Experimental Studies of Planetary Materials

Mike KrawczynskiPhil Skemer

Wash. U. Experimental Geochemistry

Experimental Geochemistry: Its all about constraining the processes that form the planets (P, T, X, t)

Piston Cylinder

1-atm Gas MixingFurnaceCold-seal Gas

Pressure Vessel

Wash. U. Experimental Geochemistry

Wash. U. Experimental Geochemistry

Mantle Wedge

Lower Crust

Shallow Crust

Subducting Slab

Magma Ocean Silicate Cumulates

Plag Crust

KREEP Zone

Lower Mantle

500 km

Wash. U. Rock Deformation Lab

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Kinematics:

How should we relate seismic anisotropy to flow patterns near plate boundaries?

Wash. U. Rock Deformation Lab

Dynamics:

How do rocks deform near plate boundaries or deep in Earth’s mantle?

How do deforming rocks generate different styles of plate tectonics on Earth and other planets?

Wash. U. Rock Deformation Lab

P = 1 GPa T = 1250 C

emax ~0.5

Griggs Apparatus

Linckens et al. (2014)

Wash. U. Rock Deformation Lab

P = 6 GPaT = 1300 Cg = limited only by time

Large Volume Torsion Apparatus

Wash. U. Rock Deformation Lab

Experiments over next several years will focus on two phase materials:

olivine + pyroxene (mantle)

plag + pyroxene (mafic crust)

cpx + garnet (eclogitized crust)

How do the rheology and microstructure of polymineralic rocks evolve as a function of strain, and under what conditions does this behavior diverge from the behavior of idealized monomineralic aggregates?

Large Volume Torsion Apparatus