Development of a new viscometer for high pressure experiments

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25610153
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Petrology/Mineralogy/Economic geology
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI Akio 東北大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (20281975)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 粘度 / 高圧力 / 放射光 / マグマ / マントル / フルイド

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Viscosity of magma and fluid is a fundamental property in volcanic processes. Therefore, viscosities of various silicate melts have been extensively measured under high pressure. However, little is known about the pressure and temperature dependence of viscosity. The viscosity measurement under pressure has been carried out using the falling sphere method. In the experiments, a metal sphere is installed at the top of the sample container. When the sample is heated above the liquidus temperature at the desired pressure, the sphere starts falling in the liquid. The falling velocity is measured from X-ray radiography movie. However, by the conventional falling sphere method using an X-ray image, we obtain only one viscosity value at a certain pressure/temperature condition in one high pressure experiment.
In the present study, we developed a rotation stage for a high pressure apparatus to repeat viscometry at high pressure. We obtained pressure and temperature dependences of liquids.

Free Research Field

実験岩石学