Molecular Clusters and Solvation in Volcanic and Hydrothermal Vapors

Throughout the Earth’s crust from magmatic/volcanic to lower temperature hydrothermal environments, low density aqueous fluids play a fundamental role in its chemical evolution. These gas-like fluids contain a periodic table of elements but their molecular chemistry has been little studied. Even the gas-phase molecular chemistry of the solvent itself, steam or low density supercritical water, is poorly known. These low density, gas-like aqueous fluids are important reactive, chemical transport media (Henley and Seward 2018, this volume) throughout the crust and may exit into the Earth’s ocean–atmosphere system, contributing to ocean and atmospheric chemistry throughout geologic time. The importance...