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Dehydration reactions and micro/nanostructures in experimentally-deformed serpentinites

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Abstract

High-T torsion experiments on lizardite + chrysotile serpentinites produced mineralogical and micro/nanostructural changes, with important implications in rheological properties. High-resolution TEM showed that specimens underwent ductile [by microkinking and (001) interlayer glide] and brittle deformation (by microfracturing), together with dehydration and break-down reactions. Lizardite is affected by polytypic disorder and microkinking [kink axial planes at high angle with respect to (001) planes], that were not present in the initial ordered 1T-lizardite. Chrysotile fibres are deformed, resulting in elliptical cross-sections, with strong loss of interlayer cohesion. Both lizardite and chrysotile break down to a fine intergrowth of olivine (up to 200 nm), talc (up to 30 nm) and poorly-crystalline material. Lizardite-out reaction preferentially occurs at kink axial planes, representing sites of preferential strain and enhanced reactivity; conversely, chrysotile break-down is a bulk process, resulting in large healed olivine aggregates, up to micrometric in size. Overall observations suggest that dehydration and break-down reactions are more advanced in chrysotile than in lizardite.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, University of Siena, Via Laterina 8, 53100, Siena, Italy

    Cecilia Viti

  2. Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, JAMSTEC, 200 Monobe-otsu Nankoku, Kochi, 783-8502, Japan

    Takehiro Hirose

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  1. Cecilia Viti
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  2. Takehiro Hirose
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Correspondence to Cecilia Viti.

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Communicated by T.L. Grove.

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Viti, C., Hirose, T. Dehydration reactions and micro/nanostructures in experimentally-deformed serpentinites. Contrib Mineral Petrol 157, 327–338 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-008-0337-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-008-0337-6

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