exsolve (eks-SOLV) - v., (mineral.) (of materials in solid solution) to separate out.
Usually upon dropping below a certain temperature. There seems to be two senses of this word, only one of them captured by dictionaries: of two minerals separating from each other. However, a scan of geology papers also finds it used of gasses that are dissolved in magma exsolving out of the molten rock. One wonders if it could be used of bubbles in a carbonated liquid. From Latin exsolvere, which in turn is ex-, out + solvere, to loosen, free, release, but I'm not finding when it was adopted into English.
---L.
Usually upon dropping below a certain temperature. There seems to be two senses of this word, only one of them captured by dictionaries: of two minerals separating from each other. However, a scan of geology papers also finds it used of gasses that are dissolved in magma exsolving out of the molten rock. One wonders if it could be used of bubbles in a carbonated liquid. From Latin exsolvere, which in turn is ex-, out + solvere, to loosen, free, release, but I'm not finding when it was adopted into English.
---L.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 02:16 am (UTC)