Modeling the thermodynamic parameters of six endmember garnets at ambient and high pressures from vibrational data

Raman and infrared spectroscopic data at ambient and high pressures were used to compute the lattice contribution to the heat capacities and entropies of six endmember garnets: pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular, andradite and uvarovite. Electronic, configurational and magnetic contributions are obtained from comparing available calorimetric data to the computed lattice contributions. For garnets with entropy in excess of the computed lattice contribution, the overwhelming majority is found in the subambient temperature regime. At room temperature, the non-lattice entropy is approximately 11.5 J/mol-K for pyrope, 49 J/mol-K for almandine, and 19 J/mol-K for andradite. The non-lattice entropy for pyrope and some for almandine cannot be accounted for by magnetic or electronic contributions and is likely to be configurational in nature. Estimates of low temperature non-lattice entropies for both spessartine and uvarovite are made in absence of calorimetric measurements and are based on low temperature calorimetry of other minerals containing the Mn²⁺ and Cr³⁺ cations as well as on solid solution garnets containing these cations. The estimate for uvarovite non-lattice entropy is approximately 18 J/mol-K, while for spessartine, approximately 45 J/mol-K. Neither of these cations is expected to provide electronic contributions to the entropy. For both iron-bearing garnets, a small electronic or magnetic entropy contribution continues above ambient temperatures. High pressure data on pyrope, grossular and andradite permit calculation of the thermodynamic parameters at high pressures, which are important for computation of processes in the Earth’s mantle. Thermal expansion coefficients of these materials were found to be 1.6, 1.5, 1.6×10⁻⁵ K⁻¹ at 298 K, respectively, using a Maxwell relation. These closely match the literature values at ambient conditions.