Compression of a multiphase mantle assemblage: Effects of undesirable stress and stress annealing on the iron spin state crossover in ferropericlase

Abstract

Using synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction, we explore characteristic signatures for nonhydrostatic stresses and their effect on the spin state crossover of ferrous iron in (Mg, Fe)O ferropericlase (Fp) upon compression in a two-phase mixture which includes an Al- and Fe-bearing bridgmanite (Bm). We observe an influence of nonhydrostatic stresses on the spin state crossover starting pressure and width. The undesirable stresses discussed here include uniaxial deviatoric stress evolving in the diamond anvil cell and effects of intergrain interaction. While the former leads to a pressure overestimation, the latter one lowers the pressure of the onset for the high-spin to low-spin electronic transition in Fe2+ in ferropericlase (Mg, Fe)O with respect to hydrostatic conditions.