EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF NI DIFFUSION COEFFICIENTS IN OLIVINE AND THEIR DEPENDENCE ON TEMPERATURE, COMPOSITION, OXYGEN FUGACITY, AND CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC ORIENTATION

Abstract

Diffusion couple experiments were carried out with San Carlos olivine (Fo90) and NiFe alloys (Ni100, Ni97Fe3, Ni90Fe10) or other olivine compositions (Fo100, Fo25) in order to determine the dependence on temperature, oxygen fugacity, composition and crystallographic orientation of Ni diffusion coefficient (DNi) in olivine. Experiments at 1 atmosphere total pressure cover a temperature range of 900–1445°C with run durations from 48 to 2155 h at different oxygen fugacities. In an Arrhenius plot the best fit for all data for Fo90 yields an activation energy (ED) of 220 ± 14 kJ/mol and an fO2 dependence of (1/4.25)·Δ log fO2 = Δ log DNi. The relationship between diffusion coefficients along different crystallographic axes at 1200°C is given by D[001] ≈ 6·D[100] ≈ 6·D[010]. DNi depends strongly on the major element (i.e. Fe/Mg) composition of olivine and decreases by about 1 order of magnitude as the olivine composition changes from Fo35 to Fo90. Thus, experimental investigations in Fe-free systems cannot be applied to natural samples. For calculation of residence times or cooling rates the present Ni data yield shorter timescales compared to those obtained using diffusion data published until now.In addition to Ni diffusion coefficients, Fe-Mg, Mn and Ca diffusion data were obtained from some of the same diffusion couples (Fo90-Fo100). It is found that the activation energies, ED[Ni] ~ ED[Fe-Mg] ~ ED[Mn] ≤ ED[Ca]. All diffusion coefficients are strongly dependent on the major element composition of olivine.