Preferred orientation in experimentally deformed stishovite: implications for deformation mechanisms

Although the crystal structure of the high-pressure SiO polymorph stishovite has been studied in detail, little is known about the development of crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) during deformation in stishovite. Insight into CPO and associated deformation mechanics of stishovite would provide important information for understanding subduction of quartz-bearing crustal rocks into the mantle. To study CPO development, we converted a natural sample of flint to stishovite in a laser-heated diamond anvil cell and compressed the stishovite aggregate up to 38 GPa. We collected diffraction patterns in radial geometry to examine in situ development of crystallographic preferred orientation and find that (001) poles preferentially align with the compression direction. Viscoplastic self-consistent modeling suggests the most likely slip systems at high pressure and ambient temperature are pyramidal and basal slip.