Point defect chemistry of minerals under a hydrothermal environment

Abstract

The kinetics of rock/water interactions are sufficiently rapid that most hydrothermal systems in nature will be in equilibrium with the adjacent rock mass. The bulk rock chemistry buffers the fugacity of oxygen, which in turn fixes the fugacities of water and of hydrogen for a given pressure and temperature. Systems in which only water, oxygen, and hydrogen are present as fluid phases are considered here. Variations in the fugacity of oxygen by several orders of magnitude are possible locally, controlled by variations in local rock chemistry; these lead to relative small variations in the fugacity of water. Incorporation of a hydrogen defect that is capable of acting as an acceptor into silicates leads to a strong dependence of point defect chemistry upon the fugacities of both water and oxygen. The strong dependence on the fugacity of water is capable of explaining the hydrolytic weakening effect, but in view of the strong dependence on oxygen fugacity, the question should also be raised whether it is an oxygen effect that is observed in the classical hydrolytic weakening process or solely a dependence on changes in the fugacity of water. Examples are given for impure natural quartz, olivine, and albite with trace amounts of calcium.