Growth of the Ghyben‐Herzberg transition zone under a rinsing hypothesis
Chester Keeler Wentworth · Transactions American Geophysical Union · 1948
According to the Ghyben‐Herzberg principle, fresh water overlies salt water within the meshwork of a permeable rock structure. Under perfectly static conditions of balance the only mechanism for interpenetration would be diffusion. The method of setting up graded densities for mineral separation has been used by mineralogists. In it, a lighter grade of some heavy liquid is placed carefully above a heavier grade which is miscible with it. After some hours, interpenetration by diffusion takes place so that the sharp boundary is replaced by a graded one, in which several minerals of known densities in the proper range will stand at the several appropriate levels, and thus permit the calibration of the density gradient.