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Abstract

Topaz (Al2SiO4(F,OH)2) is a hydrous aluminosilicate mineral stable in the hydrated sediments in subduction zone settings and could transport water into the Earth’s interior. To constrain the amount of water subducted, it is important to have a better understanding of the elastic constants of hydrous phases and compare them with the geophysical observations. In this study, we explored the full elastic moduli tensor for a single crystal topaz using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy. We determined the full elastic moduli tensor at ambient conditions (1 bar and 297 K), with the principal components- C11, C22, and C33 are 279, 352 and 288 GPa respectively, the off-diagonal components- C­12, C13, and C23 are 124, 72, and 82 GPa respectively, and the shear components- C44, C55, and C66 are 111, 134, and 130 GPa respectively. The compressional (AVP) and shear (AVS) anisotropy for topaz are 13 and 14 % respectively. The aggregate bulk (K) and shear (G) moduli are 162 and 117 GPa respectively. We determined the elasticity of topaz up to ~1000 K. The components of the full elastic moduli tensor show softening at high temperature. Temperature derivatives of sound velocity of topaz, dVP/dT = -3.5 ×10-4 km/s/K and dVS/dT = -2.2 ×10-4 km/s/K are smaller than those for corundum [1], α-quartz [2], and olivine [3]. In contrast, the temperature derivatives of primary and shear sound velocity for topaz is greater than that of pyrope garnet [4]. The elasticity and sound velocity of topaz also vary as a function of chemistry i.e., OH-F contents. Our study demonstrates that the effect of composition (xOH) on the velocity is more pronounced than that of temperature.