Published in

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 5539(293), p. 2437-2440, 2001

DOI: 10.1126/science.1061235

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Stability and Structure of MgSiO <sub>3</sub> Perovskite to 2300-Kilometer Depth in Earth's Mantle

Journal article published in 2001 by Sang-Heon Shim, Thomas S. Duffy ORCID, Guoyin Shen
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Unexplained features have been observed seismically near the middle (∼1700-kilometer depth) and bottom of the Earth's lower mantle, and these could have important implications for the dynamics and evolution of the planet. (Mg,Fe)SiO 3 perovskite is expected to be the dominant mineral in the deep mantle, but experimental results are discrepant regarding its stability and structure. Here we report in situ x-ray diffraction observations of (Mg,Fe)SiO 3 perovskite at conditions (50 to 106 gigapascals, 1600 to 2400 kelvin) close to a mantle geotherm from three different starting materials, (Mg 0.9 Fe 0.1 )SiO enstatite, MgSiO 3 glass, and an MgO+SiO 2 mixture. Our results confirm the stability of (Mg,Fe)SiO 3 perovskite to at least 2300-kilometer depth in the mantle. However, diffraction patterns above 83 gigapascals and 1700 kelvin (1900-kilometer depth) cannot presently rule out a possible transformation from Pbnm perovskite to one of three other possible perovskite structures with space group P 2 1 / m , Pmmn , or P 4 2 / nmc .