ALBERT

Description: We have fabricated in the laboratory and subsequently deformed crystalline hydrates and partial melts of the water-rich end of the NH3-H2O system, with the aim of improving our understanding of physical processes occurring in icy moons of the outer solar system. Deformation experiments were carried out at constant strain rate. The range of experimental variables are given. Phase relationships in the NH3-H2O system indicate that water ice and ammonia dihydrate, NH3-2H2O, are the stable phases under our experiment conditions. X-ray diffraction of our samples usually revealed these as the dominant phases, but we have also observed an amorphous phase (in unpressurized samples only) and occasionally significant ammonia monohydrate, NH3-H2O. The onset of partial melting at the peritectic temperature at about 176 K appeared as a sharp transition in strength observed in samples of x(sub NH3) = 0.05 and 0.01, the effect of melt was less pronounced. For any given water ice + dihydrate alloy in the subsolidus region, we observed one rheological law over the entire temperature range from 175 K to about 140 K. Below 140 K, a shear instability similar to that occurring in pure water ice under the same conditions limited our ability to measure ductile flow. The rheological laws for the several alloys vary systematically from that of pure ice to that of dihydrate. Pure dihydrate is about 4 orders of magnitude less viscous than water ice just below the peritectic temperature, but because of a very pronounced temperature dependence in dihydrate (100 kJ/mol versus 43 kJ/mol for water ice) the viscosity of dihydrate equals or exceeds that of water ice at T less than 140 K. The large variation in viscosity of dihydrate with relatively small changes in temperature may be helpful in explaining the rich variety of tectonic and volcanic features seen on the surfaces of icy moons in the outer solar system.

Description: The ordinary water phase I was transformed to the ice phases that are known to exist in the interiors of large ice moons, such as Ganymede and Callisto for the purpose of investigating plastic deformation behavior of these ices. Ices II, III, and V were prepared using an apparatus and techniques similar to those described by Durham et al. (1983) and subsequently deformed in a gas deformation apparatus, and their deformation data were obtained. It was found that ice II was the strongest of the high-pressure phases, with a strength that was comparable to that of ice I; ice III was very weak, with the flow rate 100 to 1000 times higher than that of ice II at the same levels of stress. It was also found that ices III and V can exist metastably within the ice II field and that they may be deformed plastically within much of the metastable region without reverting to ice II. It is suggested that the weakness of the ice III phase may have profoundly influenced the evolution and the present-day behavior of the icy moons.

Description: Test specimens of methane hydrate were grown under static conditions by combining cold, pressurized CH4 gas with H2O ice grains, then warming the system to promote the reaction CH4 (g) + 6H2O (s???l) ??? CH4??6H2O. Hydrate formation evidently occurs at the nascent ice/liquid water interface, and complete reaction was achieved by warming the system above 271.5 K and up to 289 K, at 25-30 MPa, for approximately 8 hours. The resulting material is pure methane hydrate with controlled grain size and random texture. Fabrication conditions placed the H2O ice well above its melting temperature before reaction completed, yet samples and run records showed no evidence for bulk melting of the ice grains. Control experiments using Ne, a non-hydrate-forming gas, verified that under otherwise identical conditions, the pressure reduction and latent heat associated with ice melting is easily detectable in our fabrication apparatus. These results suggest that under hydrate-forming conditions, H2O ice can persist metastably at temperatures well above its melting point. Methane hydrate samples were then tested in constant-strain-rate deformation experiments at T= 140-200 K, Pc= 50-100 MPa, and ????= 10-4-10-6 s-1. Measurements in both the brittle and ductile fields showed that methane hydrate has measurably different strength than H2O ice, and work hardens to a higher degree compared to other ices as well as to most metals and ceramics at high homologous temperatures. This work hardening may be related to a changing stoichiometry under pressure during plastic deformation; x-ray analyses showed that methane hydrate undergoes a process of solid-state disproportionation or exsolution during deformation at conditions well within its conventional stability field.

Description: Abstract: Compressional creep tests (i.e., constant applied stress) conducted on pure, polycrystalline methane hydrate over the temperature range 260–287 K and confining pressures of 50–100 MPa show this material to be extraordinarily strong compared to other icy compounds. The contrast with hexagonal water ice, sometimes used as a proxy for gas hydrate properties, is impressive: over the thermal range where both are solid, methane hydrate is as much as 40 times stronger than ice at a given strain rate. The specific mechanical response of naturally occurring methane hydrate in sediments to environmental changes is expected to be dependent on the distribution of the hydrate phase within the formation — whether arranged structurally between and (or) cementing sediment grains versus passively in pore space within a sediment framework. If hydrate is in the former mode, the very high strength of methane hydrate implies a significantly greater strain-energy release upon decomposition and subsequent failure of hydrate-cemented formations than previously expected.