Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs
Publication Date
Summer 8-1-2023
Abstract
Understanding the natural petrologic and tectonic processes, such as slab subduction, requires accurate determination of the pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions of these processes. Recent development of elastic thermobarometry based on the difference between the elastic evolution of mineral inclusions and their host minerals allows constraining the formation P-T conditions of the inclusion/host system without assuming thermodynamic equilibrium, which is typically needed for the widely used chemistry-based thermobarometry in metamorphic petrology. However, the reliability of elastic thermobarometry heavily depends on the accurate determination of the high P-T single-crystal elastic properties of relevant minerals. In this study, we performed the first high P-T single-crystal elasticity measurements of zircon, which is one of the most common inclusion/host minerals in metamorphic rocks, using Brillouin spectroscopy up to ~7 GPa, 700 K. Compared with other common rock forming minerals, zircon is extremely incompressible and its stiffness has very small T dependence making it an ideal mineral for the application of elastic thermobarometry.
Degree Name
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Level of Degree
Masters
Department Name
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
First Committee Member (Chair)
Adrian Brearley
Second Committee Member
Jin Zhang
Third Committee Member
Karl Karlstrom
Language
English
Keywords
zircon, Brillouin spectroscopy
Document Type
Thesis
Recommended Citation
Luu, Arlacee. "HIGH P-T SINGLE CRYSTAL ELASTICITY OF ZIRCON AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR DETERMINING METAMORPHIC P-T CONDITIONS IN NATURE." (2023). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/eps_etds/345
