9422941 Rajan The aim of this research is to elucidate the relationship between grain boundary crystallography and grain boundary wetting in mineral systems. The specific experimental focus is determination of the crystallography characteristics and orientation relationships of grains that have their mutual boundary wetted and comparison to these boundaries that are not wetted. The methodology to be utilized involves examination of grain orientation and grain boundary misorientation data (obtained by SEM and TEM) coupled with Rodrigues-Frank representations of the data. This approach will develop characterization techniques that capture localized information in a statistically meaningful manner. Wetting properties are of interest to Earth scientists because they affect grain boundary transport, a fundamental process by which bulk transport of chemical species through rocks containing static fluids occurs. In addition, melt films along grain boundaries affect seismic velocities and attenuation within the solid Earth and rheological properties of materials in seismic zones.
