Experimental Compressibility of Molten Hedenbergite at High Pressure

Experiments using the sink/float method have bracketed the density of molten hedenbergite (CaFeSi2O6) at high pressures and temperatures. The experiments are the first of their kind to determine the compressibility of molten hedenbergite at high pressure and are part of a collaborative effort to establish a new database for an array of silicate melt compositions, which will contribute to the development of an empirically based predictive model that will allow calculation of silicate liquid density and compressibility over a wide range of P-T-X conditions where melting could occur in the Earth. Each melt composition will be measured using: (i) double-bob Archimedean method for melt density and thermal expansion at ambient pressure, (ii) sound speed measurements on liquids to constrain melt compressibility at ambient pressure, (iii) sink/float technique to measure melt density to 15 GPa, and (iv) shock wave measurements of P-V-E equation of state and temperature between 10 and 150 GPa. Companion abstracts on molten fayalite (Waller et al., 2010) and liquid mixes of hedenbergite-diopside and anorthite-hedenbergite-diopside (Guo and Lange, 2010) are also presented at this meeting. In the present study, the hedenbergite starting material was synthesized at the Experimental Petrology Lab, University of Michigan, where melt density, thermal expansion, and sound speed measurements were also carried out. The starting material has also been loaded into targets at the Caltech Shockwave Lab, and experiments there are currently underway. We report here preliminary results from static compression measurement performed at the Department of Petrology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and the High Pressure Lab, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico. Experiments were carried out in Quick Press piston-cylinder devices and a Walker-style multi-anvil device. Sink/float marker spheres implemented were gem quality synthetic forsterite (Fo100), San Carlos olivine (Fo90), and natural pyropic garnet(Pyr74 Alm13.5 Gro12.5). We bracketed the density of molten hedenbergite with Fo100 to be 3.09 g cm-3 at 1.1 GPa and 1450°C, and with Fo90 to be 3.27 g cm-3 at 3.0 GPa and 1450-1550°C. These sink-float values represent an increase in isothermal density from reference ambient pressure of 6% and 12% respectively, or linear compressions of 0.16 and 0.12 g cm-3 GPa-1. The density-with-pressure increases in our static compression experiments are in good agreement with the Michigan ambient pressure sound speed measurements that yield an isentropic bulk modulus of KS=18.77 GPa. Currently we are performing higher pressure sink/float experiments in the range 7-8 GPa with pyrope garnet marker spheres to better constrain values for the isothermal bulk modulus (KT) and its pressure derivative K'. As a by-product of our sink/float experiments we are also determining the melting curve of hedenbergite well beyond the published pressure extent of approximately 1.5 GPa (Lindsley, 1967). Our early data show the hedenbergite liquidus to be 1450°C at 3 GPa and approximately 1750°C at 7 GPa.