The oxidation of iron was studied by means of Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy in the temperature range from 523 to 673 K under the oxygen partial pressures of 1, 104.3 and 10
5Pa for up to 7 d. It was found that the ionic diffusion in oxides is the rate-determining step of oxidation, since the oxidation of iron obeyed the parabolic rate law in the temperature and oxygen partial pressure ranges studied. As was observed at 573 K<'', two-stage oxidations were observed at temperatures lower than around 650 K, and one-stage oxidations at higher temperatures. The activation energies for the oxidation in the second stage were obtained to be 133± 10, 149± 17 and 144±6 kJ ·mol-1 at 1, 10 4 • 3 and 10 5 Pa, respectively. The activation energies for oxidation obtained are nearly constant regardless of the oxygen partial pressure, but the absolute values of the parabolic rate constants are determined by the fraction of the coverage on magnetite with hematite. The changes in the temperature dependence of the parabolic rate constants were found around 670 K at 10 4 • 3 Pa and around 523 K at 10 5 Pa, where the oxidation mechanism may change from the simultaneous growth of magnetite and hematite at higher temperatures to the dense hematite formation at lower temperatures. Comparing the temperature dependence of the corrosion rate in water with that of the oxidation rate in gas phase, the corrosion rate in water becomes considerably larger than the oxidation rate in gas phase below 523 K, where the metal dissolution may be dominant in the corrosion process in water.