First in situ X-ray identification of coesite and retrograde quartz on a glass thin section of an ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rock and their crystal structure details

Abstract

To ensure the presence of coesite and its transformed polymorph, quartz, in ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) rocks and to examine the relic of the phase transformation, crystal structures were analyzed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) directly using the rock thin section mounted on a slide glass. The rock sample used is a coesite-bearing eclogite from the Sulu UHP terrain, eastern China. The crystal structures were determined successfully by this new method and the presence of coesite and quartz in UHP rocks was identified for the first time by XRD. The R-factor [R(F)] converged to 0.046 for coesite and 0.087 for quartz. The displacement ellipsoids for coesite and quartz are larger than those previously reported for these two phases, which is consistent with expected effects of trapped strain due to the phase transformation from coesite to quartz during exhumation from the Earth.s mantle.