AbstractAnnealing kinetics of fission tracks (produced by induced fission of U235 in natural and artificial (doped) obsidian glass has been studied by etching microscopy as a function of annealing time and temperature. The observed annealing characteristics can be best decribed by a two term exponential function with an Arrhenius type temperature dependence of the annealing coefficients. The activation energies deduced are (0.94 ± 0.16)eV and (1.04 ± 0.15)eV for artificial obsidian and (0.83 ± O.13)eV and (0.60 ± 0.16)eV for natural (fossil) obsidian, respectively. In addition, leaching experiments of obsidian samples exposed to different radiation, doses and rates have been made at two different leachate temperatures. At a temperature of 60°C the leaching rate of irradiated samples is much larger than that of unirradiated samples, whereas at a temperature of 90°C observed leaching rates are similar.
