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Nature 392, 650-653 (16 April 1998) | doi:10.1038/33531

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Mantle mineralogy:  Olivine emerges from isolation

Craig R. Bina1

Near a depth of 410 km, the speeds at which seismic waves travel in Earth's mantle rise sharply, an observation long attributed to high-pressure transformation of the mineral olivine to wadsleyite. However, seismological studies of this '410-km discontinuity' reveal wave-speed increases that are smaller and more abrupt than expected from extrapolation of the laboratory behaviour of these minerals to mantle conditions.

  1. Craig R. Bina is in the Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-2150, USA.
    e-mail: Email: craig@earth.nwu.edu