Felipe Padilha Leitzke

Kontakt

Poppelsdorfer Schloss
Raum 2.112
Telefon: +49 (0) 228 73 -6545
Email: felipepl [at] uni-bonn.de

Scientific Career and Education

 Research Interests

My main research interest is to understand the mineral phase stability and distribution of trace elements in the mantle of terrestrial bodies during petrologic processes such as partial melting and fractional crystallization. To achieve this, I am studying the individual effect that melt composition, namely the extreme TiO2 enrichment observed in lunar basalts, has on the partitioning of the HFSE and REE between silicates (cpx, opx, olivine and plagioclase), oxides (ilmenite, armalcolite and spinel) and basaltic melts. In the case of heterovalent elements, such as W, U, Mo, Cr, Eu and Ti, the more reduced environment found in the lunar mantle, when compared to the Earth, will affect these elements compatibility into mineral phases to different extents, which is also one of the topics of my PhD. project.

I am currently working under the supervision of Dr. Raúl Fonseca to use the new insights from experimental crystal/silicate melt partitioning to better constrain partial melting events from early lunar history, such as the fractionation of the Lunar Magma Ocean and the petrogenesis of lunar mare basalts. Since the beginning of my PhD. project, I have learned the fundamentals of experimental petrology and to use high-precision in situ analytical techniques (EMPA and LA-ICP-MS). So far experiments were conducted at vertical tube gas mixing furnaces under controlled atmosphere imposed by a mixture of CO-CO2 and at high-pressure (0.3 to 2.0 GPa) at a Bristol-type end-loaded piston cylinder. Each of the phases (crystals and melt) from run products are routinely analysed for major elements through a JEOL 8200 Superprobe and for trace elements through a Resonetics M50-E 193nm Excimer Laser ablation coupled to a Thermo Scientific XSeries II Q-ICP-MS.

 BSE image of (A) Clinopyroxene and olivine crystals in equilibrium with silicate melt and (B) Clinopyroxene in equilibrium with armalcolite and high-Ti basaltic glass analogue (Leitzke et al., 2016 – Chem. Geol.)

Conference presentations

• Leitzke, F. P.; Fonseca, R. O. C. ; Michely, L. T. . One atmosphere experimental study on the partitioning of the HFSE between olivine, pyroxene and lunar basaltic melts in the CMAS + Fe + Ti system. 2016. In: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Wien. Geophysical Research Abstracts, v. 18. p. 1565.
• Fonseca, R. O. C. ; Leitzke, F. P. ; Michely, L. T. ; Sprung, P. ; Heuser, A. ; Münker, C. . Effect of TiO2 content of silicate melt on the partitioning behaviour of the HFSE during lunar mantle melting. 2016. In: 15th International Conference on Experimental Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry, Zürich. Abstract Volume, v. 1. p. 24.
• Leitzke, F. P.; Fonseca, R. O. C. ; Michely, L. T. ; Sprung, P. ; Heuser, A. ; Münker, C. . Crystal/silicate melt partitioning of HFSE, Mo, W, U and Th as a function of TiO2, with implications for the petrogenesis of lunar mare basalts. 2016. In: 79th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, Berlin. Proceedings of the 79th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, v. 1. p. 6232.

Peer-reviewed publications

• Leitzke, F. P.; Fonseca, R.O.C.; Michely, L.T.; Sprung, P.; Münker, C.; Heuser, A.; Blanchard, H. 2016. The effect of titanium on the partitioning behavior of high-field strength elements between silicates, oxides and lunar basaltic melts with applications to the origin of mare basalts. Chemical Geology v. 440, p. 219-238, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2016.07.011
• Michely, L.T.; Leitzke, F. P.; Fonseca, R.O.C.; Speelmanns, I. M. 2016. Disentangling the competing effects of crystal chemistry and silicate melt composition on trace element behavior in magmatic sytems: insights from crystal/silicate melt partitioning of the REE, HFSE, Sn, In, Ga, Ba, Pt and Rh. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology (under review).