Thermal stability of fission tracks in natural and synthetic glasses: An assessment of compositional effects

A series of laboratory annealing experiments are designed to evaluate the t hermal annealing characteristics of fission tracks for a large number of gl asses of varying chemical compositions. A comparative study of thermal stab ility has been made by comparing the calculated value of activation energy (Ea) for each glass. The present investigations suggest that fission tracks in glass samples with a high silica content are more resistant to annealin g than those wth a low silica content. In addition, the influence of chemic al composition on etching characteristics for both synthetic and natural gl asses has also been investigated.