High-pressure phase transitions of clinoenstatite
Clinoenstatite (Mg 2 Si 2 O 6 ) undergoes a well-known phase transition from a low-pressure form (LPCEN, space group P2 1 /c ) to a high-pressure form (HPCEN, space group C2/c ) at similar to ~ 6 GPa. High-pressure structure refinements of HPCEN were carried out based on single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments between 9.5 and 35.5 GPa to determine its P-V equation of state and structural evolution over an expanded pressure range relevant to pyroxene metastability. The best-fit isothermal equation of state to our data combined with the five data points between 5.34 and 7.93 GPa from Angel and Hugh-Jones (1994) yields a second-order Birch-Murnaghan equation with K T0 = 121(2) GPa and V 0 = 403.9(5) Å 3 (with $K^{'}_{T0}$ = 4 implied). Further reduction of misfit upon fitting a third-order Birch-Murnaghan equation is not significant at the 90% confidence level. At ~45 GPa, a transition from HPCEN to a P21/c -structured polymorph (HPCEN2) was observed in our study, which is isostructural to the P2 1 /c phase recently observed in diopside (CaMgSi 2 O 6 ) at 50 GPa (Plonka et al. 2012) and in clinoferrosilite (Fe 2 Si 2 O 6 ) at 30–36 GPa (Pakhomova et al. 2017). Observation of HPCEN2 in Mg 2 Si 2 O 6 completes the third apex of the pyroxene quadrilateral wherein HPCEN2 is found, facilitating a broader view of clinopyroxene crystal chemistry at conditions relevant to metastability in the Earth’s mantle along cold subduction geotherms.