Abstract
I REPORT here experimental confirmation of the prediction1 that oxide mixtures with either olivine or pyroxene stoichiometries are not stable mineral assemblages under lower mantle conditions. Pyroxene with a few percentages of Al2O3 transforms into the garnet structure at high pressure2. Further I have found that garnets rich in pyrope transform to the orthorhombic perovskite phase at loading pressures above 270 kbar and temperatures above 800 °C. For those reasons, and in order to allow the sample to absorb the laser beam with maximum efficiency, I used a glass form of 95% by weight (Mg0.75Fe0.25)SiO3 + 5% (weight) Al2O3 as a starting sample. This material is equivalent to a mixture with 93.7 mol% of pyroxene plus 6.3 mol% of pyrope-rich garnets, and is identical to that studied by Ringwood and Major in their synthesis of the garnet phase3.
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References
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LIU, LG. Post-oxide phases of olivine and pyroxene and mineralogy of the mantle. Nature 258, 510–512 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/258510a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/258510a0
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