Oxygen fugacity of basaltic magmas and the role of gas-forming elements

It is suggested that major variations in the relative oxygen fugacity of a basaltic magma are caused primarily by gas-forming elements, especially carbon and hydrogen. According to this theory, carbon, present in the source region of a basaltic magma, reduces the host magma during ascent, as isothermally carbon becomes more reducing with decreasing pressure. For an anhydrous magma such as lunar basalts, this reduction continues through the extrusive phase and the relative oxygen fugacity decreases rapidly until buffered by the precipitation of a metallic phase. For hydrous magmas such as terrestrial basalts, reduction by carbon is eventually superceded by oxidation due to loss of H2 generated by the reaction of C with H2O and by thermal dissociation of H2O. The relative oxygen fugacity of a hydrous magma initially decreases as a magma ascends from the source region and then increases until magnetite crystallization curbs the rising trend of the relative oxygen fugacity.