Episodes of fast crystal growth in pegmatites

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dc.citation.articleNumber4986en_US
dc.citation.journalTitleNature Communicationsen_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber11en_US
dc.contributor.authorPhelps, Patrick R.en_US
dc.contributor.authorLee, Cin-Ty A.en_US
dc.contributor.authorMorton, Douglas M.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-17T15:11:45Zen_US
dc.date.available2020-11-17T15:11:45Zen_US
dc.date.issued2020en_US
dc.description.abstractPegmatites are shallow, coarse-grained magmatic intrusions with crystals occasionally approaching meters in length. Compared to their plutonic hosts, pegmatites are thought to have cooled rapidly, suggesting that these large crystals must have grown fast. Growth rates and conditions, however, remain poorly constrained. Here we investigate quartz crystals and their trace element compositions from miarolitic cavities in the Stewart pegmatite in southern California, USA, to quantify crystal growth rates. Trace element concentrations deviate considerably from equilibrium and are best explained by kinetic effects associated with rapid crystal growth. Kinetic crystal growth theory is used to show that crystals accelerated from an initial growth rate of 10−6–10−7 m s−1 to 10−5–10−4 m s−1 (10-100 mm day−1 to 1–10 m day−1), indicating meter sized crystals could have formed within days, if these rates are sustained throughout pegmatite formation. The rapid growth rates require that quartz crystals grew from thin (micron scale) chemical boundary layers at the fluid-crystal interfaces. A strong advective component is required to sustain such thin boundary layers. Turbulent conditions (high Reynolds number) in these miarolitic cavities are shown to exist during crystallization, suggesting that volatile exsolution, crystallization, and cavity generation occur together.en_US
dc.identifier.citationPhelps, Patrick R., Lee, Cin-Ty A. and Morton, Douglas M.. "Episodes of fast crystal growth in pegmatites." <i>Nature Communications,</i> 11, (2020) Springer Nature: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18806-w.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18806-wen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/109564en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Natureen_US
dc.rightsThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_US
dc.titleEpisodes of fast crystal growth in pegmatitesen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.publicationpublisher versionen_US
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