Abstract
Single-crystal Brillouin scattering measurements on natural orthoenstatite [OEN] to 1350 °C at 1 atm show significant softening of the elastic moduli C33 and C55 ahead of a phase transition. To our knowledge, these are the first observations of acoustic mode-softening in orthoenstatite at high temperature and room pressure and could have important implications for Earth's mantle. The phase transition is rapid and shows some hysteresis in the observed transition temperature, Ttr. Experiments performed on increasing and decreasing temperature bracket the transition temperature between 1090(10) °C ≤ Ttr ≤ 1175(10) °C, and pronounced acoustic mode-softening is evident at temperatures above 900 °C. Backscattering measurements to T = 1350 °C show no evidence for additional transitions. OEN was recovered at room temperature. Our results are interpreted in terms of elastic softening ahead of a displacive phase transition. Before the displacive transition can occur, however, the elastic softening appears to trigger the observed reconstructive transition to the more-stable protoenstatite (or high clinoenstatite) structure. We suggest that the displacive phase transition would lead to a previously unreported pyroxene structure with Cmca symmetry.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Indialite in xenolithic rocks from Somma-Vesuvius volcano (Southern Italy): Crystal chemistry and petrogenetic features
- Coexisting chromian omphacite and diopside in tremolite schist from the Chugoku Mountains, SW Japan: The effect of Cr on the omphacite-diopside immiscibility gap
- 2111 biopyribole intermediate between pyroxene and amphibole: Artifact or natural product?
- Coexisting clinopyroxene/spinel and amphibole/spinel symplectites in metatroctolites from the Buck Creek ultramafic body, North Carolina Blue Ridge
- The T-X dependence of the isosymmetric displacive phase transition in synthetic Fe3+-Al zoisite: A temperature-dependent infrared spectroscopy study
- A kinetic study of the exsolution of pentlandite (Ni,Fe)9S8from the monosulfide solid solution (Fe,Ni)S
- Single-crystal plagioclase feldspar dissolution rates measured by vertical scanning interferometry
- A simple empirical method for high-quality electron microprobe analysis of fluorine at trace levels in Fe-bearing minerals and glasses
- Constraints on mingling of crystal populations from off-center zoning profiles: A statistical approach
- Pyribole evolution during tremolite synthesis from oxides
- Solution calorimetric determination of the enthalpies of formation of NH4-bearing minerals buddingtonite and tobelite
- Dehydration dynamics of bikitaite: Part I. In situ synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction study
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- Phosphate mineral associations in the Cañada pegmatite (Salamanca, Spain): Paragenetic relationships, chemical compositions, and implications for pegmatite evolution
- An improved equation for crystal size distribution in second-phase influenced aggregates
- Vibrational spectroscopy of pyrope-majorite garnets: Structural implications
- The modulated crystal structure of antigorite: The m = 17 polysome
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- Equations of state of ZrSiO4phases in the upper mantle
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