A thermochemical model of the activities of species in carbonate-rich melts would be useful in quantifying chemical equilibria between carbonatite magmas and vapors and in extrapolating liquidus equilibria to unexplored PTX. A regular-solution model of Ca-rich carbonate melts is developed here, using the fact that they are ionic liquids, and can be treated (to a first approximation) as interpenetrating regular solutions of cations and of anions. Thermochemical data on systems of alkali metal cations with carbonate and other anions are drawn from the literature; data on systems with alkaline earth (and other) cations and carbonate (and other) anions are derived here from liquidus phase equilibria. The model is validated in that all available data (at 1 kbar) are consistent with single values for the melting temperature and heat of fusion for calcite, and all liquidi are consistent with the liquids acting as regular solutions.

At 1 kbar, the metastable congruent melting temperature of calcite (CaCO3) is inferred to be 1596 K, with ΔHfus(calcite) = 31.5 ± 1 kj/mol. Regular solution interaction parameters (W) for Ca2+ and alkali metal cations are in the range −3 to −12 kj/mol2; W for Ca2+-Ba2+ is approximately −11 kj/mol2; W for Ca2+-Mg2+ is approximately −40 kj/ mol2, and W for Ca2+-La3+ is approximately +85 kj/mol2. Solutions of carbonate and most anions (including OH, F, and SO42) are nearly ideal, with W between 0 (ideal) and −2.5 kj/mol2. The interaction of carbonate and phosphate ions is strongly nonideal, which is consistent with the suggestion of carbonate-phosphate liquid immiscibility. Interaction of carbonate and sulfide ions is also nonideal and suggestive of carbonate-sulfide liquid immiscibility. Solution of H2O, for all but the most H2O-rich compositions, can be modeled as a disproportionation to hydronium (H3O+) and hydroxyl (OH ) ions with W for Ca2+-H3O+ ≈ 33 kj/mol2.

The regular-solution model of carbonate melts can be applied to problems of carbonatite magma + vapor equilibria and of extrapolating liquidus equilibria to unstudied systems. Calculations on one carbonatite (the Husereau dike, Oka complex, Quebec, Canada) show that the anion solution of its magma contained an OH mole fraction of ~0.07, although the vapor in equilibrium with the magma had P(H2O) = 8.5 × P(CO2). F in carbonatite systems is calculated to be strongly partitioned into the magma (as F) relative to coexisting vapor. In the Husereau carbonatite magma, the anion solution contained an F mole fraction of ~6 × 10−5.

Calcite and anhydrite may be present on the surface of Venus, but they would not be molten at ambient surface temperature (660–760 K) because the minimum melt temperature (eutectic) for the calcite + anhydrite system is calculated to be 1250 K. The Venus atmosphere contains 5 ppb HF, which implies that the anion solution of a carbonate-rich magma in equilibrium with the atmosphere would contain a F mole fraction of ~7 × 10−3, or about 0.1 wt%. Although this proportion of F is much enriched compared with the atmosphere, it would have little effect on phase relations of the carbonatite.

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