Mineralogical aspects of fluid migration in the Salt Block II experiment
A block of evaporite rock containing the mineral assemblage halite (88%) - polyhalite (8%) - sylvite (4%) was machined into a cylinder one meter in diameter and one meter high, and was fitted with an axial heater, thermocouples and an off-gas collection system. After about 100 days of heating, identification of mineral efflorescences at the heater hole (carnallite and bischofite) showed that a significant portion of the 111 grams of water recovered (out of around 8500 grams available in the rock) migrated as a liquid, not as a vapor. A microscopic examination of rock slices from within 15 cm of the heater hole (where the temperature was 100 to 200/sup 0/C, and the gradient was 3 to 15/sup 0/C/cm) revealed that: (1) fluid inclusions had migrated, but rarely across grain boundaries; (2) fluid inclusions had not been mobilized at distances greater than about 15 cm from the heater hole; and (3) intergranular liquid had been conspicuously mobilized within 15 cm of the heater hole.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 5325528
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-79-2423; TRN: 80-011209
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Mineral sources of water in evaporite sequences (salado salt and adjacent beds at the proposed waste disposal facility near Carlsbad in Lea and Eddy Counties, New Mexico)
Structural petrology of undeformed and experimentally deformed halite samples from USERDA site No. 7 and No. 9
Related Subjects
58 GEOSCIENCES
FLUID FLOW
MINERALOGY
SALT DEPOSITS
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
BOREHOLES
CARNALLITE
DIFFUSION
OFF-GAS SYSTEMS
OPTICAL MICROSCOPY
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
THERMOCOUPLES
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
WATER
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
CAVITIES
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MAGNESIUM CHLORIDES
MAGNESIUM COMPOUNDS
MANAGEMENT
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MICROSCOPY
MINERALS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POTASSIUM CHLORIDES
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
580300 - Mineralogy
Petrology
& Rock Mechanics- (-1989)