High-Temperature Fractionation of Iron Isotopes During Metal Segregation From a Silicate Melt: Experimental Study of Kinetic and Equilibrium Fractionation

Advances in mass spectrometry make it possible to measure isotopic variations of iron in meteoritic and igneous materials. However, interpreting these data is hampered by a lack of theoretical and experimental knowledge concerning how Fe isotopes fractionate during magmatic processes. As a first step in this direction we have performed experiments in which metallic iron was reduced and segregated from a silicate melt at one bar as a function of f(O2) and time. The starting material was a glass of anorthite-diopside eutectic composition, to which 9 wt% Fe2O3 was added. Experiments were performed at 1500 circC and f(O2) in the range 10-0.7 to 10-8 bars. A proportion of this iron is extracted through formation of an alloy with the Pt-capsule in which the melt was held. The silicate and metallic portions were physically separated and bulk analyses of each fraction performed using standard MC-ICP-MS methods. Furthermore, a Cameca 6f ion microprobe was used to measure isotopic profiles in metallic samples, such that kinetic and equilibrium effects may be disentangled and quantified. Large isotopic variations are observed and attributed to kinetic fractionation during incorporation of iron into the initially Fe-free Pt-capsule. This process leads to the formation of isotopically light metal and a heavy silicate. For instance, in samples heat-treated for 24 hours, metal fractions have δ56Fe/54Fe from 0 to -2‰, whereas silicate fractions have δ56Fe/54Fe from 0 to 4.8‰. These values are positively correlated with the fraction of iron lost to the platinum. Ion-probe analyses and time-series experiments confirm that Fe isotopes are strongly fractionated during diffusion of Fe in the Pt,Fe alloy, and the observed profiles are used to calculate the diffusion coefficients of individual iron isotopes. With increasing time at fixed oxygen fugacity, iron in the alloy reaches a constant isotopic composition. At these conditions, assumed to represent equilibrium, iron in the metal is isotopically heavier than in the silicate. Overall, these results are consistent with the range of variation observed in natural samples and provide an experimental framework to understand the variability measured in iron and pallasite meteorites in terms of cooling-rates and core formation processes.