Inclusions from melt trapped in early crystallizing phenocrysts can be used to infer the composition of partial melts at depth, and it has been assumed that incompatible elements in olivine- and chromite-hosted melt inclusions are chemically isolated. Spandler and co-authors now show that this is not so: the fluxes of rare-earth elements through olivine and chromite are sufficiently rapid at magmatic temperatures to re-equilibrate completely over time periods that are short compared to those estimated for the production and ascent of mantle-derived magma.
- C. Spandler
- H. St C. O’Neill
- V. S. Kamenetsky
