Abstract
Mantle flow involves large strains of polymineral aggregates. The strongly anisotropic plastic response of each individual grain in the aggregate results from the interactions between neighbouring grains and the continuity of material displacement across the grain boundaries. Orthorhombic olivine, which is the dominant mineral phase of the Earth’s upper mantle, does not exhibit enough slip systems to accommodate a general deformation state by intracrystalline slip without inducing damage. Here we show that a more general description of the deformation process that includes the motion of rotational defects referred to as disclinations can solve the olivine deformation paradox. We use high-resolution electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) maps of deformed olivine aggregates to resolve the disclinations. The disclinations are found to decorate grain boundaries in olivine samples deformed experimentally and in nature. We present a disclination-based model of a high-angle tilt boundary in olivine, which demonstrates that an applied shear induces grain-boundary migration through disclination motion. This new approach clarifies grain-boundary-mediated plasticity in polycrystalline aggregates. By providing the missing mechanism for describing plastic flow in olivine, this work will permit multiscale modelling of the rheology of the upper mantle, from the atomic scale to the scale of the flow.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7—ERC grant number 290424—RheoMan), from a Marie Curie fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-20074-3-IRG, grant number 230748-PoEM) and from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant number ANR-11-JS09-007-01, NanoMec).
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S.D. deformed the olivine samples and performed the EBSD measurements (with the help of F.B.). B.B., V.T. and C.F. performed the data analysis and disclination modelling. P.C. wrote the paper with feedback and contributions from all co-authors. All authors discussed and interpreted the results.
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Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Figure 1 Density of wedge disclinations θ33 in the PI-1619 sintered sample.
The density is given in radians per square micrometre. The local Burgers vectors arising from edge dislocations are represented by the blue arrows: their horizontal and vertical components are, respectively, α13 and α23 (given per micrometre).
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Cordier, P., Demouchy, S., Beausir, B. et al. Disclinations provide the missing mechanism for deforming olivine-rich rocks in the mantle. Nature 507, 51–56 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13043
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13043
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