Development of orthopyroxene-Fe/Mg ferrite symplectites by continuous olivine oxidation

The development of orthopyroxene-Fe/Mg ferrite symplectites associated with olivine is discussed with respect to the chemical reactions by which they form. Previously proposed reactions are presented graphically and the differences between them are reviewed. With the exception of exsolution, these are all discontinuous reactions in the sense that olivine is replaced by the two-phase symplectite assemblage. Olivine-hosted symplectites developed in the margins of lherzolite xenoliths from Kauai, Hawaii, demonstrate a reaction mechanism which has not been previously documented from natural samples. Original Fo90 olivine in these samples oxidized to a new assemblage consisting of orthopyroxene (En92–95)-Fe/Mg ferrite (Mf35–50) symplectites developed within more magnesian olivine (Fo92–96) hosts. Thus, by this mechanism, olivine of a different composition persists as part of a final three-phase assemblage. As oxidation advanced, the compositions of all three product phases became continuously more magnesian and the stoichiometric coefficients of the orthopyroxene and Fe/Mg ferrite continuously increased, whereas those of the product olivine decreased in the mass-balance equations. These characteristics demonstrate that the reaction was controlled by oxygen diffusion into the xenoliths from the highly oxidized alkali picrite melt in which they were entrained. Thermodynamic calculations suggest that a gradient in oxygen fugacity of 100.9 bars existed across the xenolith rims and resulted in compositional gradients of 4 mol% fayalite and ferrosilite and 15 mol% magnetite.