Tetragonal almandine pyrope phase (TAPP): retrograde Mg-perovskite from subducted oceanic crust?

Abstract

Laser heated diamond-anvil-cell experiments performed on a “tetragonal almandine pyrope phase” (TAPP) bulk composition constrain high-temperature phase relations between 6 and 48 GPa. Phase assemblages determined by synchrotron X-ray diffraction consist of TAPP + garnet ± pseudobrookite ± enstatite from 6 to 10 GPa, garnet from 13 to 22 GPa, Mg-perovskite + garnet from 23 to 30 GPa, and Mg-perovskite above 30 GPa. TAPP has the same structure at 1 atm and at high pressure based on in situ X-ray diffraction data, and is stable at a maximum pressure of 10–13 GPa at 1300–1700 K. These results rule out direct incorporation of TAPP in diamond at transition-zone or lower-mantle pressures. Possible origins of TAPP are (1) entrapment by diamonds in the upper mantle, and (2) retrograde formation from a high-pressure garnet or Mg-perovskite precursor. We suggest that single-phase TAPP inclusions and possibly composite TAPP-bearing inclusions originated as Mg-perovskite in the lower mantle in mafic protoliths, and that TAPP forms upon retrograde conversion at pressures below 13 GPa upon exhumation of the diamonds from the lower mantle to shallower depths of less than 400 km.