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Evidence for lithium-aluminosilicate supersaturation of pegmatite-forming melts

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Abstract

New experimental data on the solubility of lithium (Li) at spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) and petalite (LiAlSi4O10) saturation at 500 MPa and 550–750 °C reveal evidence for lithium supersaturation of pegmatite-forming melts before the formation of Li-aluminosilicates. The degree of Li enrichment in granitic melts can reach ~11,000 ppm above the saturation value before the crystallization of Li-aluminosilicate minerals at lower temperatures. Comparison of the experimental results with the spodumene-rich Moblan pegmatite (Quebec) is consistent with extreme Li enrichment of the pegmatite-forming melt prior to emplacement, which cannot be explained with equilibrium crystallization of Li-aluminosilicates from a common granitic melt. The results of this study support the model of disequilibrium fractional crystallization through liquidus undercooling as the most plausible mechanism for the generation of such Li-rich ore resources.

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Acknowledgments

We thank E. Bruce Watson for kindly providing the LCO starting material as well as the Mineralogy Section of the Canadian Museum of Nature and Kim Tait from the Royal Ontario Museum for supplying the crystals used in the experiments. We also greatly appreciate the help of Lang Shi for EMPA and André Poirier for LA-ICP-MS analyses. Additionally, we thank Martin Jones from Perilya and Yvon Trudeau from SOQUEM for providing access to core samples from the Moblan pegmatite, and Joanie Béland from SOQUEM for providing the detailed core logs and geological information. Lastly, we wish to acknowledge Alexander Bartels and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on the manuscript. The present study was supported by a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to D.R. Baker.

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  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montreal, QC, H3A 0E8, Canada

    Victoria Maneta, Don R. Baker & William Minarik

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  1. Victoria Maneta
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Correspondence to Victoria Maneta.

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Communicated by Gordon Moore.

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Maneta, V., Baker, D.R. & Minarik, W. Evidence for lithium-aluminosilicate supersaturation of pegmatite-forming melts. Contrib Mineral Petrol 170, 4 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-015-1158-z

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