Site of Preference Energy and Selective Uptake of Transition-Metal Ions from a Magma

Results of absorption spectra measurements on silicate glasses of various compositions indicate that ions of the first transition-metal series are present in tetrahedral and octahedral sites in silicate melts (glasses). The fractionation patterns observed for transition-metal ions between magmas and silicate minerals can be interpreted according to crystal field theory in terms of octahedral "site preference energies" of transition ions in crystal lattices.