User friendly codes for the generalized application of diffusion chronometry

• Applicant: Professor Sumit Chakraborty, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405665352

The first cycle funding of this project enabled the development of some modelling tools that allow the calculation of the distribution of several trace elements between multiple mineral grains and a melt (or more generally, a fluid). These calculations can be carried out in a non-isothermal system. The algorithm enables the calculation of diffusion profiles in the mineral grains at any given point of time. This has potential applications in a number of areas such as residence times of magmas, ascent rates of melts, exhumation rates of mountain belts, discerning the nature of tectonics on early Earth and the significance of palaeotemperatures recorded in fossil shells. However, field applications of the developed algorithms require (a) testing across many different situations (e.g. for a combination of slow as well as fast diffusion rates in the same system), (b) testing on real field samples and benchmarking against conventional single element, single mineral calculations, (c) development of user manuals, and (d) the coupled development of thermal evolution of mush zones in transcrustal magma systems and diffusion profiles of trace elements in minerals. Funding requested in the second cycle is aimed at developing these capabilities and enable a public release of the code.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2881: Diffusion Chronometry of magmatic systems