High-pressure reconnaissance investigation in the system Mg3Al2Si3O12-Fe3Al2Si3O12

Two synthetic end-members and two natural solid solutions of the system Mg₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂-Fe₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂ have been found to display successive phase transformations at increasingly high pressures when they were compressed in a diamond-anvil cell and heated with a YAG laser to temperatures of approximately 1400–1800°C. X-ray diffraction studies of the quenched samples show that the iron-rich garnets apparently first transform to a garnet-related high-pressure phase, then disproportionate into a mixture of magnesiowüstite plus an unknown phase(s). The latter phase(s) may further transform to a still denser unknown phase(s). The ultimate high-pressure phase may be a perovskite-like structure as was previously found for the magnesium-rich garnets. One of the unknown phases may be the high-pressure phase of Al₂O₃ · nSiO₂ compounds. Magnesium-rich garnets display similar phase transformations as do the iron-rich garnets with the exception of the garnet-related high-pressure phase. These results disagree with a previous interpretation for the high-pressure phase of iron-silicate garnets recovered in shock-wave experiments reported by Ahrens and Graham (1972).