows that the oxidation state of several of these Archaean lava flows was the same as, or possibly more oxidizing than, that of present-day oceanic basalts. These results may require a downward revision of the mantle melting temperature estimated for many komatiites by about 50 °C, and suggest that the mantle was unlikely to be much less oxidized during the Archaean era than at present.

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Figure 1: Variation of DVol/liq with f O 2 (expressed relative to the nickel–nickel oxide oxygen buffer at the temperature of interest (ΔNNO)) for experiments over a range of temperatures.
Figure 2: Covariation of V and Ti, Zr, Sc, Yb abundances in six well-characterized komatiite flows.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by research and equipment grants from NSERC of Canada. This paper benefited from reviews by H. Palme and N. Arndt, and from the encouragement of C.Fischer.

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  1. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, V8W 2Y2, British Columbia, Canada

    Dante Canil

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Canil, D. Vanadium partitioning and the oxidation state of Archaean komatiite magmas. Nature 389, 842–845 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/39860

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