Abstract
Noble gas solubility in silicate melts and glasses has gained a crucial role in Earth Sciences investigations and in the studies of non-crystalline materials on a micro to a macro-scale. Due to their special geochemical features, noble gases are in fact ideal tracers of magma degassing. Their inert nature also allows them to be used to probe the structure of silicate melts. Owing to the development of modern high pressure and temperature technologies, a large number of experimental investigations have been performed on this subject in recent times. This paper reviews the related literature, and tries to define our present state of knowledge, the problems encountered in the experimental procedures and the theoretical questions which remain unresolved. Throughout the manuscript I will also try to show how the thermodynamic and structural interpretations of the growing experimental dataset are greatly improving our understanding of the dissolution mechanisms, although there are still several points under discussion. Our improved capability of predicting noble gas solubilities in conditions closer to those found in magma has allowed scientists to develop quantitative models of magma degassing, which provide constraints on a number of questions of geological impact. Despite these recent improvements, noble gas solubility in more complex systems involving the main volatiles in magmas, is poorly known and a lot of work must be done. Expertise from other fields would be extremely valuable to upcoming research, thus focus should be placed on the structural aspects and the practical and commercial interests of the study of noble gas solubility.
Highlights
When investigating processes involving magmas and coexisting vapor phases, a direct observation of the system is obviously impossible
Due to their inert nature, noble gases develop van der Waals-type interactions with silicate melts and seem to display a preferentially «physical solubility»
In this framework of growing high-quality scientific literature, this paper describes the solubility of noble gas in silicate melts, which is mainly applied to geological problems involving magma degassing in its wide range of possible conditions
Summary
When investigating processes involving magmas and coexisting vapor phases, a direct observation of the system is obviously impossible. The existing studies only partially cover the compositional ranges of magmatic systems and possible thermo-baric conditions, their use in modeling natural processes has still to be optimized Due to their inert nature, noble gases develop van der Waals-type interactions with silicate melts and seem to display a preferentially «physical solubility» (i.e. the noble gas atom is similar to a fixed-volume sphere entering a rigid network). Current efforts aim at investigating the structural environment of noble gas atoms inside the silicate network, promising results coming from the use of X-ray techniques (Wulf et al, 1999) In this framework of growing high-quality scientific literature, this paper describes the solubility of noble gas in silicate melts, which is mainly applied to geological problems involving magma degassing in its wide range of possible conditions. While stressing the importance of noble gases as tools in studying magma degassing, the paper shows two things: a) what type of data is needed for geological applications; b) which are the most promising guidelines of research for achieving these results
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