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Strong inheritance of texture between perovskite and post-perovskite in the D′′ layer

Nature Geoscience volume 6, pages 575–578 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

About 200 km above the core–mantle boundary, the D′′ seismic discontinuity marks the depth where magnesium silicate perovskite—the main mantle mineral—is transformed into its high-pressure phase of post-perovskite1,2. Observations of seismic anisotropy within the D′′ region are inferred to arise from textures within post-perovskite3,4,5 that are created by flow in the deep mantle. Specifically, mantle flow is thought to cause post-perovskite to deform, creating a lattice-preferred orientation within the post-perovskite6,7,8,9,10. However, it is difficult to explain all of the observed patterns of seismic anisotropy in the D′′ region from this deformation mechanism alone. Here we use a low-pressure fluoride analogue system11 to study the transformation from perovskite to post-perovskite in laboratory experiments. We find that post-perovskite can inherit texture from the perovskite phase. If a similar transformation mechanism operates in the Earth, post-perovskite will inherit textures from deformed perovskite and vice versa, as lower-mantle material passes into and out of the D′′ region. We find that this textural inheritance, combined with lattice-preferred orientation in post-perovskite, can explain the observed patterns of anisotropy in the lowermost mantle.

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Figure 1: Transmission electron micrograph of partially transformed NaNiF3 perovskite.
Figure 2: Seismic anisotropy predicted for the transformation from post-perovskite to perovskite.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council grant to D.P.D. (ref J009520) and a European Research Council starting grant to F.N. (ref 307312). A.W. was supported by ERC grant 240473.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

    David P. Dobson & Ian G. Wood

  2. Institute for Geochemistry and Petrology, Clausiusstrasse 25, NW, ETH Zürich, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland

    David P. Dobson & Christian Liebske

  3. Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany

    Nobuyosihi Miyajima

  4. Department of Geosciences, University of Padua, Via Gradenigo 6, I-35131 Padova, Italy

    Fabrizio Nestola & Matteo Alvaro

  5. Paul Scherrer Institut, Swiss Light Source, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

    Nicola Casati

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, Bristol University, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK

    Andrew M. Walker

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  1. David P. Dobson
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  2. Nobuyosihi Miyajima
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  3. Fabrizio Nestola
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  4. Matteo Alvaro
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  6. Christian Liebske
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  7. Ian G. Wood
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  8. Andrew M. Walker
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Contributions

High-pressure experiments D.P.D. and C.L.; XRD experiments F.N., M.A., N.C. and D.P.D.; TEM experiments N.M.; crystallographic interpretation I.G.W. and D.P.D.; seismic anisotropy simulations A.M.W.

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Correspondence to David P. Dobson.

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Dobson, D., Miyajima, N., Nestola, F. et al. Strong inheritance of texture between perovskite and post-perovskite in the D′′ layer. Nature Geosci 6, 575–578 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1844

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