Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:04:48.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the electrolysis of molten basalt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

M. J. Oppenheim
M. J. Oppenheim*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The effects to be expected from the interaction of possible electric currents at depth with bodies of basaltic magma have been investigated experimentally. Trough-shaped molten specimens were produced in the surface of basalt blocks by heating from above ; the melts were electrolysed and the products analysed chemically.

Si, Al, Ti, P, Fe2+, and probably Fe3+ are concentrated towards the anode, apparently in the form of drifting lattice remnants; oxygen gas is liberated. Na, K, Ca, Mn, and Mg ions concentrate towards the cathode.

Relatively to basalt, the cathodic product is an alkaline and femic rock with normative nepheline and a more acid plagioclase. The anodic rock is distinctly calc-alkaline and salic, with normative quartz and a plagioclase that is more basic. The precise ‘rock-type’ developed depends on the amount of electricity passed, but the trends are distinct. In that increasing basicity and alkalinity (cathodic rocks) are accompanied by both increasing Na/K and Mg/(Fe2+ + Fe3+) ratios (which ratios decrease with decreasing basicity and alkalinity) the electrolytic series developed from a basalt magma appears to have few counterparts among natural rocks.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 36 , Issue 284 , December 1968 , pp. 1104 - 1122
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bloom, (H.) and Bockris, (J. O'M), 1959. Molten electrolytes. Chap. 3 in Modern aspects of electrochemistry. No. 2 (ed. Bockris, J. O'M.). London, Butterworth's.Google Scholar
Bockris, (J. O'M.), Kitchener, (J. A.), and Davies, (A. E.), 1951. Journ. Chem. Phys., vol. 19, p. 255.Google Scholar
Bockris, (J. O'M.), Kitchener, (J. A.), and Davies, (A. E.), 1952. Trans. Faraday Soc., vol. 48, pp. 536–548.Google Scholar
Bockris, (J. O'M.), Kitchener, (J. A.), Ignawowicz, (S.), and Tomlinson, (J. W.), 1952. Ibid., pp. 75-91.Google Scholar
Cahill, (L. J. JR.), 1965. Scientific. American, vol. 212, pp. 58–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coster, (H. P.), 1948. Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc., Geophys. Suppl. no. 5, pp. 193–199.Google Scholar
Doelter, (C.), 1905. Physikalisch-chemische Mineralogie. Leipzig., V. J. A. Barth.Google Scholar
Eitel, (W.), 1954. The physical chemistry of the silicates. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Eitel, (W.), 1965. Glasses, enamels, slags. Vol. 2 of Silicate Science. New York and London, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Garland, (G. D.), 1960. Earth currents. Pp. 277–307 in Methods and techniques in geophysics (ed. Runcorn, S. K.). New York and London, Interscience.Google Scholar
Hamad, (S. EL D.), 1963. Min. Mag., vol. 33, pp. 483–497.Google Scholar
Keller, (G. V.), 1966. Electrical properties of rocks and minerals. In Handbook of physical constants (ed. Clark, S. P. Jr.). Geol. Soc. Amer. Mere. 97, sect. 26.Google Scholar
Longuet-Higgins, (M. S.), Stern, (M. E.), and Stommel, (H.), 1954. The electrical field induced by ocean currents and waves, with applications to the method of towed electrodes. Papers in physical oceanography and meteorology, M.I.T. and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, vol. 13, no. 1, 37 pp.Google Scholar
Lyell, (C.), 1835. Principles of Geology, 4th edn, vol. 2. London, John Murray.Google Scholar
Nockolds, (S. R.) and Allen, (R.), 1953. 1954, and 1956. Geochimic. Acta, vol. 4, pp. 105–142. vol. 5, pp. 245 285; vol. 9, pp. 34-37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noritomi, (K.), 1955. Sci. Rep. Tohoku Univ., ser. 5, vol. 7, pp. 94–101.Google Scholar
Noritomi, (K.), 1958. Ibid., vol. 9, pp. 120-127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborn, (E. F.), 1962. Amer. Min., vol. 47, pp. 211–226.Google Scholar
Rikitake, (T.), 1966. Electromagnetism and the earth's interior. Amsterdam, London, and New York, Elsevier.Google Scholar
Tozer, (D. C.), 1959. The electric properties of the earth's interior. Chap. 8 in Physics and chemistry of the earth (eds. Ahrens, L. H., Press, F., Rankama, K., and Runcorn, S. K.), vol. 3, pp. 414–436. London, Pergamon.Google Scholar
Vozoff, (K.), Ellis, (R. M.), and Burke, (M. D.), 1964. Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleu. Geol., vol. 48, pp. 1890–1901.Google Scholar