The work will be a continuation of several lines of high- pressure, high temperature research at RPI aimed principally at shedding light on the rates and mechanisms of chemical transport in rocks of the Earth's crust and upper mantle. The focus is upon phenomena occurring between or among mineral grains, including: 1) CO2-H2O fluid wetting in a variety of crustal and upper mantle rocks; 2) kinetics of fluid generation by hydrous and carbonate mineral breakdown; 3) transport of fluid away from its source region by hydrofracture and/or grain-edge dissolution; 4) metasomatic transport via a mobile fluid phase of trace elements and radioactive/radiogenic isotopes; and 5) grain boundary diffusion in rocks lacking a free fluid phase. The results will be applied to models of large- and small-scale chemical transport in the Earth.
