Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Mineral Physics
Reproducibility in subsurface geoscience
Published: 2021-10-26
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Cosmochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Mineral Physics, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Speleology, Stratigraphy, Sustainability, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology, Water Resource Management
Reproducibility, the extent to which consistent results are obtained when an experiment or study is repeated, sits at the foundation of science. The aim of this process is to produce robust findings and knowledge, with reproducibility being the screening tool to benchmark how well we are implementing the scientific method. However, the re-examination of results from many disciplines has caused [...]
Improving the reliability of Fe- and S-XANES measurements in silicate glasses: Correcting beam damage and identifying Fe-oxide nanolites in hydrous and anhydrous melt inclusions
Published: 2021-10-19
Subjects: Geochemistry, Geology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
The redox state of silicate melts influences crystallization, element partitioning, and degassing behavior. Synchrotron-based micro-X-ray absorption near edge structure (μXANES) spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful tool for determining redox conditions through the direct measurement of speciation of multivalent elements such as iron and sulfur in silicate glasses. In particular, the high [...]
An anisotropic equation of state for high pressure, high temperature applications
Published: 2021-09-25
Subjects: Condensed Matter Physics, Geophysics and Seismology, Materials Science and Engineering, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Mineral Physics
This paper presents a strategy for consistently extending isotropic equations of state to model anisotropic materials over a wide range of pressures and temperatures under nearly hydrostatic conditions. The method can be applied to materials of arbitrary symmetry. The paper provides expressions for the deformation gradient tensor, the lattice parameters, the isothermal elastic compliance tensor [...]
Shear-wave Anisotropy in the Earth’s Inner Core
Published: 2021-09-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earth’s inner core anisotropy is widely used to infer the deep Earth's evolution and present dynamics. Many compressional-wave anisotropy models have been proposed based on seismological observations. In contrast, inner-core shear-wave (J-wave) anisotropy – on a par with the compressional-wave anisotropy – has been elusive. Here we present a new class of the J-wave anisotropy observations [...]
Safety and Belonging in the Field: A Checklist for Educators
Published: 2021-08-19
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Climate, Cosmochemistry, Earth Sciences, Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Fresh Water Studies, Geochemistry, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Higher Education, Human Geography, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Meteorology, Mineral Physics, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Geography, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Planetary Sciences, Outdoor Education, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Biogeochemistry, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geomorphology, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Glaciology, Planetary Hydrology, Planetary Mineral Physics, Planetary Sciences, Planetary Sedimentology, Remote Sensing, Sedimentology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Soil Science, Spatial Science, Speleology, Stratigraphy, Sustainability, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology, Water Resource Management
Ensuring taught fieldwork is a positive, generative, collective, and valuable experience for all participants requires considerations beyond course content. To guarantee safety and belonging, participants’ identities (backgrounds and protected characteristics) must be considered as a part of fieldwork planning and implementation. Furthermore, getting fieldwork right is an important step in [...]
Machine learning thermobarometry and chemometry using amphibole and clinopyroxene: a window into the roots of an arc volcano (Mount Liamuiga, Saint Kitts)
Published: 2021-07-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Mineral Physics, Stratigraphy, Volcanology
The physical and chemical properties of magma govern the eruptive style and behaviour of volcanoes. Many of these parameters are linked to the storage pressure and temperature of the erupted magma, and melt chemistry. However, reliable single-phase thermobarometers and chemometers which can recover this information, particularly using amphibole chemistry, remain elusive. We present a suite of [...]
Geodynamic, geodetic, and seismic constraints favour deflated and dense-cored LLVPs
Published: 2021-06-18
Subjects: Cosmochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Two continent-sized features in the deep mantle, the large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs), influence Earth's supercontinent cycles, mantle plume generation, and its geochemical budget. Seismological advances have steadily improved LLVP imaging, but several fundamental questions remain unanswered, including: What is their vertical extent? And, are they purely thermal anomalies, or are they also [...]
Interphase misorientation as a tool to study metamorphic reactions and crystallization in geological materials
Published: 2021-06-07
Subjects: Geology, Mineral Physics, Other Earth Sciences
Interphase boundaries are planar defects that separate two different minerals, which in general have different compositions and/or crystalline structures and may play an important role as a pathway for fluids in rocks and affect their physical properties. For the proper characterization of interphase boundaries, one needs to define the misorientation between adjacent grains and the orientation of [...]
Timing of Martian Core Formation from Models of Hf–W Evolution Coupled with N-body Simulations
Published: 2021-06-04
Subjects: Geochemistry, Mineral Physics, Planetary Sciences
Determining how and when Mars formed has been a long-standing challenge for planetary scientists. The size and orbit of Mars are difficult to reproduce in classical simulations of planetary accretion, and this has inspired models of inner solar system evolution that are tuned to produce Mars-like planets. However, such models are not always coupled to geochemical constraints. Analyses of Martian [...]
Assessment of quartz grain growth and the application of the wattmeter to predict recrystallized grain sizes
Published: 2020-12-04
Subjects: Geology, Mineral Physics, Tectonics and Structure
We investigated relationships between the recrystallized grain size and stress in experimentally deformed water-added quartz aggregates. For stresses >100 MPa there is a variation in the measured recrystallized grain size for a given stress. We found this variation correlates with a change in the c-axis fabric in general shear experiments, where samples with larger recrystallized grain sizes for [...]
The miscibility of Calcium Silicate Perovskite and Bridgmanite: A single phase perovskite in hot, iron-rich regions
Published: 2020-11-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Calcium silicate perovskite and bridgmanite are two phases believed to coexist throughout the lower mantle, which at some temperature, at least theoretically, dissolve into each other to form a single perovskite solid solution (CaxMg1-xSiO3). This may have large seismic and geochemical implications due to the changes in density, elasticity and element partition coefficients between single and [...]
High-Pressure Deformation of Iron–Nickel–Silicon Alloys and Implications for Earth’s Inner Core
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earth’s inner core exhibits strong seismic anisotropy, often attributed to the alignment of hexagonal close-packed iron (hcp-Fe) alloy crystallites with the Earth’s poles. How this alignment developed depends on material properties of the alloy and is important to our understanding of the core’s crystallization history and active geodynamical forcing. Previous studies suggested that hcp-Fe is [...]
Quantification of non-linear multiphase flow in porous media
Published: 2020-08-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We measure the pressure difference during two-phase flow across a sandstone sample for a range of injection rates and fractional flows of water, the wetting phase, during an imbibition experiment. We quantify the onset of a transition from a linear relationship between flow rate and pressure gradient to a non-linear power-law dependence. We show that the transition from linear (Darcy) to [...]
Explaining the dependence of M-site diffusion in forsterite on silica activity: a Density Functional Theory approach
Published: 2020-07-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Experimentally silica activity (aSiO2) has been shown to have an effect on Mg diffusion in forsterite but without any obvious mechanism. We calculated the effects of aSiO2 and aluminium content (the main contaminant in the experimental studies), and their co-effect, on Mg diffusion in forsterite, using thermodynamic minimisations of defect formation energies (calculated using Density Functional [...]
Dislocation interactions in olivine control postseismic creep of the upper mantle
Published: 2020-06-29
Subjects: Condensed Matter Physics, Earth Sciences, Geology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Tectonics and Structure
Changes in stress applied to mantle rocks, such as those imposed by earthquakes, induce a period of evolution in viscosity and microstructure. This transient creep is often modelled based on stress transfer among slip systems due to grain interactions. However, recent experiments have demonstrated that the intragranular accumulation of stresses among dislocations is the dominant cause of strain [...]