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Deformation and strength of mantle relevant garnets: Implications for the subduction of basaltic-rich crust

  • Cara E. Vennari ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Feng Lin , Martin Kunz , Masaki Akaogi , Lowell Miyagi and Quentin Williams
Published/Copyright: July 3, 2021
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 106 Issue 7

Abstract

Garnet is an important mineral phase in the upper mantle as it is both a key component in bulk mantle rocks, and a primary phase at high pressure within subducted basalt. Here, we focus on the strength of garnet and the texture that develops within garnet during accommodation of differential deformational strain. We use X‑ray diffraction in a radial geometry to analyze texture development in situ in three garnet compositions under pressure at 300 K: a natural garnet (Prp60Alm37) to 30 GPa, and two synthetic majorite-bearing compositions (Prp59Maj41 and Prp42Maj58) to 44 GPa. All three garnets develop a modest (100) texture at elevated pressure under axial compression. Elasto-visco-plastic self-consistent (EVPSC) modeling suggests that two slip systems are active in the three garnet compositions at all pressures studied: {110}<111> and {001}<110>. We determine a flow strength of ~5 GPa at pressures between 10 to 15 GPa for all three garnets; these values are higher than previously reported yield strengths measured on natural and majoritic garnets. Strengths calculated using the experimental lattice strain differ from the strength generated from those calculated using EVPSC. Prp67Alm33, Prp59Maj41, and Prp42Maj58 are of comparable strength to each other at room temperature, which indicates that majorite substitution does not greatly affect the strength of garnets. Additionally, all three garnets are of similar strength as lower mantle phases such as bridgmanite and ferropericlase, suggesting that garnet may not be notably stronger than the surrounding lower mantle/deep upper mantle phases at the base of the upper mantle.

Keywords: High-pressure experiment; diamond-anvil cell; garnet; texture; strength; radial X‑ray diffraction

† Present address: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University, Iowa 50011, U.S.A.

Funding statement: We thank the following funding sources: U.S. NSF (EAR-1620423, EAR-1654687, EAR PF-1855336, EAR-2017294). Additional support from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, through the Chicago/DOE Alliance Center (DE-NA0003975). This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source (beamline 12.2.2) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is DOE Office of Science User facility under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. This research was partially supported by COMPRES, the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR 1606856.

Acknowledgments

We thank Jinyuan Yan for help in preparation of the gaskets and Sam Couper for useful conversations.

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Received: 2020-05-04
Accepted: 2020-09-16
Published Online: 2021-07-03
Published in Print: 2021-07-27

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Tourmaline composition and boron isotope signature as a tracer of magmatic-hydrothermal processes
  2. Deformation and strength of mantle relevant garnets: Implications for the subduction of basaltic-rich crust
  3. Ultra-reduced phases in ophiolites cannot come from Earth’s mantle
  4. Olivine from aillikites in the Tarim large igneous province as a window into mantle metasomatism and multi-stage magma evolution
  5. Precise determination of the effect of temperature on the density of solid and liquid iron, nickel, and tin
  6. Timescales of crystal mush mobilization in the Bárðarbunga-Veiðivötn volcanic system based on olivine diffusion chronometry
  7. Chemical reactions in the Fe2SiO4-D2 system with a variable deuterium content at 7.5 GPa
  8. High-pressure syntheses and crystal structure analyses of a new low-density CaFe2O4-related and CaTi2O4-type MgAl2O4 phases
  9. Phase diagram and thermal expansion of orthopyroxene-, clinopyroxene-, and ilmenite-structured MgGeO3
  10. Mass transfer associated with chloritization in the hydrothermal alteration process of granitic pluton
  11. Nonlinear effects of hydration on high-pressure sound velocities of rhyolitic glasses
  12. Crystal chemistry and high-temperature vibrational spectra of humite and norbergite: Fluorine and titanium in humite-group minerals
  13. Exomorphism of jacobsite precipitates in bixbyite single crystals from the Thomas Range in Utah
  14. Ferropyrosmalite-bearing fluid inclusions in the North Patagonian Andes metasedimentary basement, Argentina: A record of regional metasomatism
  15. Memorial of Alden Bliss Carpenter (1936–2019)
  16. New Mineral Names
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2021-7587
Keywords for this article
High-pressure experiment; diamond-anvil cell; garnet; texture; strength; radial X‑ray diffraction

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Tourmaline composition and boron isotope signature as a tracer of magmatic-hydrothermal processes
  2. Deformation and strength of mantle relevant garnets: Implications for the subduction of basaltic-rich crust
  3. Ultra-reduced phases in ophiolites cannot come from Earth’s mantle
  4. Olivine from aillikites in the Tarim large igneous province as a window into mantle metasomatism and multi-stage magma evolution
  5. Precise determination of the effect of temperature on the density of solid and liquid iron, nickel, and tin
  6. Timescales of crystal mush mobilization in the Bárðarbunga-Veiðivötn volcanic system based on olivine diffusion chronometry
  7. Chemical reactions in the Fe2SiO4-D2 system with a variable deuterium content at 7.5 GPa
  8. High-pressure syntheses and crystal structure analyses of a new low-density CaFe2O4-related and CaTi2O4-type MgAl2O4 phases
  9. Phase diagram and thermal expansion of orthopyroxene-, clinopyroxene-, and ilmenite-structured MgGeO3
  10. Mass transfer associated with chloritization in the hydrothermal alteration process of granitic pluton
  11. Nonlinear effects of hydration on high-pressure sound velocities of rhyolitic glasses
  12. Crystal chemistry and high-temperature vibrational spectra of humite and norbergite: Fluorine and titanium in humite-group minerals
  13. Exomorphism of jacobsite precipitates in bixbyite single crystals from the Thomas Range in Utah
  14. Ferropyrosmalite-bearing fluid inclusions in the North Patagonian Andes metasedimentary basement, Argentina: A record of regional metasomatism
  15. Memorial of Alden Bliss Carpenter (1936–2019)
  16. New Mineral Names
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