Water and halogens in ocean floor sediments transported by a descending slab might play important roles in geodynamic processes. Imaging subducted sediments through seismological observations requires a thorough understanding of elastic properties of sediment origin hydrous minerals. Topaz is a sediment origin hydrous mineral, which is formed at the depth of 250–350km on a cold subducting slab. We determined elastic constants and their temperature derivatives of a natural single-crystal of topaz (Al1.97SiO4(F1.56, OH0.42)) at the temperature from 271.5 to 312.7°K by using the sphere-resonance method. Elastic constants at an ambient temperature (T=291.9°K) are C11=281.21(1)GPa, C22=346.23(9)GPa, C33=294.99(9)GPa, C44=108.49(1)GPa, C55=132.47(1)GPa, C66=130.32(1)GPa, C12=121.48(3)GPa, C13=80.94(3)GPa and C23=81.77(2)GPa. Since our sample [Al2SiO4(F1.56,OH0.42)] was relatively rich in fluorine, only small differences in elastic constants can be seen between our sample and fluorine end member. Elastic constants of OH-rich topaz should be experimentally investigated to understand the influence of F-OH substitution on elasticity of topaz. All the elastic constants decrease linearly with increasing temperature. The temperature derivatives are dC11/dT=−0.014(3)GPa/°K, dC22/dT=−0.010(7)GPa/°K, dC33/dT=−0.021(5)GPa/°K, dC44/dT=−0.011(1)GPa/°K, dC55/dT=−0.016(2)GPa/°K, dC66/dT=−0.0101(2)GPa/°K, dC12/dT=−0.0041(6)GPa/°K, dC13/dT=−0.001(2)GPa/°K and dC23/dT=−0.002(1)GPa/°K. The isotropic seismic velocities in topaz are distinctly higher than those in olivine at 10GPa and 300–1400°K. There should be a strong velocity contrast between the overlying mantle and the thin sediment-origin layer at the depth around 300km. A seismological technique like the receiver function technique should be applied to detect a thin layer of topaz in a cold subduction zone.
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