Uh. Faul et Jd. Fitzgerald, Grain misorientations in partially molten olivine aggregates: an electron backscatter diffraction study, PHYS CHEM M, 26(3), 1999, pp. 187-197
In polycrystalline aggregates of olivine with mean grain sizes above 35 mu
m plus a low basaltic melt fraction, both wetted and melt-free grain bounda
ries are observed after equilibration times at high pressures and temperatu
res of between 15 and 25 days. In order to assess a possible dependence of
the wetting behaviour on the relative orientation of neighbouring grains, a
SEM based technique, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), is used to d
etermine grain orientations. From the grain orientations relative orientati
ons of neighbouring grains are calculated, which are expressed as misorient
ation axis/angle pairs. The distribution of misorientation angles and axes
of melt-free grain boundaries differ significantly from a purely random dis
tribution, whereas those of wetted grain boundaries are statistically indis
tinguishable from the random distribution. The relative orientation of two
neighbouring grains therefore influences the character of their common grai
n boundary. However, no clustering towards special (coincident site lattice
) misorientation axes is observed, with the inference that the energy diffe
rences between special and general misorientations are too small to lead to
the development of preferred misorientations during grain growth.