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Image analysis short course

We had a great time during the famous “Image Analysis in Geosciences” workshop which was run during the “Independent Activity Period” at MIT by Prof. Renée Heilbronner and Matěj. We had 7 participants from MIT/WHOI and 14 students from all around the world. A shout out for the most motivated traveler goes to Bhathiya who came all the way from Tohoku University in Japan.

Students at work
Workshop participants, from left to right: top row: Bhathiya Athurupana (Tohoku University, Japan), Kadie Bennis (Univerisy of Missouri), Hamed O. Ghaffari (MIT), Wenlian Xiao (MIT), Matej Pec (MIT), Saleh Al Naser (MIT), Tarryn Kim Cawood (USC) middle row:Thomas Birren (Iowa State), Caroline Seyler (McGill), Noah Phillips (McGill), Renée Heilbronner (Uni Basel, Switzerland), Hamid Soleymani (CUNY), Hannah Riegel (University Camerino, Italy), Clara Cogswell (Wellesley) bottom row: Veselina Yakimova (University of Alaska, Fairbanks), Jianhua, Gong (WHOI / MIT), Pragnyadipta Sen (Illinois University), Elizabeth Nadin (University of Alaska, Fairbanks). not on picture: Alexander Lusk (USC), Leif Tokle (Brown), Christina Hernandez (WHOI), Eric Deal (MIT)
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AGU New Orleans

Two oral presentations will be given by the PecLab at AGU. Matej will talk about “The Influence of Lithology on the Formation of Reaction Infiltration Instabilities in Mantle Rocks” on Wednesday at 3:10 p.m.  Hamed will talk about “Supersonic Localized Excitations Mediate Dynamic Failure” on Friday at 3:25 p.m. Come and listen to some of our exciting new results!

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Saleh and Emilie finished their first assembly

Saleh and Emilie have finished all the steps necessary to prepare a sample assembly.  The first sample assembly is always more time consuming as one has to master many different skills from precious metal welding to salt pressing and drilling.

Proud experimentalists

Emilie prepares an alumina piston for cutting

Hamed supervises Saleh during parallel polishing of alumina pistons

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Rig stiffness & heating test

We just finished a very successful 3 day long heating and rig stiffness test. The results were very consistent and show a loading stiffness of ~15 µm / kN at a range of temperatures (300˚C to 700˚C) at 0.6 GPa confining pressure. Since we currently operate only with one pressure vessel, we stay in the lower limits of the P-T  space we can achieve to prevent pressure vessel failure and delays to our tests.  Our main aim is to reach about 2 GPa confining pressure and 1150˚C – this will allow us to deform partially molten mantle rocks with a simple NaCl pressure medium.

Sample assembly after experiment – note the large grain size of the salt between the furnace (black) and sample (white Al2O3 piston in the center). Grain growth occurs over long time periods at high temperatures.
Results from the stiffness tests – note the inflection point at about 5 mm displacement, this corresponds to the hitting of the sample with the WC piston. The subsequent loading slope and unloading slope are used to asses the rig stiffness.
Furnace performance – Volts and Amps as a function of sample temperature. Initial peaks and oscillations are due to the search for right PID parameters in the Eurotherm controller. Shut off at ≈ 700˚C was used to estimate the maximal quenching rate – control was recovered at ≈400˚C. The maximum power our heating system can deliver is 500 A and 10 V which is enough to probably melt even the pressure vessel…

 

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Lab visits

Matěj had an opportunity to  visit two other labs where the next-generation solid medium apparatus is installed – one in ISTOrléans and the other one ENS in Paris.  It was great to exchange tips and tricks we learned so far. A big thank you to Jacques Précigout in Orléans and Alex Schubnel and Julien Fauconnier in Paris for their hospitality!

Jacques and his rig in Orléans

Alex and Julien and their rig in Paris.

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Goldschmidt

Matěj will deliver a keynote talk entitled “Experimental Insights on Reactive Melt Migration in the Upper Mantle” at Goldschmidt conference in Paris.  If you are around, come and see the talk on Thursday, August 17th at  16:30 in session 07e – “Diffusion, deformation and transport processes in geomaterials”.