High-pressure behavior of natural single-crystal epidote and clinozoisite up to 40 GPa

Abstract

The comparative compressibility and high-pressure stability of a natural epidote (0.79 Fe-total per formula unit, Fetot pfu) and clinozoisite (0.40 Fetot pfu) were investigated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The lattice parameters of both phases exhibit continuous compression behavior up to 30 GPa without evidence of phase transformation. Pressure–volume data for both phases were fitted to a third-order Birch–Murnaghan equation of state with V 0 = 461.1(1) A3, K 0 = 115(2) GPa, and $$K_{0}^{'}$$ = 3.7(2) for epidote and V 0 = 457.8(1) A3, K 0 = 142(3) GPa, and $$K_{0}^{'}$$ = 5.2(4) for clinozoisite. In both epidote and clinozoisite, the b-axis is the stiffest direction, and the ratios of axial compressibility are 1.19:1.00:1.15 for epidote and 1.82:1.00:1.19 for clinozoisite. Whereas the compressibility of the a-axis is nearly the same for both phases, the b- and c-axes of the epidote are about 1.5 times more compressible than in clinozoisite, consistent with epidote having a lower bulk modulus. Raman spectra collected up to 40.4 GPa also show no indication of phase transformation and were used to obtain mode Gruneisen parameters (γ i) for Si–O vibrations, which were found to be 0.5–0.8, typical for hydrous silicate minerals. The average pressure coefficient of Raman frequency shifts for M–O modes in epidote, 2.61(6) cm−1/GPa, is larger than found for clinozoisite, 2.40(6) cm−1/GPa, mainly due to the different compressibility of FeO6 and AlO6 octahedra in M3 sites. Epidote and clinozoisite contain about 2 wt% H2O are thus potentially important carriers of water in subducted slabs.