Unconventional high-pressure Raman spectroscopy study of kinetic and peak pressure effects in plagioclase feldspars

We present the results of a high-pressure semi-hydrostatic study of two plagioclase minerals, andesine and albite, using diamond anvil cells (DACs) to characterize in situ variations in Raman spectra under different static pressures. In this work, we also examined the kinetic effects on deformation at both long and short timescales through non-traditional experiments in which the DAC was either dropped or struck with a mallet. We examined the effects of strain rate, quench rate, and pressure duration on the Raman spectra of plagioclase. We observed that amorphization occurred in all the plagioclase samples we analyzed, and that amorphization onset and permanence differ depending on the composition, kinetics, energy input, and peak pressure. In andesine, samples pressurized above a peak pressure of 18 GPa, amorphization is permanent. Below this critical pressure, the phase has ‘memory’, and crystalline andesine reforms on decompression. Our findings suggest the presence of a thermodynamic energy well in andesine around 18 GPa, and we show that any additional energy input while close to 18 GPa results in amorphization becoming permanent. The effect of the energy well may be relevant for longer duration impacts. For such impacts, equilibrium state studies of deformation and phase formation were previously considered to be applicable. These experiments illuminating the presence of memory effects in plagioclase have implications for comparing static compression, in which samples are measured while under compression, with shock compression, for which samples are measured after decompression.