William Seyfried, Jr., Principal Investigator

The Solubility of Quartz in the Low-Pressure Supercritical Region of Seawater

Mineral solubility at elevated temperatures and pressures provides the primary means for mass-transfer in subseafloor hydrothermal systems at mid-ocean ridges. These hydrothermal systems are the largest on the earth and are primarily responsible for maintaining the composition of seawater at steady-state values throughout geologic time. Although there have been numerous experiments measuring the solubility of minerals, such as quartz at a wide range of temperatures and pressures, data do not exist at the critical point of seawater where hydrothermal conditions tend to occur most often.

For this reason, new experiments at this pressure- temperature region were required. Moreover, to better understand the conceptual framework for experimental data, molecular dynamic calculations were needed. The combination of experimental and theoretical constraints go a long way toward understanding phase relations involving quartz in sub-seafloor hydro-thermal systems.

Research Group

Dionysios I. Foustoukos, Graduate Student Researcher