USE OF TRITIUM TO INVESTIGATE THE DYNAMICS OF MELTING OF WATER-SATURATED BASALT

Abstract

In order to understand the role of volatiles in the phase transition from crystal to melt, it is very important to know not only the total concentration of fluid in the system, but also its distribution. The authors performed a series of experiments involving the partial melting of water-containing basalt, in which radioactive tritium had been added to the fluid as a tracer. Autoradiographic study of the products provided a revealing distribution of the fluid phase within the molten basalt and revealed interesting, previously unknown properties of that distribution.