A numerical model of the fractionation of olivine and molten sulfide from komatiite magma

Abstract

A numerical model has been formulated that simulates the differentiation of mafic and ultramafic magmas by the fractionation of olivine and molten sulfide. The model is used to simulate the low-pressure differentiation of a komatiite magma series under both sulfide-undersaturated and sulfide-saturated conditions. Under sulfide-saturated conditions, the molecular ratio of olivine to sulfide removed from the silicate liquid is 39 ± 2. Separation of this relatively small proportion of sulfide melt results in significantly different chemical trends in derivative liquids and fractionated material than are produced in the sulfide-undersaturated system, and this observation may be useful in mineral exploration. Comparison of the model results with published analyses of natural rocks indicate that the liquid equivalent members of the komatiite suite at Yakabindie, Western Australia, could be derivative liquids produced by fractional crystallization of olivine from a sulfide-undersaturated parental magma containing about 32 wt.% MgO. Derivation of a komatiitic pyroxenite with 20 wt.% MgO would require fractionation of 43.4 mol.% olivine whereas production of a komatiitic basalt with 12 wt.% MgO would involve removal of 58.5 mol.% olivine. Synvolcanic intrusive dunitic lenses at Yakabindie could have been produced by accumulation of material separated during about 3.8 mol.% fractionation of a similar parental magma, but the concentration of chalcophile elements in these bodies requires that the magma was sulfide-saturated.