On the Noble Gas Solubility in Terrestrial Materials under High Pressures

宮川 千絵  (宇宙地球)

Abstract

I have reported new measurements of solubility of argon in silicate melts and metal in this study. Experiments of argon solubility in silicate melts were carried out with a laser heating diamond anvil cell (LHDAC) to made silicate samples and a mass spectrometer to analyze argon contents and isotopic ratios. Argon solubility in silica melt increased up to about 7GPa and saturated over this pressure. The half width of the halo in the Raman spectra of these silica samples was narrow and this restricted the angle of Si-O-Si of tetrahedra. This restriction is caused by the ring made of limited number of tetrahedra. The data of argon solubility in olivine melt were limited but the decrease of solubility was not observed under higher pressures. We were able to observe the isotopic fractionation of argon dissolved in silicate melts. The degree of mass fractionation in silica melt was higher than that of olivine melt. It is likely that this isotopic fractionation related with silica glass structure under high pressures because the degree of fractionation in silica was higher than those effects expected by the first stage mass fractionation and the thermal expansion. Argon solubility in metal samples was analyzed on the assumption that noble gas dissolved in metal under high pressures and high temperatures was present as bubbles in metal phase when the metal samples were quenched. However, there was no correlation between the argon solubility and the bubble volume.