Vapor Conversion of Methane on Serpentinite: An Example of a Heterogeneous-Catalytic Mechanism of Fluid Transformation in the Earth's Crust

摘要

The role of fluids in the chemical and physical evolution of rocks in the Earth's crust and mantle is well-known. The presence of a fluid phase accelerates reactions between minerals, growth and dissolution of mineral grains and intensifies melting processes and polymorph transformations by several orders of magnitude, which influences significantly various types of deformations and recrystallization phenomena in mineral aggregates. The opposite process, namely the catalytic influence of rocks and minerals on chemical reactions between the components of fluids, is a poorly studied topic in the geochemistry of fluid-mineral interactions. However, the ideas on the active catalytic influence of rocks on fluids have good foundations, since rocks with a prevalence of SiO_2 and Al_2O_3 modified by catalytically active "metallic" components are analogs of traditional catalytic systems applied in industrial technologies. The components of fluids in the Earth's crust and mantle, such as H_2O, CO_2, CO, CH_4, H_2, N_2, SO_2, and NH_3 should be considered as initial materials for catalytic generation of a wide range of different products of transformations.