• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.161-169
• /
• 2003

A phase transformation study on a synthetic amorphous diopside, $(Ca,Mg)SiO_3$has been carried out up to ∼30 GPa, and ∼$1000^{\circ}C$ using a diamond anvil cell and YAG laser heating system, respectively. A starting amorphous material shows a direct transition to cubic $(Ca,Mg)SiO_3$perovskite at high pressure, which contradicts to the crystalline diopside phase transformation sequence disproportionating into mixtures of the orthorhombic$ MgSiO_3$perovskite and the cubic $CaSiO_3$perovskite phases. This discrepancy might be due to the different starting materials as well as the temperature variations at each specific experiment performed. The present phase transfor mation sequence would modify the mineralogical assemblage in the Earth transition region and the lower mantle depending upon the pressure, temperature and the oxygen partial pressure.