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Polymorphic transformations between olivine, wadsleyite and ringwoodite: mechanisms of intracrystalline nucleation and the role of elastic strain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Ljuba Kerschhofer ,
Catherine Dupas ,
Ming Liu ,
Thomas G. Sharp ,
William B. Durham  and
David C. Rubie
Ljuba Kerschhofer
Affiliation:
Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany
Catherine Dupas
Affiliation:
Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany
Ming Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Thomas G. Sharp
Affiliation:
Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany
William B. Durham
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
David C. Rubie
Affiliation:
Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany
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Abstract

Kinetic models and rate equations for polymorphic reconstructive phase transformations in polycrystalline aggregates are usually based on the assumptions that (a) the product phase nucleates on grain boundaries in the reactant phase and (b) growth rates of the product phase remain constant with time at fixed P-T. Recent observations of experimentally-induced transformations between (Mg,Fe)2SiO4 olivine (α) and its high pressure polymorphs, wadsleyite (β) and ringwoodite (γ), demonstrate that both these assumptions can be invalid, thus complicating the extrapolation of experimental kinetic data. Incoherent grain boundary nucleation appears to have dominated in most previous experimental studies of the α–β–γ transformations because of the use of starting materials with small (<10–20 µm) grain sizes. In contrast, when large (0.6 mm) olivine single crystals are reacted, intracrystalline nucleation of both β and γ becomes the dominant mechanism, particularly when the P-T conditions significantly overstep the equilibrium boundary. At pressures of 18–20 GPa intracrystalline nucleation involves (i) the formation of stacking faults in the olivine, (ii) coherent nucleation of γ-lamellae on these faults and (iii) nucleation of β on γ. In other experiments, intracrystalline nucleation is also observed during the β-γ transformation. In this case coherent nucleation of γ appears to occur at the intersections of dislocations with (010) stacking faults in β, which suggests that the nucleation rate is stress dependent. Reaction rims of β/γ form at the margins of the olivine single crystals by grain boundary nucleation. Measurements of growth distance as a function of time indicate that the growth rate of these rims decreases towards zero as transformation progresses. The growth rate slows because of the decrease in the magnitude of the Gibbs free energy (stored elastic strain energy) that develops as a consequence of the large volume change of transformation. On a longer time scale, growth kinetics may be controlled by viscoelastic relaxation.

Keywords

phase transformationsolivinewadsleyiteringwooditesubduction zones
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 62 , Issue 5 , October 1998 , pp. 617 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1998

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Footnotes

†

Present address: Inst. f. Planetologie WWU Münster, D-48149 Münster, Germany

*

Present address: Department of Geology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA

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