Deformation of ⊥m single quartz crystals

Abstract:

The rheology of quartz deformed by dislocation creep is essential to understanding the strength of the mid to lower continental crust. Our current understanding of quartz rheology is derived primarily from studies of polycrystalline quartz and little is known about the temperature, strain rate, or water dependence of the individual quartz slip systems.

In order to better understand the rheology of quartz slip systems, we have deformed synthetic quartz single crystals with the prism <a> oriented at 45° to the compression direction (⊥m orientation). We converted the gel-type water found in synthetic quartz crystals to free water fluid inclusions, similar to water observed in milky quartz crystals, by annealing the crystals at 900°C/0.1 MPa for 24 hours. The single crystals were deformed at a confining pressure of 1.5 GPa with temperatures of 850 to 1000°C and strain rates of 10^-6 to 10^-4/s.

FTIR measurements of water concentrations in the starting material, annealed synthetic crystals and deformed synthetic quartz crystals indicate that the water concentrations (125-300 H/10⁶Si) are not affected by the annealing process or deformation. However, the spectra in the annealed and deformed samples are similar to those of natural milky quartz rather than those of synthetic quartz. Results of temperature and strain rate stepping experiments indicate that the strength of the crystals decreases with increasing temperature and/or decreasing strain rate. Undulatory extinction is the predominant microstructure observed in deformed samples, which is consistent with deformation by dislocation creep. The strength of the ⊥m oriented quartz crystals deformed in this study with free water is greater than those of the studies of synthetic quartz with gel type water (Linker and Kirby, 1981 and Muto et al., 2011).