First high-pressure laboratory experiment on host-inclusion systems In his new manuscript Nicola Campomenosi describes the results of the first laboratory experiments where quartz in garnet host-inclusion systems have investigated under high...
Read moreCan inclusions be symmetry broken?
Can inclusions be symmetry broken? Murri and co-authors recently studied the role of symmetry-breaking strains in quartz inclusions entrapped in zircon by ab initio simulations. They discovered that for deformations expected for real cases the...
Read moreQuartz metastability at high pressure: what new can we learn from polarized Raman spectroscopy
Quartz metastability at high pressure: what new can we learn from polarized Raman spectroscopy? Despite all the work we have done on it, quartz can still surprise us! In their new paper Marta, Boriana, Ross and Matteo characterize the Raman...
Read moreUsing polarized Raman spectroscopy to study the stress gradient in mineral systems with anomalous birefringence
Using polarized Raman spectroscopy to study the stress gradient in mineral systems with anomalous birefringence Our PhD student Nicola Campomenosi using experimental results coupled with selected finite element models showed that the ratio...
Read moreThe pressure‑induced phase transition(s) of ZrSiO4: revised
A new brilliant manuscript by Boriana and Naemi that finally revise the phase transition(s) of ZrSiO4 at high pressure conditions. In this manuscript published in Physics and Chemistry of Minerals they present the experimental proof for the...
Read moreEditors Selections: Notable papers on American Mineralogist (June 2019)
Quoting the really nice paragraph by the Editors of American Mineralogist about our paper: “stangaronite….”! Stangarone et al. (page 830) used density functional theory (DFT) simulations of the structures of zircon and reidite...
Read moreElastic geobarometry using zircons
In her latest study Claudia Stangarone carried out ab initio hybrid Hartree-Fock/Density Functional Theory simulations to determine the structure and vibrational modes of zircon, ZrSiO4, as a function of different applied strains. In her...
Read moreNew insights into the zircon-reidite phase transition
Shock in meteorite impacts may transform zircon (ZrSiO4) into a denser polymorph, reidite, but the mechanism and significance of this transformation has been obscured by discrepancies between observations on natural and experimental samples. In...
Read moreStructure and properties of quartz under non-hydrostatic stress
Mara Murri marks the beginning of the new year with an incredibly nice paper showing the effect of non-hydrostatic stresses on the structure of alpha-quartz. This investigation carried out through ab initio hybrid Hartree–Fock/DFT simulations...
Read morestRAinMAN software now released
In his new paper published in Zeitschrift fuer Kristallographie Ross Angel explains the development of the past year that led to the current version of the stRAinMAN program. This allows the strains acting on inclusions trapped in their host to...
Read moreStrain release after polishing
In his new paper Nicola Campomenosi addresses the issues related to the release of the residual pressure in the inclusion due to exposure to the external pressure after polishing of the thin section. He illustrates with a careful set of...
Read moreDetermine strains on inclusions from Raman measurements
In her new paper published on American Mineralogist, Mara Murri, describes a method for determining the strains in quartz inclusions from Raman spectroscopy using the concept of the phonon-mode Grüneisen tensor, which we determine by ab initio...
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