Experimental Deformation of Magnetite

Abstract:

Magnetite is an important iron ore mineral and the most prominent Fe-oxide phase in the Earth's crust. The systematic occurrence of magnetite in zones of intense deformation in oceanic core complexes suggests that it may play a role in strain localization in some silicate rocks. We performed a series of high-temperature deformation experiments on synthetic magnetite aggregates and natural single crystals to characterize the rheological behavior of magnetite. As starting material, we used fine-grained magnetite powder that was hot isostatically pressed at 1100^°C for several hours, resulting in polycrystalline material with a mean grain size of around 40 µm and containing 3-5% porosity. Samples were deformed to 15-20% axial strain under constant load (approximating constant stress) conditions in a Paterson-type gas apparatus for triaxial deformation at temperatures between 900 and 1100^°C and 300 MPa confining pressure. The aggregates exhibit typical power-law creep behavior. At high stresses, samples deformed by dislocation creep exhibit stress exponents close to 3, revealing a transition to near-Newtonian creep with stress exponents around 1.3 at lower stresses. Natural magnetite single crystals deformed at 1 atm pressure and temperatures between 950^°C and 1150 ^°C also exhibit stress exponents close to 3, but with lower flow stresses and a lower apparent activation energy than the aggregates. Such behavior may result from the different oxygen fugacity buffers used. Crystallographic-preferred orientations in all polycrystalline samples are very weak and corroborate numerical models of CPO development, suggesting that texture development in magnetite may be inherently slow compared with lower symmetry phases. Comparison of our results with experimental deformation data for various silicate minerals suggests that magnetite should be weaker than most silicates during ductile creep in dry igneous rocks.