Equation of State Elgoresyite: A Computational Study

Kisku, Fagun (2022) Equation of State Elgoresyite: A Computational Study. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

Text (MS dissertation of Fagun Kisku (17MS115)) 17MS115_Thesis_file.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB)

Abstract

Chondritic meteorites represent one of the last major vestiges of the primitive Solar System, and by the virtue of their constituents’ unmodified state, portray a record of the processes that might have taken place during the planet formation phase. Some of these meteorites are characterized by the presence of shock veins, formed by impact of asteroids that raise the temperature and pressure in these systems to colossal values, mimicking the conditions in the interior of rocky planets and thereafter resulting in high-pressure mineral phase transitions. Most abundant of these are the high-pressure polymorphs of iron- and aluminum-bearing magnesium silicates, and the presence of these polymorphs in Earth has been confirmed by previous studies. In one of the major studies in this field, a new iron and magnesium bearing silicate was reported in a shock-induced melt vein of the Suizhou L6 Meteorite, and subsequently named as Elgoresyite. It has been suggested that this mineral is a potential constituent of the interior of rocky planets. To delve deeper into this matter, elastic properties of the Elgoresyite mineral were studied. This was done by obtaining the equation of state of this mineral using first principles method by calculating the volume and energy of this mineral at relevant pressure points. Energy and volume data was fitted using third-order Birch Murnaghan equation of state. Bulk modulus for iron-bearing Elgoresyite was found to be increased about 14% to its non-iron bearing counterpart, whereas ambient volume was found to follow the opposite pattern with a decrease about 3%.

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