Mineral and melt physics a summary of research in the United States, 1979–1982

Mineral physics and the related fields concerned with the properties of molten minerals are currently thriving due to major advances both in theory and in experimentation. In particular, there is a healthy trend of increasing cross‐fertilization between many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, materials science, and the corresponding fields of geophysics and geochemistry. A sense of this can be had by referring to the proceedings of recent conferences, that range from international meetings on high‐pressure research [Timmerhaus and Barber, 1979; Vodar and Marteau, 1980; Schilling and Shelton, 1981], to more topical gatherings on structure and bonding in minerals [M. O'Keeffe and Navrotsky, 1981], shock‐wave research [Nellis, et al., 1982] and the application of high‐pressure studies to geophysical problems [Akimoto and Manghnani, 1982]. Several important review articles and books related to mineral physics have appeared in the last few years. For example, Bassett [1979], Liebermann [1979], Ahrens [1980] and O.L. Anderson [1981] have recently summarized many of the geophysical applications of research on mineral properties. In this report, Bell [1983] discusses static high‐pressure experiments, and the present summary of melt properties is abbreviated in light of G.E. Brown's [1983] companion paper [see also Hargraves, 1980, and Mysen, et al., 1982]. Among the most important reviews of the last few years have been S.W. Kieffer's papers [1979a, b, c; 1980, 1982] that summarize the thermodynamic properties of minerals. Her analysis is in terms of a simple physical model that results in rernaf kably good predictions of phase equilibria. Detailed presentations of current static techniques for high‐pressure experimentation are provided by Jamieson [1981], and Hazen and Finger [1982]. Similarly, shock‐wave studies are reviewed by Davison and Graham [1979], and an important new summary of data is that of Marsh [198O]. Finally, it is worth noting that W.A. Harrison's [1980] text is a useful introduction to some of the most successful quantum mechanical approaches that are now being applied to the properties of condensed matter.