Newsletter of the Global COE program

Deep Earth Mineralogy
Center for Advanced Experimental andTheoretical Deep Earth Mineralogy
先進的実験と理論による地球深部物質学拠点

No. 8, June 30, 2011

News & Events
Activities of GRC reported on NHK news
The nation-wide TV news program "Ohayo Nippon" of NHK, theJapanese national broadcasting organization, reported activities of
GRC and the global COE program on 3rd March 2011. The news
started with the comments on the targets and current researches of
GRC by the Director, Prof. Tetsuo Irifune, highlighting the nanopolycrystalline diamond (HIME-DIA) of 1 cm produced recently withthe world largest Kawai-type apparatus (BOTCHAN-6000). Then the
program reported the activities of the Theoretical Mineral Physics
Group of GRC in detail, focusing on Prof. Taku Tsuchiya's recent
research achievements, who received the JSPS award on the sameday, as one of the 24 awardees from all research fields in Japan. Someof the internship students from Peking University studying under thesupervision of Prof. Tsuchiya, and Dr. Arnaud Metsue of the TMPG,
a global COE Research Fellow from France, were interviewed on
their research subjects and impressions on GRC.

University, University of Tokyo, Okayama University, Hyogo
University, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Carnegie Institution, andYale University.

New studies using MADONNA-II

HIME-DIA for new high-pressure technology
Efforts have been made to synthesize a number of HIME-DIA rodsof 7-8 mm by Dr. Toru Shinmei, the Lab Manager of GRC, which areprocessed to anvils for multianvil apparatus. Some preliminary testsof the performance of HIME-DIA were made as anvils for diamondanvil cell and the 6-8-2 multianvil cell, which demonstrated this novel
material born at GRC is potentially important for new high-pressuretechnology. The full applications of HIME-DIA anvils have juststarted with the 6-6 compression system invented by Assoc. Prof.
Norimasa Nishiyama of GRC, and Dr. Takehiro Kunimoto of JASRI,
who received PhD under the supervision of Prof. Irifune, are currently
testing a new cell assembly using HIME-DIA anvils. In addition,
application of HIME-DIA anvils to Kawai-type apparatus (multianvil
6-8 system) are also being planned, with which pressures beyond 100
GPa are expected to be realized in the near future. Collaborations
using HIME-DIA anvils have been made/started with the researchersin Sumitomo Electric Industries, Osaka University, Hiroshima

MADONNA-II, a simplified version of the deformation DIA typeapparatus (MADONNA-1500) at GRC, is the new DIA-type apparatus installed at the SOSEKI Lab of GRC in 2010 with the global COE
budget for cutting edge research and for training young students
relevant to the COE program. This apparatus, which realizes excellent
three dimensional alignments of the first-stage anvils, is used mainly
by PhD students and COE post-doctoral fellows for studies in 1)
lower mantle mineralogy using sintered-diamond anvils, 2) rheological properties of mantle minerals with the 6-6 compression system,and 3) performance tests of new cell assemblages for experiments at
SPring-8 and J-PARC, aswell as conventional
multianvil experimentswith Kawai-type assembly. Some new results
using this apparatus, suchas partitioning of Fe
among the coexistinghigh-pressure
phasesunder the lower mantle
conditions, have alreadybeen submitted to someinternational scientificjournals.

Page 1

News & Events
Future directions of GRC
GRC, the core research center of the global COE program, wasestablished in April 2001, and the future directions of GRC have been
discussed in the evaluation committee organized in Ehime University.
The final report, issued on 9 March 2011, summarizes the great
achievements of GRC, highlighting very high successful rate ofobtaining external funds (about 2.2 billion Yen = 27.5 million dollars)
during this period, over 300 papers in international journals including
HIF journals such as Nature, Science and PNAS, 19 major awards
such as Alexander von Humboldt Award, JSPS Award, JAMS
Award, JSHPST Award, Jamieson Award, Ishikawa Carbon Prize,
etc. It is concluded that the activity of GRC should be expanded
particularly towards interdisciplinary research fields, such as materials sciences and planetary sciences. It is also recommended that GRC
to nominate for a national Joint Usage Research Center in the near
future.

Invited talks in Taiwan, USA, China
The leader of the COE program, Prof. Irifune of GRC, madeinvited lectures/seminars in National Cheng Kung University in
Tainan, Carnegie Institution in Washington D. C., and Sichuan
University in Chengdu during the period of late March to early June
as a part of the activity of the program and to enhance the mutual
collaborations of GRC with the relevant institutions in theseorganizations. GRC has official agreements with Department ofEarth Sciences at Cheng Kung Univ. and Institute of Atomic andMolecular Physics at Sichuan Univ. Ehime Univ. has just concluded
an official agreement with Sichuan Univ., and Prof. Irifune visited
Chengdu with the President and vice President of Ehime Univ. anddelivered a special lecture in Sichuan Univ. Meanwhile, Prof.
Irifune gave an invited seminar at the Geophysical Laboratory (GL)of the Carnegie Institution, with which the GRC will have a joint
symposium at the GL in September, as a part of the COE program.

pressure. Moreover, Prof. Robert C. Liebermann of MPI, who is theformer president of COMPRES, visited GRC for about three weeks
from early April, and gave a lecture and a seminar, as well as someintensive discussions about the high-pressure mineral physics studies
during this period. Prof. Liebermann also enjoyed the cherry
blossoms and Hanami parties for the first time, in spite of a numberof trips to Japan he made over the past ~40 years.

Completion of a new LVP for neutron studies
A new large volume press ("Atsu-hime") for high-pressure
neutron studies has been completed and assembled at the Sumitomo
Heavy Industries Techno Fort Co. Ltd. in Niihama city of Ehime
prefecture, close to GRC, and an inspection ceremony was held on
18 March 2011 attended by some members of GRC, Prof. Hiroyuki
Kagi (an official member of the COE from Univ. Tokyo), and Prof.
Takehiko Yagi (the representative of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific
Research on Innovative Areas "Earth Science Based on the High
Pressure and Temperature Neutron Experiments"). This apparatus,
newly designed by Dr. Takanori Hattori of Japan Atomic Energy
Agency and his colleagues, is supposed to move to the newbeamline ("PLANET") at the J-PARC. However, because of theearthquake that hit the East Japan on 11 March, some facility of
J-PARC was damaged, and the transportation of Atsu-hime to
PLANET is forced to be postponed. Meanwhile, a first-beam
ceremony was about to be held in the afternoon of 11 March at
J-PARC, and many members of the above project, including Prof.
Toru Inoue of GRC, gathered at the PLANET and encountered thetragic event. Fortunately, none of them were injured upon the quake,and were able to come back home within a couple of days.

Influence of the earthquake to the COE program

Internships and Lectures by the members of SUNY
Some colleagues of the Mineral Physics Institute (MPI) of Stony
Brook University, which has official collaboration agreement with
GRC and an important partner of the global COE program, visited
GRC for internships, lectures, and collaborative researches relevantto the ultrasonic sound velocity measurements at high pressure. Prof.
Gabriel Gwanmesia of Delaware University, the former PhD student
at Stony Brook University, stayed at GRC from early February forabout 2 months and made some experimental studies on thesynthesis of polycrystalline garnet for sound velocity measurements.
Prof. Baosheng Li of MPI, who is an official member of the global
COE program, visited GRC for several days for internships for thebasics and application of ultrasonic measurements under highPage 2The Great East Japan Earthquake that hit mainly Tohoku andKanto areas on 11 March 2011 caused casualties of some 16,000
deaths and 5,500 injuries, while nearly 8,000 people are still
missing, due mainly to the unexpectedly high tsunami waves. We
express our deepest condolence and sympathy to those who sufferedfrom the tragic events and the associated nuclear plant damages inFukushima. Fortunately, however, the western regions of Japan,
including Ehime prefecture in Shikoku island where GRC locates,
were not directly affected by the earthquake and the subsequent
nuclear plant accident. Our COE program has also been unaffectedby these events, except for some delay in the construction of the newhigh-pressure neutron beamline at J-PARC, where Prof. Kagi ofUniv. Tokyo, Prof. Inoue of GRC, and some other members of GRC
are heavily involved. We shall make our best efforts toward
developing cutting edge studies and mentoring young scientists inthe fields relevant to Deep Earth Mineralogy, and contribute to thereconstruction of the Japanese society through the developments of
new science and technology.

News & Events
Activities during 2011 JpGU meeting

International Frontier Seminar

At the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) Meeting 2011 in
Makuhari during the period of 22-27 May, two international sessions
were organized by the members of the present Global COE program.
The first was entitled "Mineral physics and dynamics of deep
mantle", which was convened by Dr. Masanori Kameyama, Assoc.
Prof. of GRC, together with Dr. Takashi Yoshino at ISEI of
Okayama Univ. and Dr. Dapeng Zhao of Tohoku Univ. In thissession, twenty-nine (18 for oral and 11 for poster) papers were
presented by researchers from various disciplines on mineral physics
and geodynamics of the planetary interiors, focusing on (1)thermal/chemical structure, (2) behaviors of fluids and/or hydrous
minerals, and (3) rheology of the deep mantle.
The second international session was entitled "Structure,
Dynamics & Composition of Earth & Planetary Cores", convened by
Dr. Matthew L. Whitaker, Assist. Prof. of the GRC, in collaboration
with researchers with seismological and geodynamical basis. The
session aimed at a multidisciplinary discussion on the recent
research advances and an exchange of new ideas about future
directions of the study of the cores, including both solid inner andliquid outer parts of the planetary cores. In this session, twenty-one(14 for oral and 7 for poster) papers were presented by students andresearchers from various universities/institutes.
During the meeting, an exhibition booth was run by GRC
members to advertise the activities of the GRC and global COE. At
the booth, hot research products by the GRC were also displayed,
including the nano-polycrystalline diamond (HIME-DIA) andfacilities recently installed at the GRC. The materials displayed in
the booth successfully attracted many participants/visitors frombroad ranges of interests in the meeting.

20th (23rd February)"The elasticity of synthetic polycrystalline almandine, grossular
and CMNF garnet at high pressures and high temperatures"
Lecturer: Prof. Gabriel Gwanmesia (Delaware State University)
21st (1st March)"Fe-bearing perovskite and post-perovskite: phase stability, spintransitions, and the consequences for the lower mantle"
Lecturer: Dr. Razvan Caracas (CNRS, ENS de Lyon, Lab.
Sciences de la Terre)
22nd (15th April)"Indoor vs. Outdoor geophysics"
Lecturer: Prof. Robert C. Liebermann (Dept. Geosci., Stony
Brook University)

Forthcoming Events
GL-GRC inter-institutional Science Symposium

4th YESA workshop

As a part of the global COE program, GRC and Geophysical Laboratory of Carnegie Institution will have a joint inter-institutional
symposium in September for three days. About 30 oral presentations
by young scientists from both institutions and related laboratories arescheduled, as well as several keynote talks by the relatively senior
members and poster presentations from the both sides. The symposium is held to highlight the forefront research at these institutions
and foster scientific exchange between them. For further details,
please see the website of the symposium.
(http://people.gl.ciw.edu/grc/)

The 4th YESA (Young
Earth Scientist Association)
workshop will be held on 1st
and 2nd September, 2011, at
GRC. This workshop focuseson the effects of the heterogeneous materials on the mantle
dynamics, estimated by using
various methods, such as
geodynamics
simulations,seismology, mineral physics,
and petrochemistry under the
deep mantle conditions. Oneof the major scientific goals of
this workshop is to propose a
new model based on theinterpretation of dynamics
and evolution of the Earth's
and planetary deep interiors in the light of the heterogeneity in the
mantle. For further details: Please see global COE website(http://deep-earth-mineralogy.jp) or contact Dr. Ichikawa at GRC(h-ichikawa@sci.ehime-u.ac.jp).

Page 3

New Members
Youhei Kojima (PhD Student, GRC)
I am a new Ph.D. student
who joined the GCOE programat GRC this April. My researchinterest is carbon nitride(C 3 N 4 ) which is theoretically
predicted to be harder thandiamond. Throughout myundergraduate and masterthesis works, I have been
studying whether the predictedsuperhard C 3 N 4 phase can beobtained via high-pressure and high-temperature experiments. I
performed a series of experiments using a laser-heated diamondanvil cell combined with in-situ X-ray diffraction at BL10XU,
SPring-8 and found that graphitic-C 3 N 4 (starting material)

transforms to an orthorhombic phase above 30 GPa and 1600 K. The
unit cell of the orthorhombic phase is similar to that of thehydrogen-bearing phase, C2N2(NH), although its composition wasmeasured to be close to stoichiometric C3N4, suggesting a flexible
adaptation of the structure in the C-N-H system under high pressure.
I am currently investigating the stability of this phase at pressures
above 100 GPa and also exploring the possibility of whether
superhard carbon nitride with a pure C3N4 composition can really be
synthesized. I hope to obtain the new hardest material in my PhD.
project.

Naoki Noguchi(Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Tokyo)
See next page for a detailed.

Facility at GRC (II): Focused Ion Beam (FIB) system
The FIB technique was developed in the late 1980s, and has been usedmostly in the fields relevant to nano-technology and semiconductor
industries. Applications of this technique to Earth sciences started in early
2000s to make thin foils for TEM observations. A combination of thistechnique and a sample-retrieval system with a micro manipulator enables
to make a site-specific thin foil. GRC introduced an FIB system (JEOL
JEM-9310FIB) in 2003, for the first time in high-pressure mineral physics
field, and successfully applied this system for the sample subjected to apressure of 115 GPa at 2200K in a laser heated diamond anvil cell
(Irifune, Isshiki, and Sakamoto, EPSL, 2005). Using this system, a thinfilm of the sample with typical dimensions of ~10 × 5 × 0.1μm can beeasily made and picked up with the micro manipulator, and used for TEM
observations, which is now a quite popular technique in high-pressuremineral physics studies, particularly those using LHDAC. This system isopen to the visiting and guest researchers at GRC, and has been used forthe processing various natural and synthetic samples.

COLUMN: The world of Three Kingdoms"Sanguo Zhi" ("Sangoku-shi" 三 国 志 or "Records of Three Kingdoms") is a famous historical book on the Three kingdoms period ofChina (AD 189-280), which describes the histories of the rival States of Wei (Gi, 魏 ), Shu (Shoku, 蜀 ), and Wu (Go, 呉 ). The original
author is thought to be Chen Shou, born in the present Sichuan, which is the Kingdom of Shu (Shoku). On the other hand, "Sangoku-shi",written by a Japanese writer Eiji Yoshikawa, is kind of long novel based on "Sangue Zhi", which is quite popular in Japan but may be
more closely related to the "Sanguoyani" ("Romance of Three Kingdoms") written in China later in the 14th century. GRC made an official agreement on the mutual collaborations and exchange of people with theInstitute of Atomic and Molecular Physics of Sichuan University in 2008, andsome members of both institutes hold strong mutual relations. Chengdu, where
Sichuan University locates, was the ancient capital of the state of Shu. Zhuge Lian
( 諸葛亮 or 諸葛孔明 ) played an important role as a chancellor of Shu, who helped
the emperor Liu Bei ( 劉 備 ) and is one of the most popular and favorite
characters for Japanese. Although Shu was the smallest state with the lowest
population, it survived and even sometimes dominated other countries over theperiod of the Three kingdoms, because of the presence of Zhuge Lian. Lian emphasizes in his famous document "Chu Shi Biao" ( 出師表 ) that it is most important to adopt and use best persons for the right positions for the Kingdom to survive and develop, particularly for the small kingdom like Shu. This may also betrue for GRC, which is a small "kingdom" and locates in the southwestern countryside of Japan, similar to Shu, and perhaps should be taken into considerations for
its survival and development in the next 10 years.

Page 4

Hot Researches by Young Scientists
The behavior of OH groups ofantigorite under high pressure andhigh temperature
Naoki Noguchi(Postdoctoral Fellow,
The University of Tokyo)

Serpentine minerals are formed byhydrothermal alteration of mafic andultramafic rocks. In particular, theserpentine minerals resulting from alterationof oceanic crusts play a role in carrying
water to the depths of subduction zones.
Stabilities and physico-chemical propertiesof serpentine minerals under high pressure(HP) and high temperature (HT) conditions
are essential for constructing acomprehensive model on the dehydration
processes in subduction zones. Previous

Experimental study on the stabilityof graphitic C3N4 under highpressure and high temperature
Leiming Fang
(PhD Student)

Since β-C 3 N 4 , a carbon nitride phase,
was theoretically predicted to have an
extreme bulk modulus equivalent to or
greater than that of diamond, many efforts
have been devoted to studying this potential
superhard material and related phases
through theoretical and experimental
approaches. In recent years, many efforts
were made to study the stability andpotential phase transition of graphitic C3N4
(g-C3N4) at high pressure and hightemperature conditions. However,
exploring a reproducible method for
obtaining low-compressible bulk C 3 N 4experimental studies on serpentine minerals
have revealed that antigorite has the largest
stability field in serpentine minerals under
HT condition (e.g., Evans et al. 1976), andantigorite must be abundant in the alteredoceanic crusts. However, in spite of theimportance for the fundamental propertiesof antigorite, the crystal structure including
the geometry of OH groups under HP-HT
conditions remains unclear.
I have measured infrared (IR) absorption
spectra of antigorite under HP-HT
conditions in order to obtain insights about
the behavior of OH groups under HP-HT
conditions. IR absorption spectra ofantigorite were measured up to 27 GPa and320 ºC with an external heating diamondanvil cell (DAC) using the synchrotron IR
source at BL43IR, SPring-8 (Fig. 1). The
absorption bands assignable to the OH
stretching modes of outer-OH and inner-OH
groups shifted to higher frequencies withincreasing pressure. The shift rate of theinner-OH band is almost constant at allpressure ranges, while that of the outer-OH
band increases slightly at about 6 GPa. This
discontinuous change of the shift rate isconsistent with the anomalous behavior of
the outer-OH group upon compression
previously predicted in the first principle
calculation study (Mookherjee and Stixrude2009). Specifically, the pressure
dependence of the outer-OH band indicatesthat the hydrogen ion of an outer-OH groupinteracts not only with the nearest basal
oxygen ion of the SiO4 tetrahedron but thesecond nearest two basal oxygen ions upon
compression. My study demonstrates thatthe latter interaction overcomes the former
interaction at about 6 GPa.

materials is still a challenging task.
In this work, we investigated the stability
and decomposition of g-C 3 N 4 in thepressure and temperature range of 10-25
GPa and up to 2000 ºC by multi-anvil
experiments and phase characterization of
the quenched products. The result showedthat g-C3N4 was found to remain stable atrelatively mild temperatures, but
decomposes to graphite and nitrogen at
temperatures above 600-700 ºC and up to
15 GPa, while it decomposes directly todiamond (plus nitrogen) above 800-900 ºC
and between 22-25 GPa (Fig. 1). The
estimated decomposition curve for g-C3N4
has a positive slope (~0.05 GPa/K) up to~22 GPa, but becomes inverted (negative)
above this pressure. The diamond formed
through decomposition is characterized byeuhedral crystals which are not sintered toeach other, but loosely aggregated,suggesting the crystallization in a liquid(nitrogen) medium. The nitrogen releasefrom the graphitic C-N framework may
also play an important role in lowering theactivation energy required for diamondformation and enhancing the grain growthrate. No phase transition of g-C 3 N 4 wasobserved at P-T conditions up to 25 GPaand 2000 ºC, and the theoretically
predicted, low-compressible superhard
C3N4 phases could not be obtained. Further
studies, for example at higher pressures

and/or using well-crystalline g-C3N4 with astoichiometric composition as a starting
material, are needed to investigate whether
such superhard C3N4 can really be
synthesized in the laboratory.

Fig.1. Selected IR absorption spectra ofantigorite obtained from the isothermal
compression experiment at 20 ºC. The inset
shows basic crystal structure of serpentine
minerals.

Fig. 1. P-T diagram showing the stability of
g-C3N4. The solid black line indicates thedecomposition boundary for g-C 3 N 4 ,determined from the results of our quench
experiments (not a thermodynamic
boundary). The broken line indicates thereaction (kinetic) boundary between
graphite and diamond observed in thepresent study.

Page 5TANDEM

THE ASIAN NETWORKIN DEEP EARTH MINERALOGY
News & Events

Internship students from Peking Univ. to GRC
Our global COE is making efforts on the education not only ofstudents at Ehime Univ. but also of interinstitutional andinternational students. The short course internship program at GRC
accepted foreign graduate students from the late February 2011. Two
Peking Univ. graduate students visited the Theoretical Mineral
Physics group for a month in February and worked with Prof.
Tsuchiya with the support of the COE. They learned some latest ab
initio computation techniques on the finite temperaturethermodynamics and studied high-P,T behaviors of somesesquioxide and fluoroperovskite. Another Peking Univ. graduate
student visited GRC in March and performed theoretical search forpotential high-pressure phase transitions in iron phosphide andsuccessfully found some new phenomena.

post-doctoral fellow also visited IAMP on the following day, andgave a seminar on the synthesis and properties of HIME-DIA,
followed by a lab tour and a reception lunch, hosted by Prof.
Duanwei He and his colleagues of IAMP. Dr. Zhi Wang, who is aformer PhD student at GRC and now a professor of Chengdu
University of Technology, also attended the seminar. Chengdu is thecapital city of Sichuan province, and known as the ancient capital of
Shu in the Three Kingdoms (see, the Column page). The party of
Ehime University actually visited Wuhouci Temple, which isdedicated to the memory of both the emperor Liu Bei and the prime
minister Zhuge Liang of the Shu kingdom during the visit toChengdu.

An invited talk at NCKU
Prof. Irifune gave an invited talk at the Department of Earth
Science, National Cheng Kung University, in Tainan on 24 March
2011, which has official agreement on the collaborations andexchange of people with GRC. Assist. Prof. Jennifer Kung of
NCKU, who hosted Prof. Irifune, received PhD at the Research
School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, which
also holds a similar agreement with GRC. Prof. Kung moved to theMineral Physics Institute (MPI) of Stony Brook University andworked with Prof. Li, who is an official member of the COE. Prof.
Irifune gave a talk about the activities of GRC and the global COE
program, and also on the topics relevant to HIME-DIA. As this visit
was right after the earthquake that hit eastern Japan on 11 March, healso lectured some aspects of the geological settings around theJapan islands and the status of the nuclear plant damages inFukushima.

Official agreement between
Ehime Univ. and Sichuan Univ.
A ceremony for concluding the official agreement on the researchcollaborations and exchange of students/researchers between Ehime
University and Sichuan University was held on 31 May 2011, at thelatter University in Chengdu, China. The presidents of both
universities attended the ceremony, and vice president Prof. Ryuichi
Yatabe, Prof. Irifune of GRC, and Prof. Yasuyuki Murakami of
Research Center of Ancient East Asian Iron Culture (RCAEAI),
gave special lectures prior to the ceremony. GRC holds an official
agreement of inter-institutional level with the Institute of Atomic
and Molecular Physics (IAMP) and RCAEAI has strong relations
with the researchers of College of History and Culture of Sichuan
University, and the mutual collaborations are to be expanded to theuniversity level. Prof. Irifune and Dr. Li Lei of the global COE

Page 6AIRAPT-23 to be held in Mumbai, India
The 23rd meeting of the International Association for the
Advancement of High Pressure Science and Technology(AIRAPT-23) will be held in Mumbai during the period of 25-30
September, where Prof. Irifune of GRC will deliver a plenary lectureon the synthesis, properties, and applications of ultrahard
nano-polycrystalline diamond (HIME-DIA). GRC and the global
COE program are planning to open a booth at the venue, where Dr.
Akira Yamada, the Research Administrator at GRC, will attend andexplain the activities of GRC and the COE program, as well as thedetails of the special PhD course on Deep Earth Mineralogy of
Ehime University.

TANDEM Laboratories
Research Group for Earth and Planetary Materials
Science in the Department of Natural History
Science, Hokkaido University

The main Campus of Hokkaido University is located in Sapporo,
Japan. Sapporo is the political and economic center for Hokkaido, anisland in northernmost Japan and is characterized by four beautiful
seasons, including a cool summer and cold, snowy winter. Since there
are many attractions such as various sceneries, activities and foods, a
lot of domestic and international visitors, particularly from Asian
countries, have repeatedly visited the island. Hokkaido University
started its history in 1876 as Sapporo Agricultural College. The
phrase "Boys, be ambitious!" by Dr. Williams S. Clark, the first VicePresident of the College, is well known for Japanese and is recognized as the Frontier Spirit that young students should have. Now,
Hokkaido University has 12 undergraduate schools with about 11,000
students, 18 graduate schools with about 6,000 students (incl. about
900 international students) and numerous research and education
facilities. We are very proud of Emeritus Professor Akira Suzuki
winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010.
Our research group for Earth and Planetary Materials Sciencebelongs to the Department of Natural History Sciences in the Facultyof Science, a unique department covering a wide range of research
fields such as Geology, Geophysics, Geo/Cosmochemistry, Geodesy,
Hydrology, Oceanography, Biodiversity and Science Communication. There are about 200 graduate students and the approximately 80
staff members engage not only in educational programs but also intheir own research projects. High pressure mineral science studies inour research group started with Hydrothermal test tubes and Piston
cylinder type high pressure apparatuses in the 1960s. The Transmission Electron Microscopic technique has been applied to highpressure mineral sciences by Prof. K. Fujino since the 1990s. The first
discovery of natural silicate ilmenite (akimotoite) and perovskite in a
meteorite in 1997 was one of the most exciting research results. Since
T. Nagai has joined the group, various in-situ high pressure and hightemperature experiments by using laser heated diamond anvil cells
combined with synchrotron X-ray diffraction have been performed in
TANDEM Laboratories:
Ehime Univ.
Japan
Univ. Tokyo (Geochem. Lab.)Japan
Univ. Tokyo (Inst. Solid State Phys.) Japan
Japan Synchrotron Res. Inst.
Japan
Hokkaido Univ.
Japan
Kyushu Univ.
Japan
Hiroshima Univ.
Japan
Natl. Inst. Mater. Sci.
Japan
Gakushuin Univ.
Japan
Okayama Univ.
Japan
Tokyo Inst. Tech.
Japan

order to understand the mineral physics in the Earth's lower mantle.
We hope some of you are interested in our recent results such as thenature of the Fe3+AlO3 substitution in MgSiO3-perovskite at lower
mantle conditions, spin transition of Fe3+ in Fe3+AlO3-bearing
MgSiO3-perovskite, discovery of MnSiO3-perovskite, diamondformation from carbonate minerals at lower mantle conditions, and soon.
Currently, our group is interested in two main research fields, one ismineral physics at high pressure and high temperature, led by T.
Nagai and the other is crystallography of minerals, led by H. Miura.
Two PhD, three master course and four undergraduate students now
work hard on these subjects. Thesis themes are crystal chemistry ofsilicate perovskites and/or perovskite-related materials and dehydration processes of hydrous minerals, for example. In addition, T. Nagai
has worked hard to construct a new beam line for high pressure andhigh temperature neutron diffraction measurements at J-PARC, Tokai,
Japan, in order to understand the behavior of hydrogen in minerals
from the upper mantle to the uppermost lower mantle. Since, obtaining neutron diffraction data at high pressure and high temperature isat the forefront of the experimental frontier, and we are greatly
expecting to open a new window in the world of mineral physics.
Major high pressure facilities in our group are diamond anvil cellswith a YLF laser and Piston cylinder and hydrothermal apparatuses.
We also have Analytical TEM, SEM, XRD, TG, Raman and infrared
micro-spectroscopy system for sample characterization. In addition to
the above apparatuses, we have access to other instruments such as
FE-SEM, FIB and STEM in Open Facilities shared by the Creative
Research Institution, Hokkaido University and we often visit
synchrotron facilities (PF and SPring8) in order to carry out in-situ
X-ray diffraction experiments at high pressure and high temperature.
Finally, we are looking forward to your coming visit to our lab andcollaborating with the TANDEM members with great pleasure.
Correspondence:
Takaya Nagai (nagai@mail.sci.hokudai.ac.jp)

Osaka Univ.
Japan
Kyoto Univ.
Japan
Univ. Hyogo
Japan
JAMSTEC (Inst. Res. Earth Evol.)Japan
Tohoku Univ.
Japan
China Univ. Geosci., Wuhan
China
Jilin Univ.
China
Peking Univ.
China
Chin. Acad. Sci. (Inst. Geochem.)
China
Chin. Acad. Sci. (Inst. Geol. Geophys.)
China
Yanshan Univ.
China

Sichuan Univ.
Seoul Natl.Univ.
Natl. Chen Kung Univ.
Australian Natl. Univ.

China
Korea
TaiwanAustralia

Advisors:
Yanbin WANG (GSECARS, Univ. Chicago)
Baosheng LI (MPI, Stony Brook Univ.)
Jiuhua CHEN (Florida Int. Univ.)
Yingwei FEI (Carnegie Inst. Washington)
Tomoo KATSURA (BGI, Univ. Bayreuth)

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TANDEM Laboratories
Tectonophysics Laboratory
Seoul National University, South Korea

Seoul National University (SNU) was founded in 1946 as the firstnational university of Korea. Currently it is comprised of 16 colleges
with 83 departments for undergraduates, 1 graduate School with 99
programs, 9 professional graduate schools with 16,325
undergraduate and 10,616 graduate students. The mission of Seoul
National University in the twenty-first century is to create a vibrant
intellectual community where students and scholars join together inbuilding the future. As Korea's leading research university, Seoul
National University is committed to diversifying its student body andfaculty, fostering global exchange, and promoting path-breaking
research in all fields of knowledge.
The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES) is
advancing into the world scene with continued cooperation from thegovernment and industrial enterprise. All of the professors,researchers, and students are putting all of our efforts towards one
goal; becoming a world-leading institution for education andresearch in the important field of earth and environmental sciences.
SEES has 36 professors, 150 undergraduate students and 200
graduate students. SEES has brought the formation of 6 researchgroups comprised of the Crust Mantle Research group, theOcean-Atmospheric Research group, the Ecology and Biological
Resources group, the Climate Change Research group, the Natural
Disaster Research group, and the Environmental Monitoring
Research group in the fields of pure research, application
development and technology development. Through the integrated
research of each of these groups, SEES strives to grow into aworld-class education/research institution in the field of earth andenvironmental science research.
Tectonophysics Laboratory led by Prof. Haemyeong Jung belongs
to the Crust Mantle Research group in SEES at the Seoul National
University. Prof. Haemyeong Jung is a representative person of
TANDEM at SNU and is interested in studying physical properties,
deformation mechanisms of minerals and rocks, and seismic
anisotropy in the crust and mantle. To conduct deformation
experiments of minerals and rocks at high pressure and hightemperature, a conventional Griggs apparatus was installed at theTectonophysics Laboratory in 2007. Pressure and temperature can bereached to P = 2 GPa and T = 1773 K. Shear strain can be achieved
up to γ~ 7 and strain rate is in the range of 10 -3 – 10-7/s. Currently,
we are also making a modified Griggs apparatus which can bereached up to the pressure of 5 GPa and temperature of 1873 K. We
are now conducting P- and T-calibration of the new deformation
apparatus. We are also interested in studying naturally deformed
minerals and rocks and we have been collecting mantle xenoliths,
peridotites, eclogites, kimberlites over the world. Combining
experimental studies and field work, we want to understanddeformation mechanisms of rocks in our planet Earth.
We have modern analytical instruments in the Tectonophysics
Laboratory for studying physical and chemical environments anddeformation microstructures. JEOL JSM-6380 SEM/HKL Electron
Back-Scattered Diffraction system with Channel 5 software wasinstalled at the Tectonophysics Laboratory in 2007 to determine
lattice preferred orientation (LPO) of minerals such as olivine,
enstatite, diopside, and sperpentine, etc. To measure water content invarious minerals in experimental samples and rock specimen,
Nicolete 6700 Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) and IR
microscope was installed at the Tectonophysics Laboratory in 2007.
The FTIR was equipped with automatic stage for mapping an area tomeasure O-H concentration. We normally use an IR beam size of 30
× 30 μm. In addition, DXR Micro-Raman spectroscopy with
automatic stage was installed in 2009 for identifying tiny minerals.
The Raman microscope consists of a 532 nm laser, nominal
resolution of 5 cm-1 and wave number in the ranges of 50 ~ 5000
cm-1. The auto-stage makes us mapping in XY and XZ plane with 1
μm step size.
We welcome researchers and students in TANDEM laboratories tovisit our Tectonophysics Laboratory and hope to conductcollaborative research together. Activities of our lab can be found in
our website below:(http://plaza.snu.ac.kr/~hjung/)
Correspondence:
Jung Haemyeong (hjung@snu.ac.kr)

Global COE Newsletter, issued Jan., May and Sep.
Geodynamics Research Center, Ehime University
2-5 Bunkyo-cho, Matsuyama 790-8577, Japan
Tel & Fax : +81-89-927-8405
E-mail : g-coe@sci.ehime-u.ac.jp
URL: http://deep-earth-mineralogy.jp/
Edited by Akira Yamada and Megumi Yashiro
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