Abstract
DEFORMATION is one of the principal processes governing the microstructure of solid materials, but it may also affect their chemistries1–5. Chemical unmixing in non-hydrostatically stressed, initially homogeneous multicomponent solids has been predicted to occur during diffusion creep5,6. Yet there has been no report of chemical zoning induced by diffusion creep in either naturally or experimentally deformed solid-solution materials. Here I report Al–Cr zoning in elongated Cr-spinel ((Cr, Al, Fe3+)2(Mg, Fe2+)O4) grains from deformed peridotites and chromitites, which shows a consistent orientation of Al-rich and Al-poor regions with respect to the lineation and the shape of the spinel grain. I interpret this zoning as having been induced by deformation, and it is most reasonably explained by stress-directed lattice diffusion of Al and Cr.
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Ozawa, K. Stress-induced Al–Cr zoning of spinel in deformed peridotites. Nature 338, 141–144 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/338141a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/338141a0
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