CRYSTALLIZATION CALCULATIONS FOR A BINARY MELT COOLING AT CONSTANT RATES OF HEAT REMOVAL - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF MAGMA BODIES

We report on thermodynamic non-equilibrium crystallization calculations for a unit volume of a binary melt subject to a constant, prescribed rate of heat loss. Crystallization histories and crystal size distributions for both melt components were calculated by accounting for the nucleation and growth of crystals. The crystal sizes were found to decrease with increasing rates of heat loss. The crystallization time defined as the time to crystallize 99% of the unit volume also decreased strongly with increasing rates of heat loss up to a critical rate. The critical rate was found to be somewhat smaller than the heat loss rate for the beginning of glass formation. At larger than critical rates, crystallization time increased again and for rates larger than the glass formation rate, crystallization time became infinite. The residual melt composition was found to increasingly deviate from the equilibrium composition with increasing rates of heat loss. But as long as the loss rate was less than the critical rate the crystallization path reverted to the eutectic composition during the final crystallization. For supercritical rates, no such reversion was observed. We compared the critical rate with estimates of the rates of heat loss in magmatic intrusions based on the Stefan solution for a freezing half space. It was found that rates of heat loss should be supercritical at distances of up to 0.5 m from the margin of an intrusion. In this region, non-equilibrium effects are expected to dominate and the texture of the crystallized rock should be characterized by small crystals and by glass. The glass and the crystals should be of non-equilibrium composition. Non-equilibrium effects should be negligible only at distances of more than 5 m from the margin where the rates of heat loss are less than 10(-2) times critical. At these distances, the crystallized rock should have an equigranular texture and an equilibrium composition.