A fundamental question in most fluid inclusion studies is whether incl
usions behave as compositionally closed systems after trapping, and, t
hus, represent samples of the fluid phase(s) present in the system at
the time of their formation. This question was addressed in high-tempe
rature laboratory experiments with synthetic fluid inclusions in quart
z and it was found that at 825-degrees-C the inclusions exhibited open
-system behavior with respect to water. Synthetic salt-water fluid inc
lusions in quartz were reequilibrated for 12 hours to 35 days at 825-d
egrees-C in a dry argon atmosphere under 1.5 kbar confining pressure.
These conditions created initial internal overpressures (P(int) > P(co
nf)) of 1.5-4 kbar in the inclusions and differential water fugacities
in the same sense (i.e., f(H2O)int > f(H2O)conf). After 108 hours of
reequilibration, preferential water loss had resulted in salinity incr
eases as large as 22 wt% salt (e.g., from 57 to 79 wt% NaCl, as determ
ined from measured temperatures of salt dissolution). Also, following
reequilibration, a strong inverse correlation between salinity and inc
lusion volume was observed, and this trend became more pronounced with
increasing reequilibration time. These observations, together with a
lack of evidence for selective H2O removal via hydration reactions, su
ggest that water loss occurred by a diffusion-related mechanism. Fluxe
s of almost-equal-to 4 x 10(-11) g/cm2-s and diffusion coefficients on
the order of 10(-9) cm2/s are calculated for water loss from the incl
usions. The calculated H2O diffusion coefficient is consistent with th
e determination of Blacic (1981) derived from hydrolytic weakening exp
eriments, but is much larger than the value obtained by Giletti and Yu
nd (1984) for volume diffusion of oxygen in isotope exchange experimen
ts. These observations suggest that the mechanism of water loss from o
ur synthetic fluid inclusions may have been pipe diffusion along dislo
cations, subgrain boundaries or other structural defects rather than b
ulk volume diffusion. The results of this study are relevant to the in
terpretation of fluid inclusions in quartz from several natural high-t
emperature environments where water fugacities of included and ambient
fluids are known to have evolved along separate paths over geologic t
ime.