Garnet yield strength at high pressures and implications for upper mantle and transition zone rheology

Abstract

Garnet helps control the mechanical behavior of the Earth's crust, mantle, and transition zone. Here, measurements are presented suggesting that garnet, long considered to be a high‐viscosity phase, is actually weaker than the other dominant components in the transition zone. The mechanical behavior of garnet at high pressures was examined using radial diffraction techniques in the diamond anvil cell. The yield strength of grossular garnet was inferred from synchrotron X‐ray measurements of differential lattice strains. The differential stress was found to increase from 1.3 (±0.6) GPa at a hydrostatic pressure 5.8 (±1.1) GPa to 4.1 (±0.4) GPa at 15.7 (±1.0) GPa, where it was level to 19 GPa. The strength results are consistent with inferred strength values for majorite garnet from measurements in the diamond cell normal geometry, bolstering the idea that garnet‐structured materials may all have similar strengths. In this low‐temperature, high differential stress regime, garnet is shown to be significantly weaker than anhydrous ringwoodite and to have a strength similar to hydrous ringwoodite. This result suggests that the presence of water in the transition zone may not be required to explain a weak rheology, and therefore models of transition zone behavior built assuming that garnet is the high‐strength phase may need to be revised.