Heat capacity, configurational heat capacity and fragility of hydrous magmas

Abstract

The glassy and liquid heat capacities of four series of dry and hydrous natural glasses and magma as a function of temperature and water content (up to 19.9mol%) were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The analyzed compositions are basalt, latite, trachyte and pantellerite. The results of this study indicate that the measured heat capacity of glasses (Cpg) is a linear function of composition and is well reproduced by the empirical model of Richet (1987). For the investigated glasses, the partial molar heat capacity of water can be considered as independent of composition, in agreement with Bouhifd et al. (2006). For hydrous liquids, the heat capacity (Cpliq) decreases nonlinearly with increasing water content. Previously published models, combined with the partial molar heat capacity of water from the literature, are not able to reproduce our experimental data in a satisfactory way. We estimated the partial molar heat capacity of water (CpH2O) in hydrous magma over a broad compositional range. The proposed value is 41±3Jmol−1K−1. Water strongly affects the configurational heat capacity at the glass transition temperature [Cpconf (Tg)]. An increases of Cpconf (Tg) with water content was measured for the polymerized liquids (trachyte and pantellerite), while the opposite behavior was observed for the most depolymerized liquids (basalt and latite). Structural and rheological implications of this behavior are discussed in light of the presented results.