Annealing and Leaching Studies With Natural and Artificial Obsidian Glass

Annealing kinetics of fission tracks (produced by induced fission of U235 in natural and artificial (doped) obsidian glass has been studied by etching microscopy as a function of annealing time and temperature. The observed annealing characteristics can be best decribed by a two term exponential function with an Arrhenius type temperature dependence of the annealing coefficients. The activation energies deduced are (0.94 ± 0.16)eV and (1.04 ± 0.15)eV for artificial obsidian and (0.83 ± O.13)eV and (0.60 ± 0.16)eV for natural (fossil) obsidian, respectively. In addition, leaching experiments of obsidian samples exposed to different radiation, doses and rates have been made at two different leachate temperatures. At a temperature of 60°C the leaching rate of irradiated samples is much larger than that of unirradiated samples, whereas at a temperature of 90°C observed leaching rates are similar.