SIGMELTS: A Web-portal for Electrical Conductivity Calculations in Geosciences
Abstract
We present a freely available and easy-to-use web application called SIGMELTS allowing the calculation of the electrical conductivity of geomaterials at relevant conditions for the Earth's crust and mantle. By compiling previous results of electrical measurements in laboratory, this software enables to discriminate between the effect of different parameters on the bulk conductivity of silicate melts, carbonatites, fluids, minerals and mantle materials, such as the temperature (T), the pressure (P), the composition, the water content, the oxygen fugacity (fO2) and the crystal content. Different existing geometrical models are proposed to calculate the bulk conductivity of a two-phase mixture. Based on the electrical conductivity value of a mantle anomaly, an application has also been developed to determine the corresponding melt fraction at defined conditions (T, P, composition). This web application aims at improving the accessibility to laboratory data in order to precise the interpretation of MT profiles. Although there are examples of where the laboratory data have been used to interpret field data, there are also many instances where there are disconnects between those interpreting field MT data and the laboratory results. SIGMELTS also underlines that new electrical measurements in laboratory are needed to enlarge the present electrical database, particularly at high pressure conditions. An illustration of the use of SIGMELTS will be presented, in which calculations are applied to subduction zone related volcanic zone in the Central Andes. Along with petrological considerations, field and laboratory electrical data allow discrimination between the different hypotheses regarding the formation and rise from depth of melts and fluids and to quantify their storage conditions.