Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A mechanism for preferential H2O leakage from fluid inclusions in quartz, based on TEM observations

  • Published:
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Preferential leakage of H2O from fluid inclusions containing multiple gas components has been suspected in natural metamorphic rocks and has been demonstrated experimentally for synthetic H2O-CO2-rich inclusions in natural quartz. Knowledge of the physical and chemical characteristics of the leakage mechanism, which may be very complex, increases the value of natural fluid inclusions to metamorphic geology. It is proposed that crystal defects play a major role in nondecrepitative preferential H2O leakage through quartz, and remain effective during metamorphism. Inclusions with either an internal overpressure or underpressure produce strain in the adjacent quartz crystal via the nucleation of many dislocations and planar defects (like Dauphiné twin boundaries). These defects allow preferential loss of H2O from H2O-CO2-rich inclusions at supercritical conditions. The transport capacity of this leakage mechanism is enhanced by nucleation of small bubbles on defect structures. The nucleation of these bubbles seems to be a recovery process in strained crystals. Solubility gradients of quartz in water in a crystal with internally underpressurized inclusions may result in optical visible implosion halos in a three dimensional spatial arrangement, caused by the growth of small bubbles at the expense of the larger original fluid inclusion. Natural fluid inclusions from Naxos (Greece) are always associated with numerous interlinked dislocations. These dislocations may have been produced by plastic derormation or by crystal growth related processes (e.g. crack healing). The presence of small bubbles on these dislocations indicates that a similar leakage mechanism for H2O must have occurred in these rocks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aines RD, Kirby SH, Rossman GR (1984) Hydrogen specification in synthetic quartz. Phys Chem Miner 11:204–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson GM, Burnham CW (1965) The solubility of quartz in supercritical water. Am J Sci 263:494–511

    Google Scholar 

  • Andriessen PAM, Boelrijk NAIM, Herbeda EH, Priem HNA, Verdurmen EAT, Verschuren RH (1979) Dating events of metamorphism and granitic magmatism in the Alpine Orogen at Naxos (Cyelades, Greece). Contrib Mineral Petrol 69:215–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashby MF, Brown LM (1963) Diffraction contrast from spherical symmetrical coherency strains. Philos Mag 8:1083–1103

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker RJ, Jansen JBH (1990) Preferential water leakage from fluid inclusions by means of mobile dislocations. Nature 345:58–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker RJ, Jansen JBH (1991) Experimental post-entrapment water loss from synthetic CO2-H2O inclusions in natural quartz. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 55:2215–2230

    Google Scholar 

  • Belonoshko AB (1989) The thermodynamics of the aqueous carbon dioxide fluid in pores. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 53:2581–2590

    Google Scholar 

  • Blum AE, Yund RA, Lasaga AC (1990) The effect of dislocation density on the dissolution rate of quartz. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 54:283–297

    Google Scholar 

  • Bodnar RJ, Bethke PM (1984) systematics of stretching of fluid inclusions. I. Fluorite and sphalerite at 1 atmosphere confining pressure. Econ Geol 79:141–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Brace WF, Walsh JB (1962) Some direct measurements of surface energy of quartz and orthoclase. Am Mineral 47:1111–1122

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewster D (1835) Observations relative to the structure and origin of the diamond. Trans Geol Soc London 3:455–459

    Google Scholar 

  • Buick IS (1991) The late Alpine evolution of an extensional shear zone, Naxos, Greece. J Geol Soc London 148:93–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Buick IS, Holland TJB (1989) The P-T-t path associated with crustal extension, Naxos, Cyclades, Greece. In: Daly JS, Cliff RA, Yardley BWD (eds) Evolution of metamorphic belts. Geol Soc London Spec Publ 43, pp 365–369

  • Buick IS, Holland TJB (1991) The nature and distribution of fluids during amphibolite facies metamorphism, Naxos (Greece). J Metamorphic Geol 9:301–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Carstens H (1968) The lineage structure of quartz crystals. Contrib Mineral Petrol 18:295–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Cordier P, Doukhan JC (1989) Water solubility in quartz and its influence on ductility. Eur J Mineral 1:221–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Cordier P, Boulogne B, Doukhan JC (1988) Water precipitation and diffusion in wet quartz and wet berlinite AlPO4. Bull Mineral 111:113–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Cottrell AH (1953) Dislocations and plastic flow in crystals. Oxford Univ Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • DeSantis R, Breedveld GJF, Prausnitz JM (1974) Thermodynamic properties of aqueous gas mixtures at advanced pressure. Ind Eng Chem Process Des Dev 13:374–377

    Google Scholar 

  • Doukhan JC, Paterson MS (1986) Solubility of water in quartz — a revision. Bull Mineral 109:193–198

    Google Scholar 

  • Doukhan JC, Trepied L (1985) Plastic deformation of single quartz crystals. Bull Mineral 108:97–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson HG (1914) Lode deposits of the Alleghany district, California. US Geol Surv Bull 580-I:161

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher JR (1976) The volumetric properties of H2O — a graphical protrayal. J Res US Geol Surv 4:189–193

    Google Scholar 

  • FitzGerald JD, Boland JN, McLaren AC (1991) Microstructures in water-weakened single crystals of quartz. J Geophys Res 96:2139–2155

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank FC (1951) Capillary equilibria of dislocated crystals. Acta Crystallogr 4:497–501

    Google Scholar 

  • Frondel C (1962) The system of mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana, Yale University 1837–1892. Silica minerals, vol 3. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerretsen J, Paterson MS, McLaren AC (1989) The uptake and solubility of water in quartz at elevated pressure and temperature. Phys Chem Miner 16:334–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Gratier JP, Jenaton L (1984) Deformation by solution-deposition, and re-equilibration of crystals depending on temperature, internal pressure, and stress. J Struct Geol 6:189–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Griggs DT (1974) A model of hydrolytic weakening in quartz. J Geophys Res 79:1653–1661

    Google Scholar 

  • Griggs DT, Blacic JD (1965) Quartz: anomalous weakness in synthetic crystals. Science 147:292–295

    Google Scholar 

  • Heggie M (1992) A molecular water pump in quartz dislocations. Nature 355:337–339

    Google Scholar 

  • Heggie M, Jones R (1987) Density functional analysis of the hydrolysis of Si-O bonds in disiloxane: application to hydrolytic weakening in quartz. Philos Mag Lett 55:47–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Heggie M, Nylén M (1984) Dislocation core structures in α-quartz from a valence force potential. Philos Mag B 50:543–555

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinisch HL, Sines G Jr, Goodman JW, Kirby SH (1975) Elastic stresses and self-energies of dislocations of arbitrary orientation in anisotropic media: olivine, orthopyroxene, calcite, and quartz. J Geophys Res 80:1885–1896

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirth JP, Lothe J (1968) Theory of dislocation. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoekstra P, Osterkamp TE, Weeks WF (1965) The migration of liquid inclusions in single ice crystals. J Geophys Res 70:5053–5041

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdaway HJ (1971) Stability of andalusite and the aluminum silicate phase diagram. Am J Sci 271:97–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollister LS (1988) On the origin of CO2-rich fluid inclusions in migmatites J Metamorphic Geol 6:467–474

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollister LS (1990) Enrichment of CO2 in fluid inclusions in quartz by removal of H2O during crystal-plastic deformation. J Struct Geol 12:895–901

    Google Scholar 

  • Holloway JR (1981) Compositions and volumes of supercitical fluids in the Earth's crust. In: Hollister LS, Crawford ML (eds) Short course in fluid inclusions: applications to petrology, pp 13–38

  • Holness MB, Fein J, Graham CM (1992) The effect of pressure on solid-dihedral angles in the system H2O-CO2-NaCl-Quartz (abstract). Terra Abstr, IVth Int Symp Exp Mineral Petrol Geochem 4:21

    Google Scholar 

  • Hosieni KR, Howald RA, Scanlon MW (1985) Thermodynamics of the lambda transition and the equation of state of quartz. Am Mineral 70:782–793

    Google Scholar 

  • Jansen JBH, Schuiling RD (1976) Metamorphism on Naxos, petrology and thermal gradients. Am J Sci 276:1225–1253

    Google Scholar 

  • Jansen JBH, Van der Kraats AH, Van der Rijst H, Schuiling RD (1978) Metamorphism of siliceous dolomites at Naxos, Greece. Contrib Mineral Petrol 67:279–288

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerrick DM, Jacobs GK (1981) A modified Redlich-Kwong equation for H2O, CO2, and H2O-CO2 mixtures at elevated pressures and temperatures. Am J Sci 281:735–767

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreulen R (1980) CO2-rich fluids during regional metamorphism on Naxos (Greece): carbon isotopes and fluid inclusions. Am J Sci 280:745–771

    Google Scholar 

  • Kronenberg AK, Kirby SH, Aines RD, RossmanGR (1986) Solubility and diffusional uptake of hydrogen in quartz at high water pressures: implications for hydrolytic weakening. J Geophys Res 91:12723–12744

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson LT, Miller JD, Nadeau JE, Roedder E (1973) Two sources of error in low temperature inclusion homogenization determination, and corrections on published temperatures for the East Tennessee and Laisvall deposits. Econ Geol 68:113–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Lasaga AC, Blum AE (1986) Surface chemistry, etch pits and mineral-water reactions. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 50:2363–2379

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemmlein GG (1952) Migration of liquid fluid inclusions in a crystal towards a source of heat. Dokl Akad Nauk SSSR 85:325–328

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaren AC (1991) Transmission electron microscopy of minerals and rocks. (Cambridge topics in mineral physics and chemistry 2). Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaren AC, Phakey PP (1965) A transmission electron microscope study of amethyst and citrine. Aust J Phys 18:135–141

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaren AC, Phakey PP (1969) Diffraction contrast from Dauphiné twin boundaries in quartz. Phys Status Solidi 31:723–737

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaren AC, Cook RF, Hyde ST, Tobin RC (1983) The mechanism of the formation and growth of water bubbles and associated dislocation loops in synthetic quartz. Phys Chem Miner 9:79–94

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaren AC, FitzGerald JD, Gerretsen J (1989) Dislocation nucleation and multiplication in synthetic quartz: relevance to water weakening. Phys Chem Miner 15:465–482

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicolas A, Poirier JP (1976) Crystalline plasticity and solid state flow in metamorphic rocks. Wiley Interscience, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Parks GA (1984) Surface and interfacial free energies of quartz. J Geophys Res 89:3997–4008

    Google Scholar 

  • Paterson MS (1986) The thermodynamics of water in quartz. Phys Chem Miner 13:245–255

    Google Scholar 

  • Pêcher A (1984) Chronologie et ré-équilibrage des inclusions fluides: quelques limites a lear utilisation en microthermométrie. In: Lagache M (ed) Thermométrie et barométrie géologiques. Soc Fr Mineral Cristallogr 2:463–485

  • Roedder E (1965) Liquid CO2 inclusions in olivine-bearing nodules and phenocrysts from basalts. Am Mineral 50:1746–1782

    Google Scholar 

  • Roedder E (1984) Fluid inclusions. (Reviews in Mineralogy 12) Geol Soc Am, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Roedder E, Belkin HE (1980) Thermal gradient migration of fluid inclusions in single crystals of salt from waste isolation pilot plant site (WIPP). Sci Basis Nucl Waste Manage 2:453–464

    Google Scholar 

  • Rovetta MR, Holloway JR, Blacic JD (1986) Solubility of hydroxyl in natural quartz annealed in water at 900°C and 1.5 GPa. Geophys Res Lett 13:145–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Rye RO, Schuiling RD, Rye DM, Jansen JBH (1976) Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen isotope studies of the regional metamorphic complex at Naxos, Greece. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 40:1031–1049

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterner SM, Bodnar RJ (1984) Synthetic fluid inclusions in natural quartz. I. Compositional types synthesized and applications to experimental geochemistry. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 48:2659–2668

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterner SM, Bodnar RJ (1989) Synthetic fluid inclusions. VII. Reequilibration of fluid inclusions in quartz during laboratorysimulated metamorphic burial and uplift. J Metamorphic Geol 7:243–260

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterner SM, Bodnar RJ (1991) Synthetic fluid inclusions. X. Determination of P-V-T-X properties in the CO2-H2O system to 6 kbar and 700°C. Am J Sci 291:1–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Takenouchi S, Kennedy GC (1964) The binary system H2O-CO2 at high temperatures and pressures. Am J Sci 262:1055–1074

    Google Scholar 

  • Tödheide K, Franck EU (1963) Das Zweiphasengebiet und die kritische Kurve im System Kohlendioxid-Wasser bis zu Drucken von 3500 bar. Z Phys Chem Neue Folge 37:387–401

    Google Scholar 

  • Urai JL, Schuiling RD, Jansen JBH (1990) Alpine deformation on Naxos (Greece). In: Knipe RJ, Rutter EH (eds) Deformation mechanisms, rheology and tectonics. Geol Soc Spec Publ 54, pp 509–522

  • Van der Hoek B, Van der Eerden JP, Bennema P (1982) Thermodynamical stability conditions for the occurrence of hollow cores caused by stress of line and planar defects. J Cryst Growth 56:621–632

    Google Scholar 

  • Walther JV, Orville PM (1983) The extraction-quench technique for determination of the thermodynamic properties of solute complexes: application to quartz solubility in fluid mixtures. Am Mineral 68:731–741

    Google Scholar 

  • Wanamakers BJ, Evans B (1989) Mechanical re-equilibration of fluid inclusions in San Carlos olivine by power-law creep. Contrib Mineral Petrol 102:102–111

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson EB, Brenan JM (1987) Fluids in the lithosphere. 1. Experimentally determined wetting characteristics of CO2-H2O fluids and their application for fluid transport, host-rock physical properties, and fluid inclusion formation. Earth Planet Sci Lett 85:497–515

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins RWT, Hladky G, Gratier JP, Jenaton L (1992) Some relationships between cracks and fluid inclusions (abstract). PACROFI IV, UC Riverside 89

  • Wintsch RP, Duning J (1985) The effect of dislocation density on the aqueous solubility of quartz and some geological implications: a theoretical approach. J Geophys Res 90:3649–3657

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolff E (1845) Chemisch-mineralogische Notizen 3: über den Glühverlust des Quarzes und des Feldspaths. J Pract Chem 34:1–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Yund RA, Smith BM, Tullis J (1981) Dislocation-assisted diffusion of oxygen in albite. Phys Chem Miner 7:185–189

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. J. Ben H. Jansen

    Present address: BOWAGEMI BV, Prinses Beatrixlaan 20, NL-3972 AN, Driebergen, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geochemistry, Institute for Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.021, NL-3508 TA, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Ronald J. Bakker & J. Ben H. Jansen

Authors
  1. Ronald J. Bakker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. Ben H. Jansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bakker, R.J., Jansen, J.B.H. A mechanism for preferential H2O leakage from fluid inclusions in quartz, based on TEM observations. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 116, 7–20 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00310686

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00310686

Keywords

Search

Navigation