A new and efficient computational thermodynamics approach for magmatic systems

Abstract

<p>During the last decade, the development of numerical geodynamic tools&#160;helped the geosciences community to unravel complex thermo-mechanical processes at play during plate tectonics. Yet, the high computational cost of thermodynamic calculations, which simulates phase change, hampers our ability to integrate complex chemistry in such problems. This is particularly important for simulating magmatic processes, where the chemistry of differentiating melts can vary significantly from the mantle to the upper crust. The typical approach, currently used, is to precompute one or many phase diagrams and use them as look-up tables. For many geodynamic processes this is adequate but wh..