New publication in AGU’s Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems by former TIMEleSS student Estelle Ledoux today: Deformation Mechanisms, Microstructures, and Seismic Anisotropy of Wadsleyite in the Earth’s Transition Zone. Wadsleyite is the high pressure polymorph of olivine and the major phase of the upper part of the mantle transition zone (at 410–520 km depth) and then is suspected to control the deformation of that region of the mantle. In this work, se use in-situ deformation experiments, multigrain X-ray crystallography, literature results, and numerical simulations to propose a new view of plastic deformation of wadsleyite in the Earth’s mantle transition zone. We show that it will be strongly affected by both temperature and water content. We then provide models that could be used for the seismic detection of its anisotropic behavior and mapping mantle flow using seismic measurements. More details online at https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GC011026.
