(RE)SUBLIMATION

Hi to all!

In many papers devoted to gas vents and gas condensation processess, I meet with the term SUBLIMATION as the process ruling the formation of CRYSTALLINE (solid) phases.

And it seems to be wrong, as

Gas CAN'T SUBLIME.... it can RESUBLIME. Sublimation is the process of the conversion of SOLID (in this case: mineral) phase into the GASEOUS phase. Thus salammoniac can sublime, but the parental gaseous fluid cannot, just because its GASEOUS.

Then, is SALAMMONIAC (2) produced by sublimation of SALAMMONIAC (1) from the dust (as was proposed by friend of mine), or anything like that???

What do You think?

Regards,

Luke K.

that's just linguistic
VLS-growth is much more interesting to talk about
Cheers!

Sure ;)

Cheerz!

Lukasz is perfectly correct in the strict use of sublime and resublime, but even when I was at university the only term used was sublime ...

i.e. sublimation from a gas; sublimation of a solid.

Sadly (or happily) the English language is quite cheerful on being mangled in this way, at least in informal usage.

When discussing mineralising fluids with primarily CO₂ as the solvent, we used to refer to fractional exsublimation as the process of resublimation of specific minerals from the fluid.

Of course, as Frank says, it's just linguistic (until you need to publish a formal paper ... oh dear!)

When you invited me to see your etchings, I didn't expect to see so much degraded quartz. Really.