December 20, 20002.
Dear Dr. Landolt:
We are writing to request additional funds to support the doctoral work of Andreas Haefner for an
additional six months at the Institute for Mineralogy and Petrography. His thesis work, entitled
"Thermodynamic properties of H2O in H2O-N2 fluids and H2O-CO2 in NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluids at high
pressure and temperature" is funded by ETH Research Project 0-20764-00. The project began on April 4,
2000 and ends March 31, 2000. Mr. Haefner has worked conscientiously and his results promise to provide
a valuable thermodynamic model for the behavior of aqueous fluids at high pressure. The necessity for an
extension arises due to various technical problems, but primarily because Haefner’s recognition that the
Nitrogen source (Cu3N) used in the initial phase of the experiments was unreliable required repetition of
the entire sequence of experiments on H 2O-N2 fluids. These experiments have since been completed and
published, and Haefner has completed the experimental work necessary to constrain the activity of water in
NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluids. The requested extension would allow Haefner to obtain experimental constraints on
the activity of CO2 in these fluids and provide him, additionally, with sufficient time to write up his results
for a second publication.
For your information we have appended a proposed time-table for the remainder of Haefner’s work as well
as a resume of the progress on his project to date.
Yours sincerely,
PD Dr. James A. D. Connolly (Principle Investigator)
Prof. Dr. Terry M. Seward (Thesis Supervisor)
Proposed time-table for the extension period (April 1, 2003 through September 30, 2003):
April – mid/end June 2003:
 Forsterite-Enstatite-Magnesite experiments to constrain CO2-activity in NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluids.
 SEM work on run products.
June-August 2003:

Data analysis and processing.

Thermodynamic modelling

Equation of state for NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluid
August-September 2003:
 Finalize thesis, Prepare oral thesis presentation.
 Defend thesis.
 Complete manuscript for publication: “H2O and CO2 activities in NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluids at high
pressure and temperature measured by talc-enstatite-quartz and forsterite-enstatite-magnesite
reactions”.
Project Resume:
Thesis title: Thermodynamic properties of H2O in H2O-N2 fluids and H2O-CO2 in NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluids
at high pressure and temperature.
Supervisors: Professor Terry M. Seward, PD.Dr. James. A.D. Connolly, PD. Dr. Peter Ulmer and Prof. Dr.
Leonid Y. Aranovich (external)
Starting date: April 1, 2000
End of present 36 month project: March 30, 2003
Proposed date of thesis submission: September 30, 2003
Current state of the sub-projects
(a) H2O activity in H2O-N2 fluids at high pressure and temperature measured by the brucite-periclase
equilibrium:
The first 6 months of the project were devoted to developing expertise with the Johannes piston cylinder
press. This is the only press available for this project and was shared with another PhD student running
long-term experiments (2 experiments, 4 and 6 weeks, respectively) until October 2001. Initial problems
with a chemical compound (Cu3N) as source of nitrogen forced us to switch to another substance (AgN3)
and resume the experiments. From July 2002 until April 2003 a total of about 150 experiments were
performed. The results were published in the journal American Mineralogist (listed below).
Four weeks (April/May) were spent to check the pressure calibration of the piston cylinder press using the
phase transition of magnesium phosphate.
(b) CO2 activity in ternary NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluids at high pressure and temperature measured by the
forsterite-enstatite-magnesite (FEM) equilibrium:
Start: April 2003 with synthesis of starting materials (forsterite, enstatite) in the Johannes piston cylinder,
duration ca. 4 weeks. Precipitation of graphite from the fluid required buffering of the small Platinum
capsules using an outer gold capsule filled with buffer material and only one Pt capsule. In the brucitepericlase experiments, it was possible to load two Pt-capsules. Due to the requirement of buffering the
FEM runs only one capsule could be loaded thus slowing the experiments. Furthermore, due to slow
reaction kinetics, experimental run times were longer than initially planned causing additional delays in the
project as initially planned. Continuous loss of H2O from the Platinum capsule was found to be due to the
magnesite used in the experiments containing some unreacted MgO which could not be detected in x-ray
diffraction. Potential problems of magnesite solubility in the ternary fluid led us to switch to the third
project, talc-enstatite-quartz (see below). For the foregoing reasons, only some experiments in the reduced
system FEM-H2O-CO2 were performed giving us a base line for comparison with literature and as a basis
for the temperature deviation when NaCl is added. FEM will be resumed after TEQ system is finished.
(c) H2O activity in ternary NaCl-H2O-CO2 fluids at high pressure and temperature measured by the talcenstatite-quartz (TEQ) equilibrium:
Start: August 2002 with synthesis of starting materials (talc, enstatite) in the Johannes piston cylinder,
duration ca. 4 weeks. The piston cylinder was booked for two weeks for another user. The endmember
reactions in the TEQ system with pure water were determined as a basis for comparison. Gold capsules
with a bigger inner diameter arrived allowing two Pt capsules in one run. After initial problems with fitting
two Pt capsules in the Au capsule and problems related to the ternary system (NaCl) the experiments are
now progressing well. About 50 experiments have been performed so far (December 2002).
Paper:
Haefner, A., Aranovich, LY., Connolly, JAD. and Ulmer, P. (2001): H2O activity in H2O-N2 fluids at high
pressure and temperature measured by the brucite-periclase equilibrium. American Mineralogist 87 (7):
822-828
Abstracts and Poster presentation:
Haefner, A. and Aranovich, L.Y. (2000): H2O activity in H2O-N2 fluids at high pressure and temperature
measured by the brucite-periclase equilibrium. Journal of Conference Abstracts, Volume 5(2), 467.
Goldschmidt 2000 (3.-8.11.2000)
Haefner, A. and Aranovich, L.Y. (2001): H2O activity in H2O-N2 fluids at high pressure and temperature
measured by the brucite-periclase equilibrium. Journal of Conference Abstracts, Volume 6(1), 461. EUG
XI, Strassbourg 2001 (8.-12.4.2001)
Abstracts and talk presentations:
Haefner, A. and Aranovich, L.Y. (2002): H2O activity in H2O-N2 fluids at high pressure and temperature
measured by the brucite-periclase equilibrium. J. Conf. Abstracts, EMPG IX, p.42. EMPG IX, Zürich 24.27.3.2002
Haefner, A. and Aranovich, L.Y. (2002): H2O activity in H2O-N2 fluids at high pressure and temperature
measured by the brucite-periclase equilibrium. GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA 66 (15A):
A302-A302 Suppl. 1