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 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 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 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...
Read moreFirst evidence that Raman does not measure stresses on inclusions
Our paper on elastic barometry illustrates the difficulties related to Raman measurements on non-cubic inclusions has just been published on American Mineralogist. In her manuscript Chiara Anzolini give us an idea of the greatest source of errors...
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