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Equation of state of pyrite to 80 GPa and 2400 K

  • Elizabeth C. Thompson EMAIL logo , Bethany A. Chidester , Rebecca A. Fischer , Gregory I. Myers , Dion L. Heinz , Vitali B. Prakapenka and Andrew J. Campbell
Published/Copyright: April 30, 2016
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 101 Issue 5

Abstract

The high-cosmic abundance of sulfur is not reflected in the terrestrial crust, implying it is either sequestered in the Earth’s interior or was volatilized during accretion. As it has widely been suggested that sulfur could be one of the contributing light elements leading to the density deficit of Earth’s core, a robust thermal equation of state of iron sulfide is useful for understanding the evolution and properties of Earth’s interior. We performed X-ray diffraction measurements on FeS2 achieving pressures from 15 to 80 GPa and temperatures up to 2400 K using laser-heated diamond-anvil cells. No phase transitions were observed in the pyrite structure over the pressure and temperature ranges investigated. Combining our new P-V-T data with previously published room-temperature compression and thermochemical data, we fit a Debye temperature of 624(14) K and determined a Mie-Grüneisen equation of state for pyrite having bulk modulus KT = 141.2(18) GPa, pressure derivative KT′=5.56(24), Grüneisen parameter γ0 = 1.41, anharmonic coefficient A2 = 2.53(27) × 10−3 J/(K2·mol), and q = 2.06(27). These findings are compared to previously published equation of state parameters for pyrite from static compression, shock compression, and ab initio studies. This revised equation of state for pyrite is consistent with an outer core density deficit satisfied by 11.4(10) wt% sulfur, yet matching the bulk sound speed of PREM requires an outer core composition of 4.8(19) wt% S. This discrepancy suggests that sulfur alone cannot satisfy both seismological constraints simultaneously and cannot be the only light element within Earth’s core, and so the sulfur content needed to satisfy density constraints using our FeS2 equation of state should be considered an upper bound for sulfur in the Earth’s core.

Keywords: High-pressure; diamond-anvil cell; equation of state; X-ray diffraction

Special collection papers can be found online at http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/AmMin/special-collections.html.

Present address: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, California 95064, U.S.A

Acknowledgments

We thank the editors and the two reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript. This research is supported by National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships to E.C.T. and B.A.C., an American Association of University Women Educational Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to R.A.F., and National Science Foundation Grant no. EAR-1427123 to A.J.C. This work was completed at HPCAT (Sector 16) and GeoSoilEnviroCARS (Sector 13), Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. HPCAT operations are supported by DOE-NNSA under Award No. DE-NA0001974 and DOE-BES under Award No. DE-FG02-99ER45775, with partial instrumentation funding by NSF. GeoSoilEnviroCARS is supported by the National Science Foundation-Earth Sciences (EAR-1128799) and Department of Energy-GeoSciences (DE-FG02-94ER14466). This work was made possible by the generous assistance of the APS beamline scientists at both Sector 13 and Sector 16. The Advanced Photon Source is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Use of the COMPRES-GSECARS gas loading system was supported by COMPRES under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR 11-57758 and by GSECARS through NSF grant EAR-1128799 and DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER14466. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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Received: 2015-8-10
Accepted: 2015-11-30
Published Online: 2016-4-30
Published in Print: 2016-5-1

© 2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2016-5527
Keywords for this article
High-pressure; diamond-anvil cell; equation of state; X-ray diffraction

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  1. Highlights and Breakthroughs
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  3. Highlights and Breakthroughs
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  5. Highlights and Breakthroughs
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  11. Special collection: Building planets: The dynamics and Geochemistry of core formation
  12. Equation of state of pyrite to 80 GPa and 2400 K
  13. Special collection: Perspectives on origins and evolution of crustal magmas
  14. Understanding magmatic processes at Telica volcano, Nicaragua: Crystal size distribution and textural analysis
  15. Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
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  17. Research Article
  18. Petrographic investigation of smithing slag of the Hellenistic to Byzantine city of Sagalassos (SW-Turkey)
  19. Research Article
  20. Equation of state and spin crossover of (Mg,Fe)O at high pressure, with implications for explaining topographic relief at the core-mantle boundary
  21. Research Article
  22. “Satellite monazites” in polymetamorphic basement rocks of the Alps: Their origin and petrological significance
  23. Research Article
  24. Solution-chemistry control of Mg2+-calcite interaction mechanisms: Implication for biomineralization
  25. Research Article
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  30. Thermodynamics of bastnaesite: A major rare earth ore mineral
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