Role of water film in weathering of porous rhyolite under water unsaturated condition

To study weathering behavior under water-unsaturated conditions, flow-through dissolution experiments using a porous rhyolite were performed under both saturated and unsaturated conditions. When water was passed into a dried rock core, water saturation rapidly increased to 0.3 in 2 hours, and then reached 0.4 in 6 days. The proportion of the reactive surface area under the unsaturated condition to that under the saturated condition, A(uns)/A(s), was 0.46 after 1 day and increased to 0.90 in 6 days. Because A(uns)/A(s) was always greater than water saturation, the surfaces of air-filled pores seemed to be wetted with a water film and dissolved. The water film thickness was estimated to be 2-3 nm. The reason for A(uns)/A(s) < 1 may be that the flushing efficiency of dissolved elements in the water film was not enough to keep the concentration far from equilibrium, and thereby the dissolution rate in the water film was decreased. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.