Experimental study of Cl solubility in hydrous alkaline melts: constraints on the theoretical maximum amount of Cl in trachytic and phonolitic melts

Abstract.

Cl solubility in evolved alkaline melts was investigated at 860–930 °C and pressures of 25 to 250 MPa using natural trachytes and a synthetic phonolite equilibrated with subcritical fluids in the H₂O–(Na,K)Cl system (i.e. silicate melt coexisted with water-rich aqueous fluid and a saline brine). Fluid phase characteristics were identified by examination of fluid inclusions present in the run product glasses and the fluid bulk composition was calculated by mass balance. The Cl contents of trachytic glasses coexisting with subcritical fluids increase linearly with decreasing pressure from 250 to 25 MPa and range from 0.37 to 0.90 wt%; Cl in the phonolitic glass ranges from 0.35 to 0.59 wt%. These values are approximately twice those found in metaluminous rhyolitic melts under similar conditions. Variations from peralkaline to peraluminous composition has little effect on Cl solubility in trachytes, whereas it is a more important factor in phonolites. More generally, melt structure, in particular non-bringing oxygen, appears to strongly influence Cl solubility in silicate melts. The negative correlation between pressure and melt Cl content is governed by the large negative partial volume of NaCl in the vapour phase. No change in Cl solubility is observed between 200 and 250 MPa. Comparison of our experimental results with Cl abundance in glass inclusion and matrix glass from Italian volcanoes can be used to identify those eruptive products preserved in the geologic record which may have been associated with large Cl emissions.