Noble gas solubility in super-critical water: implications for inert gas studies and geochronology

Abstract

Inert gases will ideally exhibit infinite miscibility with super-critical water. The implications of this phenomenon are discussed in the context of the resetting of the K-Ar system during regional metamorphism, and emplacement of granites. Inert gas abundances in oceanfloor rocks and shales may also be interpreted as a consequence (at least in part) of partioning between water and silicate phases in which the light inert gases are preferentially taken up in water. The function of super-critical water as a transport medium for inert gases offers an important alternative to the unlikely process ofvolume diffusion at low temperatures.