A study is made of the deep oxidation of iron at high temperatures and in an oxygen atmosphere. Large cavities are always found in specimens whose total oxygen content has been brought to that of FeO. The scale thickness of such specimens, along with other evidence, implies that FeO is plastic in the temperature range in which it is stable, while one or both of the higher oxides is relatively rigid. Evidence is presented which indicates that iron is transported to its surrounding scale with little or no body diffusion path; the mechanism involved is not identified. An expression, analogous to the parabolic rate law for scaling of plane specimens, is developed for application to cylindrical geometry. 3.2.3