Elastic properties of alkali-feldspars

New measurements of single crystal elastic moduli for a suite of the alkali feldspars are reported. In order to interpret Earth's seismic structure, knowledge of the elastic properties of constituent minerals is essential. The elasticity of feldspar minerals, despite being the most abundant phase in Earth's crust (estimated to be more than 60%), were previously poorly characterized. All prior seismic and petrologic studies have utilized 50-year-old results, of questionable quality, based on 1-bar measurements on pseudo-single crystals. Alkali-feldspars present a large experimental challenge associated with their structural complexity. In the K-end member (KAlSi3O8) the symmetry is governed by Al/Si ordering, in the Na-end member (NaAlSi3O8) the symmetry is governed by whether or not there is a displacive collapse of the framework independent of the Al/Si ordering. K-feldspars exhibit monoclinic (C2/m) symmetry (necessitating determination of 13 elastic moduli) if disordered and triclinic (C-1) symmetry (21 elastic moduli) if ordered. Exsolution of Na-rich and K-rich phases is ubiquitous in natural samples, making it difficult to find suitable single phase and untwinned samples for study. The small single domain samples selected for this study were previously characterized by x-ray diffraction and microprobe analysis to ensure adequate sample quality. Surface wave velocities were measured on oriented surfaces of natural and synthetic single crystals using impulsively stimulated light scattering. A surface corrugation with a spacing of about 2 microns was impulsively created by the overlap of 100 ps infrared light pulses. The time evolution of the stimulated standing elastic waves was detected by measuring the intensity of diffraction from the surface corrugation of a variably delayed probe pulse. This method allows accurate (better than 0.2%) determination of velocities on samples smaller than 100 microns. The combination of measured surface wave velocities and separately determined compressibilities, based on high-pressure x-ray studies, allowed determination of the full elastic tensor for alkali-feldspars as a function of composition and structure.