Deformation and strength study of reidite – strong or weak of an age dating phase?
Supervisor: Dr. Sean Shieh
Can extend to MSc?: Yes
Project Description (Abstract):
Reidite is a high-pressure form of zircon (ZrSiO4) that is popular for age determination of terrestrial planets. Reidite can be found at impact sites or meteorites but requires to be formed at high pressure and high temperature conditions. Furthermore, reidite was reported to be synthesized at pressure greater than 7 GPa and high temperatures experimentally. However, shockwave study suggested the reidite synthesized pressure should be greater than 35 GPa. Since reidite is also used as a barometer, its appearance in the impact sites or meteorites show useful information for the impact events. Furthermore, the mechanical property such as strength of reidite plays an important role for the evolution of terrestrial planets. However, knowledge of the strength and deformation of the reidite is unclear. This project aims to exam the strength and deformation of reidite at high pressure and room temperature using lattice strain theory, together with viscoplastic self-consistent theory (VPSC) predictions. Our results may answer why reidite (110) is popular on recovered meteorite samples.
