The eclogite to garnetite transition — Experimental and thermodynamic constraints

We have found that the forms of the experimentally determined phase diagrams for pyroxene‐garnet transformations require the volume changes for these reactions to be much smaller at 130 kbar (400 km) than at 1 atm. Using these volume data we calculated the width of the eclogite‐garnetite transition in natural quartz tholeiite and alkali olivine basalt compositions taking account of mixing in multicomponent pyroxene and garnet phases. We find that the eclogite‐garnetite transition does not exhibit any discontinuity in bulk sound velocity in the pressure range 110 to 230 kbar. In addition, this velocity, when plotted as a function of pressure, possesses a curvature which is in the opposite sense to that given by the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM). This phase transition, therefore, does not appear to be a satisfactory model for the 400 km seismic discontinuity.