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Science 18 November 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5751, pp. 1174 - 1177
DOI: 10.1126/science.1119070
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Reports

Retention of Xenon in Quartz and Earth's Missing Xenon

Chrystèle Sanloup,1* Burkhard C. Schmidt,2{dagger} Eva Maria Chamorro Perez,3 Albert Jambon,1 Eugene Gregoryanz,4 Mohamed Mezouar5

The reactivity of xenon with terrestrial oxides was investigated by in situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction. At high temperature (T > 500 kelvin), some silicon was reduced, and the pressure stability of quartz was expanded, attesting to the substitution of some xenon for silicon. When the quartz was quenched, xenon diffused out and only a few weight percent remained trapped in samples. These results show that xenon can be covalently bonded to oxygen in quartz in the lower continental crust, providing an answer to the missing xenon problem; synthesis paths of rare gas compounds are also opened.

1 Université Pierre et Marie Curie and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 75252 Paris, France.
2 Bayerisches GeoInstitut, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
3 Laboratoire de Sciences de la Terre, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 69364 Lyon, France.
4 School of Physics and Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK.
5 European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 38043 Grenoble, France.

{dagger} Present address: Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum, Goettingen University, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sanloup{at}ccr.jussieu.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)