Radiogenic production of noble gase

Radiogenic production of noble gases and their release have been utilized in a variety of ways for understanding the movement of groundwater and other crustal fluids. In order to use these tracers, the production rate and the transfer processes from the mineral grain to adjacent pore fluid must be known. To date the transfer processes which have been considered are alpha recoil, diffusion, and chemical dissolution. These experiments show that small-scale strain and fracturing, even well below the ultimate yield strength of the rock, can release accumulated noble gases; thus, the state of stress and strain is tightly coupled to the concentration of radiogenic noble gases in pore fluids. This coupling is a new process which should be considered when interpreting noble gases as fluid tracers.