Phase Transformations in Feldspar Group Minerals with Paracelsian Topology under High Temperature and High Pressure

Abstract

—Feldspar group minerals (feldspars) form up to 60 vol.% of the Earth’s crust. The knowledge of their stability under extreme conditions (high-pressure and high-temperature) allow to better understand the processes, that occur in the subduction and collision processes. This review focuses on the behavior of feldspars with paracelsian topology (seven mineral species: three borosilicates, two aluminosilicates and two beryllophosphates) at elevated temperatures and pressures. Partly, new data on high-temperature behavior of paracelsian BaAl2Si2O8 (based on in situ high-temperature powder X-ray diffraction) provided. The high-temperature studies of 5 feldspar minerals with paracelsian topology (danburite, maleevite, pekovite, paracelsian, slawsonite) revealed that all of them are stable at least up to 800 °C. Among all of them only paracelsian undergoes polymorphic transition (at 930 °C), whereas all other minerals decompose or amorphisize. The structural deformations of these minerals demonstrate the different anisotropy degree upon heating, whereas the average volume expansion is similar for all of them (αV = 23 × 10–6 ºC–1). High-pressure behavior was studied for six of seven minerals with paracelsian topology (danburite, meleevite, pekovite, paracelsian, slawsonite, hurlbutite). The studied minerals undergo transformations with the stepwise increasing of coordination number of frame-forming cations from 4 to 5 and 6 upon compression The discovering of unusual structural units under extreme conditions (e.g., fivefold-coordinated polyhedral) can influence on the concentration and transport processes of trace elements that should be taken into account when interpreting geochemical and geophysical data. The crystal structure stability range of studied minerals highly depends on the chemical composition of frame-forming cations: aluminosilicates are the least stable and undergo the phase transitions below 6 GPa; borosilicates preserve their initial crystal structure up to ~20 GPa; beryllium phosphates do not undergo phase 2 transformations up to 75 GPa. It has been shown that transformations pathway of isostuctural compounds highly depends on the chemical composition of both extraframework and frame-forming cations that involves the difficulties with predictions of their behavior under extreme conditions.