The Geochemical Society of Japan Award for Young Researchers
Studies of noble gas solubility in silicate melts
2004 Volume 38 Issue 2 Pages 85-93
Details
2004 Volume 38 Issue 2 Pages 85-93
Noble gas solubility in liquid is dependent on both interaction energy between solute and solvent and molar volume of noble gas in solvent. The molar volume is more effective on the solubility in silicate melt than the interaction energy. Although ionic porosity (IP) had been considered to control noble gas solubilities, this parameter cannot apply to the solubilities in silicate melts with low IP. We found that noble gas solubilities in silicate melt are correlated with the NBO/Si (non-bridging oxygens per silicon) ratio in wide range of silicate melt composition, independently of nature of network modifying cations. However, solubility data for aluminosilicate melt falls off the correlation line. Although Al3+ is in tetrahedral coordination in aluminosilicate melts with sufficient M+ and M2+ cations for charge-balance, the solubility data can fall on the correlation line if we treat oxygens bonding with MAl4+ or M0.5Al4+ as non-bridging oxygen. This means that the solution of noble gas in silicate melt is mainly dependent on the network of SiO4.
