Quartzite samples of high purity with a grain size of ~200 μm have been experimentally deformed by coaxial shortening in a solid medium apparatus at 900 °C and at confining pressures ranging from 0.6 to 2 GPa. Most samples have been shortened by ~30% with 0.1 wt% added H₂O. The samples deformed dominantly by crystal plasticity (dislocation creep), and there is a systematic decrease of ...

Grain growth of quartz was investigated using two quartz samples (powder and novaculite) with water under pressure and temperature conditions of 1.0–2.5 GPa and 800–1100 ∘C. The compacted powder preserved a substantial porosity, which caused a slower grain growth than in the novaculite. We assumed a grain growth law of <i>dⁿ−dⁿ₀=k</i>₀<i>f^r<su ...

The mechanical properties of quartz are fundamental to control the plastic behaviour of the continental crust. Our understanding of quartz rheology is still limited in the following respects: i) the large variability of flow law parameters in the earlier literature (stress exponent n = 4 to ≤ 2 and activation energy Q = 120 to 242 kJ/mol), and ii) the difficulty to identify the rate-limiting deformation ...

In order to study the mutual effect of deformation and mineral reactions, we have conducted shear experiments on fine-grained plagioclase-pyroxene assemblages in a Griggs-type solid-medium deformation apparatus. Experiments were performed at a constant shear strain rate of 10⁻⁵ s⁻¹, a confining pressure of 1 GPa and temperatures of 800, 850 and 900 °C. While the peak stress of ...