An exploratory study of the viscoelasticity of phase-transforming material

Attenuation and modulus dispersion are typically associated with shear stress and strain. Time-dependent volume changes accompanying pressure variations can give rise to bulk modulus attenuation and dispersion. Phase transformations in a two-phase region are candidates for such phenomena.Here we report laboratory data that are consistent with bulk modulus softening as pressure is cycled in a region of coexisting olivine and spinel. We use Fay70For30 olivine as our sample. Experiments are performed in a multi-anvil high-pressure apparatus (Deformation DIA) using synchrotron (NSLS) X-ray radiation as the probing tool. Pressure is up to 12 GPa and temperature is up to 1450 °C. Measurements were carried out within the binary loop where the olivine and spinel phases coexist. We apply a uniaxial oscillation stress onto the sample and Young’s modulus and Q−1 are measured at frequencies of 0.1–0.01 Hz. Our results indicate that the sinusoidal force applied to the sample in olivine-ringwoodite region has much lower bulk modulus and higher Q−1 than in the single-phase regions. Our data are consistent with the diffusion controlled model of [Jackson, I., 2007. Physical origins of anelasticity and attenuation in rock, In: Price, G.D. (Ed.) Mineral Physics. Treatise On Geophysics. Elsevier], where the characteristic time decreases with decreasing strain.