Effect of KCl on melting in the Mg2SiO4–MgSiO3–H2O system at 5 GPa

To examine the effect of KCl-bearing fluids on the melting behavior of the Earth’s mantle, we conducted experiments in the Mg2SiO4–MgSiO3–H2O and Mg2SiO4–MgSiO3–KCl–H2O systems at 5 GPa. In the Mg2SiO4–MgSiO3–H2O system, the temperature of the fluid-saturated solidus is bracketed between 1,200–1,250°C, and both forsterite and enstatite coexist with the liquid under supersolidus conditions. In the Mg2SiO4–MgSiO3–KCl–H2O systems with molar Cl/(Cl + H2O) ratios of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6, the temperatures of the fluid-saturated solidus are bracketed between 1,400–1,450°C, 1,550–1,600°C, and 1,600–1,650°C, respectively, and only forsterite coexists with liquid under supersolidus conditions. This increase in the temperature of the solidus demonstrates the significant effect of KCl on reducing the activity of H2O in the fluid in the Mg2SiO4–MgSiO3–H2O system. The change in the melting residues indicates that the incongruent melting of enstatite (enstatite = forsterite + silica-rich melt) could extend to pressures above 5 GPa in KCl-bearing systems, in contrast to the behavior in the KCl-free system.