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Abstract: Sets of 20 soda ash glasses, 16 soda lime glasses and 23 wood ash glasses mainly from excavations in Europe (additional soda ash glasses from Egypt) were analysed on 61 chemical elements. Average SiO2 is about 62% in soda glasses and 50% in wood ash glasses. The three groups of glasses contain on average 13% Na2O, 18% Na2O and 13% K2O as fluxes to lower the melting temperature of quartz at their production. The starting materials beside quartz were halophytic plant ash for soda ash glass, trona (Na3H(CO3)2·2H2O) and lime (clamshells) for soda lime glass and beech ash for wood ash glass. Each of the three major glass types contains specific Rare Earth Element (REE) concentrations mainly contained in quartz and its intergrown minerals. 50 Paleozoic and Mesozoic sandstones from Central Europe represent the quartz composition. The REE pattern of these glasses apparently indicates major compositional stages of the Continental Earth''s Crust. The boron to lithium and sodium to potassium ratios as in seawater suggest reactions of materials for soda glass with seawater. Negative Ce anomalies in the three glasses are caused by reactions of quartz with seawater. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Data on micromechanical properties of ancient and medieval glass fragments and glasses of early modern and today's manufacturing were compiled to offer a tentative look on changes in the brittleness of glass over the past 2000 years. Chronology of glass making was based on glass chemistry using rare earth element (REE) pattern, fluxing agents and provenance analysis while cracking and brittleness were evaluated from Vickers indentation in the course of the mean crack initiation load CR and the crack length-to-half diagonal ratio c / a . A structural analysis revealed that CR increases and c / a decreases with increasing molar volume i.e. decreasing atomic packing fraction, which allows us to classify periods of high and low crack-resistant and brittle glasses along the time line of historic glass technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to determine the composition and age of high-temperature (HT) hydrothermal fluids in Closepet granites (Dharwar craton, India). The magmatic origin of the Neoarchaean Closepet batholith has been recognized and dated many times, whereas a HT fluid system, strong evidence for which has been partly investigated, has never been dated. Titanite was chosen for a geochemical study on its pristine and altered domains to illustrate the fluid composition; the domains were dated to recognize the timing of fluid activity. Titanite presents distinct trace element enrichments in non-altered domains and strong depletions in trace elements in marginal, irregular, patchy zones. The high total rare earth element (REE) concentrations and the marked negative Eu anomalies suggest crystallization from a residual melt. The negative Eu anomalies diminish progressively in the REE patterns of altered parts and become positive. Trace element ratios (Nb/Ta, Y/Ho, and U/Th) indicate fluid-crystal interactions. Strong U/Th fractionation might be linked to the presence of CO 2 and Cl−. Zr-in-titanite thermometry yields a crystallization/recrystallization temperature of ~700 °C for both magmatic and altered domains. The titanite factor Ti+4/(Al+3 + Fe+3) reveals an affinity with significant mantle input to the fluid system. Pristine and altered titanite domains have been successfully dated by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Reversely discordant apparent ages suggest interaction with fluids, which modified the Pb composition of the magmatic titanite. The oldest semi-concordant analyses of titanite cores indicate an age of approximately 2500 Ma, which we interpret as the minimum age of magmatic titanite crystallization. Narrow dark rims of titanite with considerably lower Th/U ratios form a more coherent group of analyses defining an upper concordia intercept age of 2345 ± 0.016 Ma, interpreted as the best estimate for the time of complete titanite resetting associated with the metasomatic event. The HT fluid system appears to have remained active into the Palaeoproterozoic. Confirmation by dating that the tested fluids belonged to the Archaean hydrothermal system gives us information about this system at the time, but the information that it worked at least until the Palaeoproterozoic provides additional valuable information about the hydrothermal systems during the Neoarchaean-Palaeoproterozoic transition. [Display omitted] • Sustained HT fluid of mantle-crust origin operating in the Neoarchaean granite • First Neoarchaean fluids system dating using pristine/altered titanite domains • Indication of the extension of the fluids activity timing to the Palaeoproterozoic • Unique and relevant processes in the Neoarchaean - Palaeoproterozoic transition [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]