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W. Ben Hankins

Publications and source records attributed to W. Ben Hankins.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2023

Garnet stability in arc basalt, andesite, and dacite—An experimental study

Garnet’s stability in arc magmas and its influences on their differentiation were explored experimentally in a typical basalt, andesite, and dacite at conditions of 0.9–1.67 GPa, 800–1300 °C, with 2–9 wt.% added H 2 O, and with oxygen fugacity buffered near Re + O 2 = ReO 2 (~ Ni-NiO + 1.7 log 10 bars). Garnet did not grow at 0.9 GPa in any of the compositions, even with garnet seeds added to facilitate nucleation. At 1.0–1.2 GPa, garnet grew as thin rims (< 5 µm) on introduced garnet seeds coexisting with dacitic to rhyodacitic liquids at temperatures ≤ 1000 °C. At 1.3 GPa, garnet grew readily with no seeds from 900 to 1100 °C coexisting with liquids ranging from peraluminous basaltic andesite to rhyodacite, and at 1.46 GPa, garnet was stable as hot as 1150 °C in metaluminous basaltic liquid. Garnet grew as a liquidus phase only in the dacite, a composition similar to the average upper continental crust. Inverse experiments on the dacite determined a liquidus multiple-saturation point with garnet, plagioclase, orthopyroxene, calcic clinopyroxene, and amphibole at 975 °C, 1.46 GPa, with 7 wt.% dissolved H 2 O. Such dacitic and more evolved melts can be products of peritectic reactions that with decreasing temperature consume garnet, calcic clinopyroxene, and melt components, producing amphibole and less abundant but more evolved melts. For this reason, experiments on product melts need not produce reactant minerals, accounting for some disparities in published experimental results on the apparent stability of garnet in intermediate-to-evolved arc magmas. Results on more mafic compositions are more reliable guides and show that liquids of arc dacitic composition, and more evolved compositions, would coexist stably with garnet only in the deepest portions of continental-margin arc crust with average thickness and density (~ 43 km, ~ 1.2 GPa) or in the underlying shallow mantle. Metaluminous arc basaltic, basaltic andesitic, and many andesitic liquids would not coexist stably with garnet at pressures ranging from the crust to at least the midpoint of the mantle wedge, but results in the literature allow that some andesitic liquids with higher Fe/Mg than common in arcs may also saturate with garnet in the deeper portions of average-thickness continental arc crust.

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology↗
USGS2021

Constraints on deep, CO2-rich degassing at arc volcanoes from solubility experiments on hydrous basaltic andesite of Pavlof Volcano, Alaska Peninsula, at 300 to 1200 MPa

The solubility of CO 2 in hydrous basaltic andesite was examined in f O2 -controlled experiments at a temperature of 1125 °C and pressures between 310–1200 MPa. Concentrations of dissolved H 2 O and CO 2 in experimental glasses were determined by ion microprobe calibrated on a subset of run glasses analyzed by high-temperature vacuum manometry. Assuming that the solubility of H 2 O in mafic melt is relatively well known, estimates of 𝑋H2Ofluid and 𝑃H2Ofluid in the saturating fluid were modeled, and by difference, values for 𝑋CO2fluid and 𝑃CO2fluid were obtained ( X CO2 ~0.5–0.9); f CO2 could be then calculated from the fluid composition, temperature, and pressure. Dissolved H 2 O over a range of 2.3–5.5 wt% had no unequivocal influence on the dissolution of CO 2 at the pressures and fluid compositions examined. For these H 2 O concentrations, dissolved CO 2 increases with f CO2 following an empirical power-law relation: dissolved CO 2 (ppmw) = 14.9−3.5+4.5 [ f CO2 (MPa)] 0.7±0.03 . The highest-pressure results plot farthest from this equation but are within its 1 standard-error uncertainty envelope. We compare our experimental data with three recent CO 2 -H 2 O solubility models: Papale et al. (2006) ; Iacono-Marziano et al. (2012) ; and Ghiorso and Gualda (2015) . The Papale et al. (2006) and Iacono-Marizano et al. (2012) models give similar results, both over-predicting the solubility of CO 2 in a melt of the Pavlof basaltic andesite composition across the f CO2 range, whereas the Ghiorso and Gualda (2015) model under-predicts CO 2 solubility. All three solubility models would indicate a strong enhancement of CO 2 solubility with increasing dissolved H 2 O not apparent in our results. We also examine our results in the context of previous high-pressure CO 2 solubility experiments on basaltic melts. Dissolved CO 2 correlates positively with mole fraction (Na+K+Ca)/Al across a compositional spectrum of trachybasalt-alkali basalt-tholeiite-icelandite-basaltic andesite. Shortcomings of current solubility models for a widespread arc magma type indicate that our understanding of degassing in the deep crust and uppermost mantle remains semi-quantitative. Experimental studies systematically varying concentrations of melt components (Mg, Ca, Na, K, Al, Si) may be necessary to identify solubility reactions, quantify their equilibrium constants, and thereby build an accurate and generally applicable solubility model.

Alaska↗
USGS2013

Crystallization of oxidized, moderately hydrous arc basalt at mid- to lower-crustal pressures: Implications for andesite genesis

This study focuses on the production of convergent margin calc-alkaline andesites by crystallization–differentiation of basaltic magmas in the lower to middle crust. Previous experimental studies show that dry, reduced, subalkaline basalts differentiate to tholeiitic (high Fe/Mg) daughter liquids, but the influences of H 2 O and oxidation on differentiation are less well established. Accordingly, we performed crystallization experiments at controlled oxidized fO 2 (Re–ReO 2 ≈ ΔNi–NiO + 2) on a relatively magnesian basalt (8.7 wt% MgO) typical of mafic magmas erupted in the Cascades near Mount Rainier, Washington. The basalt was synthesized with 2 wt% H2O and run at 900, 700, and 400 MPa and 1,200 to 950 °C. A broadly clinopyroxenitic crystallization interval dominates near the liquidus at 900 and 700 MPa, consisting of augite + olivine + orthopyroxene + Cr-spinel (in decreasing abundance). With decreasing temperature, plagioclase crystallizes, Fe–Ti-oxide replaces spinel, olivine dissolves, and finally amphibole appears, producing gabbroic and then amphibole gabbroic crystallization stages. Enhanced plagioclase stability at lower pressure narrows the clinopyroxenitic interval and brings the gabbroic interval toward the liquidus. Liquids at 900 MPa track along Miyashiro’s (Am J Sci 274(4):321–355, 1974) tholeiitic versus calc-alkaline boundary, whereas those at 700 and 400 MPa become calc-alkaline at silica contents ≥56 wt%. This difference is chiefly due to higher temperature appearance of magnetite (versus spinel) at lower pressures. Although the evolved liquids are similar in many respects to common calc-alkaline andesites, the 900 and 700 MPa liquids differ in having low CaO concentrations due to early and abundant crystallization of augite, with the result that those liquids become peraluminous (ASI: molar Al/(Na + K + 2Ca) > 1) at ≥61 wt% SiO 2 , similar to liquids reported in other studies of the high-pressure crystallization of hydrous basalts (Müntener and Ulmer in Geophys Res Lett 33(21):L21308, 2006). The lower-pressure liquids (400 MPa) have this same trait, but to a lesser extent due to more abundant near-liquidus plagioclase crystallization. A compilation of >6,500 analyses of igneous rocks from the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada batholith, representative of convergent margin (arc) magmas, shows that ASI increases continuously and linearly with SiO2 from basalts to rhyolites or granites and that arc magmas are not commonly peraluminous until SiO 2 exceeds 69 wt%. These relations are consistent with plagioclase accompanying mafic silicates over nearly all the range of crystallization (or remelting). The scarcity of natural peraluminous andesites shows that progressive crystallization–differentiation of primitive basalts in the deep crust, producing early clinopyroxenitic cumulates and evolved liquids, does not dominate the creation of intermediate arc magmas or of the continental crust. Instead, mid- to upper-crustal differentiation and/or open-system processes are critical to the production of intermediate arc magmas. Primary among the open-system processes may be extraction of highly evolved (granitic, rhyolitic) liquids at advanced degrees of basalt solidification (or incipient partial melting of predecessor gabbroic intrusions) and mixing of such liquids into replenishing basalts. Furthermore, if the andesitic-composition continents derived from basaltic sources, the arc ASI–SiO 2 relation shows that the mafic component returned to the mantle was gabbroic in composition, not pyroxenitic.

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology↗