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In situ vitrification (ISV) is a thermal treatment technology that permanently treats hazardous wastes. It was initially developed to treat soil contaminated with radioactive materials, and it is used to treat soils containing inorganic and organic chemicals. The ISV process introduces a substantial amount of energy into a relatively low-energy soil system. As a result, this energy increase affects naturally occurring processes and reactions which are governing the migration and degradation of chemicals in soil systems. This paper describes how ISV affects these naturally occurring processes and reactions. This paper concludes that although many mechanisms control chemical behavior, diffusion and convection are the main two factors that govern movement. Convection and concentration diffusion cause vaporized organic molecules to move toward the vitrified area and be destroyed or captured at the surface. Although thermal diffusion causes some molecules to move out to the transition zone up to 24 cm away, they will recondense and once again be drawn toward the vitreous zone by other mechanisms. The report also concludes that destruction mechanisms by pyrolysis and hydrolysis are also accelerated by the high temperature of the process.