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. 7, January 31, 2011

News & Events
A new high-pressure form of silica
Prof. Taku Tsuchiya of GRC and Dr. Jun Tsuchiya of the SeniorResearch Fellow Center (SRFC), Ehime Univ., announced that theyfound a new high-pressure form of SiO2 at extremely high pressuresin the tera-pascal regime on the basis of first-principles calculations.
SiO2 is one of the most common mineral in the Earth's crust, which
undergoes successive transitions to various forms: coesite (~2 GPa),stishovite (~9 GPa), CaCl2-type (~60 GPa), and α-PbO2-type (~120
GPa), and finally pyrite-type phase (~270 GPa). The present workby Taku and Jun Tsuchiya predicted that this structure should furthertransform to the Fe2P structure, and suggested that this phase may be
important in some massive terrestrial exoplanets called "super
Earths" after the breakdown of MgSiO 3 post-perovskite. These
results were reported in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. in early
January. Also the newphase change was
successfully confirmed
experimentally in some
low-pressure analog
dioxides by collaborative
researches with Dr.
Yasuhiro Kuwayama inthe experimental group of
GRC.

New results on olivine deformation mechanism
Dr. Tomohiro Ohuchi, a post-doctoral fellow of GRC, found a new
fabric transition pass in olivine under the pressure and temperature
conditions of the upper mantle, using the MA-6-6 system in a largevolume deformation DIA apparatus (MADONNA-1500) at GRC. Dr.
Ohuchi and the members of the Rheology group of GRC conductedsimple-shear deformation experiments on olivine aggregates atpressures P = 2.1-7.6 GPa, temperatures T = 1493-1673 K, and shear
strain rates of 1.5-7.5×10-5 s-1 under dry conditions, and found that the
rapid decrease in seismic anisotropy is caused by the fabric transition
from A-type to B-type-like fabric at 7.6 GPa. They conclude that thevariations of CPO with pressure and temperature in olivine under
dry conditions can explain the seismic anisotropy signatures
observed in the upper mantle, without invoking other mechanisms.
This paper is currently in press in a major international journal Earthand Planetary Science Letters.

samples at high pressure and hightemperature. Initial testing of thissystem combined with synchrotron
radiation by Drs. Takaaki Kawazoe,
Tomohiro Ohuchi, Norimasa
Nishiyama of GRC, and Dr. Yu
Nishihara of the SRFC, with the help
of Drs. Ken'ichi Funakoshi, Yuji
Higo, Takehiro Kunimoto of JASRI,
was successful and proved that thissystem is quite useful in rheologicalstudies of high-pressure phases under deep mantle conditions. They
have already succeeded in producing pressures and temperatures ofthe mantle transition region using this system, and are currently
pursuing deformation experiments under such high P-T conditions.

The 7th JSPS prize to Prof. Tsuchiya
The Japan Society for Promotion of
Science (JSPS) announced that Prof.
Taku Tsuchiya is selected as one of the
25 awardees of the 7th JSPS prize in all
research fields in Japan. This prize wasfounded to encourage the outstanding
young researchers (<45 y.o.), who are
expected to become world-classleaders in the individual research
fields. Only Prof. Tsuchiya wasselected in Earth sciences this year,
who is also the first to receive this prize in the Shikoku region (oneof the four major islands in Japan). The award ceremony will be held
on 3rd March in the Japan Academy, attended by the Prince Akishinoof the imperial family.

Prof. Kagi elected as MSA Fellow
Prof. Hiroyuki Kagi of the Geochemical Research Center (GCRC),
who is the representative of the allied member of our global COE
program at the Univ. Tokyo, was elected as the Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America. MSA is the world largest society inmineral sciences and annually elects Fellows from the members who
made significant contributions in the advancement of mineralogy.
The number of the fellows elected each year is limited to less than
0.5% of MSA membership.

D-DIA experiments at SPring-8
The D IA -type guide blocks of a multianvil apparatus ,SPEED-MkII, at BL04B1 at SPring-8 have been replaced by adeformation-DIA (D-DIA) type blocks of MADONNA-1500 at
GRC for in situ X-ray measurements on uniaxially deformed

Page 1

News & Events
JSHPST award for young scientists
to Drs. Nishihara and Tange
Dr. Yoshinori Tange, an assistantprofessor at GRC, and Dr. Yu Nishihara, a senior research fellow of theSRFC, Ehime Univ., independently
received the Japan Society of High
Pressure Science and Technology(SHPST) award for young scientists. This award is annually given
to one or two outstanding young
scientists working in various
research fields, such as physics,
chemistry, Earth sciences, materials science, biology, etc., where
Drs. Nishihara & Tangehigh-pressure is used as the main
tool. Dr. Tange was awarded mainly because of his achievements indevelopment of multianvil techniques with sintered diamond anvils,
while Dr. Nishihara was highly evaluated for his works on therheological studies of mantle minerals at high pressure. This is thevery first case where the awardees are selected from the same
institute (and the same research field).

ice XI. Meanwhile, Dr. Tomohiro Ohuchi, a COE post-doctoral
fellow at GRC, and Mr. Chunyin Zhou and Mr. Fulong Wang, PhD
students at GRC, received the best presentation award during the
2nd TANDEM symposium held in Wuhan.

Hydrogen quantum atomics seminar at GRC
Dr. Jun Tsuchiya of the SRFC, Ehime Univ., organized the 8th
meeting of the Hydrogen quantum atomics research group at GRC,
partly supported by our global COE program. About 30 participants,
mostly working in the fields of both experimental and theoreticalphysics, gathered and discussed various aspects of behaviours ofhydrogen and hydrogen-bearing substances under pressure. During
the meeting, 16 oral presentations were given, followed by intensive
discussions from both theoretical and experimental points of views.
A lab tour at GRC was also organized after the meeting.

Flinn-Hart award to Dr. Spengler
The 2011 Flinn-Hart award has beenannounced to be presented to Dr. Dirk
Spengler, a post-doctoral fellow of the
SR FC of Ehime Univ., who has beenworking at GRC under the supervision of
D r. Y. Nish i ha r a of t he SR FC. T h isinternational award is presented by the
Bureau of the International Lithosphere
Program (ILP) to an outstanding young
scientist for contributions to the solid
Earth sciences covered by the ILP. 11
awardees (including the previous Flinn Award winners from 1991)
were selected in the past 20 years, and Dr. Spengler is the firstwinner from a Japanese institute. The award ceremony will be heldin Vienna during the annual meeting of the European Geoscience
Union in April.

Other awards to young scientists
M r. F u t o s h i I s o b e , a P h D
student super vised by Prof. T.
I r if u ne of GRC, received t hestudent poster award during the
51st High Pressure Conference ofJapan, held in Sendai andorganized by the JSHPST, for his
presentation on the synthesis ofla rge b o d ie s of h ig h - q u a l it ynano-polycrystalline diamond.
Mr. Masashi Arakawa, a PhD student supervised by Prof. H. Kagiof the GCRC, Univ. Tokyo, received the best student presentation
award during the fall meeting of the Japan Society of Planetary
Sciences held in Nagoya, and also the outstanding student award
during the Joint meeting of the Japanese Society of Snow and Ice
and the Japan Society for Snow Engineering in Sendai. Mr.
Arakawa has made great advances in the structure and properties ofPage 2

Interim evaluation of the GCOE programs
The results of the mid-term evaluation of the individual global
COE program were reported on 7 January, where our program on"Deep Earth Mineralogy" is rated as the A rank, meaning that "itshould be possible to achieve the project's original objectives bycontinuing the current effort". In this year, 68 programs in Earth
Sciences, Physics, Mathematics, Medical Sciences, Engineering,Social Sciences, etc. have been evaluated by the committee basedon the reports and hearings and the results are open to public on the
JSPS web page, where the percentages of the programs for the
ratings are reported as A = 70%, B = 25%, and C =4 % (oneprogram is being suspended for the final decision).

A new research project approved
A 4-year research project from Ehime University on the newmaterials synthesis using the 6000-ton multianvil(BOTCHAN-6000) and other facilities at GRC has been picked upby the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology, of Japanese government) and decided by the Cabinet
meeting on 27 December, 2010. The project aims at producing newmaterials, such as ultrahard and high-temperature superconducting
materials, using the large volume multianvil apparat us andt e c h n i q u e s d e v e l o p e d i n d e e p E a r t h m i n e r a l o g y.
Nano-polycrystalline diamond, or HIME-DIA, invented at GRC is
one of the successful examples of such novel materials, which arebeing applied to various types of high-pressure apparatus and usedas some industrial tools.

News & Events
10th anniversary of GRC
GRC was funded in April of 2001, and will soon have the 10th
anniversary. A committee, consisting of the university council
members, deans of relevant faculties, and some external members
outside the u niversit y, has been organized to evaluate theachivement and performance of GRC in the last 10 years, and to
discuss its future directions toward the next decade. The new
directions may include further advancements of science andtechnology relevant particularly to 1) planetary interiors, 2)materials science, and 3) dynamics and evolution of the Earth.
Another important agenda is whether GRC to reform as the national
center for high-pressure mineral physics and related sciences. Theseissues are currently being intensively discussed in the committee,
and the final decision will be made at the end of March 2010. A
ceremony celebrating the anniversary will also be held later in thisyear.

of 1cm in both diameter and length, using 6000-ton multianvil
apparatus (BOTCHAN-6000) at the SOSEKI Lab, GRC. The run
was made at a press load of 4700-ton, using the second-stage anvilsof 75mm edge length, truncated by 22 mm on the corners, under thecondition of 15 GPa and 2600K. It is expected that HIME-DIA aslarge as 1.5 cm may be synthesized if the press capacity of
BOTCHAN is fully used. Collaborations using HIME-DIA anvils
have already started with several research groups in Japan and othercountries, utilizing the outstanding features of NPD.

Successful synthesis of 1cm HIME-DIA
Mr. Futoshi Isobe, a PhD student at GRC, succeeded to synthesis
a flawless nano-polycrystalline diamond (NPH or HIME-DIA) rod

Forthcoming Events
The 4th International Special Lecture &Internship Program"Tutorial for Ultrasonic Interferometry
Measurements of Sound Velocities at High Pressure"Date: 21 (Lecture), 22- 23 (Execise) February, 2011
Venue: GRC, Ehime University
Lecturer:Prof. Baosheng Li(Mineral Physics Institute, Stony Brook University, USA)
Supporting staffs: Matthew L. Whitaker (Assist. Prof., GRC),
Yoshio Kono: Global COE Assist. Prof., GRC)
Elasticity of materials at high pressure isof great importance in many scientificfields, such as materials science, physics,
and of course, Earth science. This internshipis an introductory course about the
principles and methods of ultrasonicvelocity measurements and theirimplementation in a high pressure apparatus
to make precise sound velocity
measurements for materials behavior andproperties characterization at high pressure.
This tutorial course is targeted at undergraduate and graduate
students, postdocs, and young scientists, with or without priorexperience, who would like to incorporate this advanced techniqueinto their research program.
The internship will include the following agenda.
1. Lectures on elasticity of materials, principles of ultrasonicinterferometry, and implementation in high pressure apparatus.
2. Hands-on exercise of ultrasonic measurement at ambient pressure.
3. Hands-on exercise using high pressure apparatus for ultrasonicmeasurements.
4. Data analysis for the derivation of elasticity (bulk and shear
moduli, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, etc) as well as theirpressure derivatives.

No limitation for number of "Lecture" participants (21st), but the
number of "Hands-on exercise" participants (22nd and 23rd) islimited to 10.

International sessions on Deep Earth Mineralogy
at JpGU 2011 Meeting
Several inter national sessions will be held on deep Ear thmineralogy during the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) Meeting2011 in Makuhari on May 22 - 27. Among them, a session entitled"Mineral physics and dynamics of deep mantle", convened by Dr.
M. Kameyama, Assoc. Prof. of GRC, solicits contributions fromvarious disciplines on mineral physics and geodynamics of theplanetary interiors, with special focuses on (1) thermal/chemical
structure, (2) behaviours of fluids and/or hydrous minerals, and (3)rheology of the deep mantle. Also will be held a session entitled"Structure, Dynamics & Composition of Earth & Planetary Cores",convened by Dr. M. Whitaker, Assist. Prof. of GRC, aiming at
deepening the understanding of the innermost part of our planetsfrom seismological, mineralogical and f luid-dynamical aspects.
Those who are interested in deep Earth mineralogy are greatly
encouraged to join the discussions in these sessions. We particularly
welcome researchers/students of TANDEM laboratories, to enhancemutual communications and collaborations in Asian countries. For
further details, see the JpGU website (http://www.jpgu.org/) or
directly contact Dr. Kameyama (kameyama@sci.ehime-u.ac.jp) or
Dr. Whitaker (matt@sci.ehime-u.ac.jp).

International Frontier Seminar
20th (23rd February)
Lecturer : Prof. Gabriel Gwanmesia
Department of Physics & Pre-Engineering, Delaware State
University
21st (early in April)
Lecture: Prof. Robert C. Liebermann
Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University

Page 3

Internship Report
Yoshio KONO (GCOE Research Fellow)
I visited Professor Ian Jackson's laboratory at the Research Schoolof Earth Sciences (RSES), The Australian National University, for~3 months (from September to December 2010). I studied frequency
dependence of elastic properties using forced oscillation experiment.
Knowledge on frequency dependence of elastic properties isimportant to close the gap of available frequency between laboratory
ultrasonic experiments (~MHz) and seismic observation (~Hz). Ian
Jackson has worked on frequency dependence of shear modulus andits attenuation by using torsional forced oscillation technique. In
addition, he is recently developing flexure oscillation experiment tomeasure frequency dependent Young's modulus. Combination ofthese two techniques gives us important knowledge on the thefrequency dependence of both P- and S-wave velocities.
During my stay at RSES, we carried out both torsional and flexure
forced oscillation experiments for sapphire single crystal andmelt-bearing olivine polycrystal samples. Forced oscillation
experiment is very time-consuming work, and it took 5-10 hours to
obtain a forced oscillation data at a given condition. Since torsional
forced oscillation experiment is an established technique, I
successfully obtained good results for frequency dependence of
shear modulus and its attenuation. In contrast, because it was thefirst attempt for flexure oscillation experiment at high temperature
conditions, we made many efforts to obtain successful flexuremeasurements. Although we still need further study to researchfrequency dependence of Young's modulus, this experience wasgood for me to study the technique of forced oscillation
measurement.
Because I have had great interest in forced oscillation experiments
for a long time, I am so grateful to the Global COE overseasinternship program, which gave me the opportunity to visit RSES. I
also greatly appreciate Prof. Ian Jackson and his colleagues for theirsupports in my stay at RSES.

Facility at GRC (I): ORANGESGRC has a variety of high-pressure apparatus for deep Earthmineralogy and relevant experimental studies. The ORANGE-1000
and ORANGE-2000 were constructed in 1996, five years before
GRC was founded, supported by the MEXT (Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, and Technology; Mombu-sho at that time), while
ORANG-3000 was installed in 2003, at the same time as theIntegrated Research Building was constructed mainly for GRC andother research centers. These multianvil apparatus are mostly used
for "conventional" experiments at pressures up to 30 GPa andtemperatures up to 3000 K by using a Kawai-type cell with WC
second-stage anvils. The name "ORANGE" comes from the fact thatoranges are the most famous products from Ehime prefecture.
Another meaning for ORANGE is "Over the RANGE", indicating
the challenging spirit in high-pressure technology to overcome thelimitations of the pressure and temperature ranges in this type ofapparatus.

COLUMN: Bloom of plum trees on the castle hill
Matsuyama castle, one of the most famous "mountain castles" (or more correctly "dieBurgen" in German) in Japan, constructed some 400 years ago, is located on the top of a hill
within a walking distance from Ehime University. Actually, it takes only 20 minutes on footfrom GRC headquarters to the castle, and provides an ideal opportunity for daily exercise
and refreshment. You can particularly enjoy spectacular views of the sunset on the Setoisland sea and Mt. Ishizuchi, the highest mountain in western Japan, covered with snow,
through the chilly but clear air of winter. At the end of winter, plum trees start to bloom first,
followed by mountain cherries, and then Somei-yoshino cherries, under which people enjoy
Hanami parties – drinking lots of sake, singing Karaoke songs, shouting... The Japanese
fiscal year begins on 1st April, and so does the first semester in schools and Universities.
This "renewal" season is now approaching, hopefully bringing another exciting decade for
GRC, which was established in FY2001, just ten years ago.

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Hot Researches by Young Scientists
Si - Al interdiffusion
in majoritic garnet
Masayuki Nishi(JSPS postdoctoral Fellow)

The transformation kinetics of mantle
minerals would be the key to constr uct
metastable phase relations in the subducting
plate. Especially, the py roxene-gar net
transformation is likely very slow because
this transformation is controlled by slow
chemical diffusion of Si4+ + M2+ ↔ 2Al3+ (M= Mg + Fe + Ca) in garnet. In this study, wemeasured the Si4+ + M 2+ ↔ 2Al 3+ diffusion
coefficient in garnet at high-pressure andhigh-temperature conditions in order to

Textural petrology for understanding
formation processes of rocks andrheological properties of magmas;
experimental and analytical
approaches
Hidemi Ishibashi(Postdoctoral Fellow,
Geochemical Research Center,
The University of Tokyo)

The mechanisms of crystallization frommag ma and f luid are sensitive toenvironmental conditions duringsolidification. Given an adequate calibrationof natural materials forming at controlled
conditions, the textures of igneous rocks canprovide information about physicochemical
cond it ion s i n reg ion s of t he Ea r t hi naccessible to di rect obser vation.
Conversely, the rheological properties ofmag mas, which inf luence t ranspor t
processes, a re st rongly i nf luenced by
textural characteristics. "Textural petrology"
is a f ield of st udy f u nd a me nt al forunderstanding both formation processes andrheological properties of rocks and magmas,

clarify kinetics of the pyroxene-gar net
transformation.
Single crystals of natural pyropic garnet
and polycrystalline majoritic garnet wereused as the diffusion couples. Diffusion
experiments were performed at 16 GPa and1550 -170 0˚C fo r 5 - 50 h o u r s w it h a
mu lt i-a nv i l h ig h-pre ssu re ap pa r at u s.
Diffusion profiles in the garnet of recovered
samples were examined by Transmission
Electron Microscopy (TEM, JEM-2010;
JEOL) equipped with EDS. TEM samples
were prepared by using a focused ion beam
( F I B) s yst e m (J EM-9310F I B; J EOL).
Diffusion profiles obtained at 1550˚C for 50
hours are shown in Fig.1. The diffusion
coef f icients at va r ious temperat u reconditions were deter mined byconcentration gradient caused by the Si4+ +M2+ ↔ 2Al3+ diffusion in garnet.
The pyroxene-gar net t ransfor mation
requires long-distance Si4+ + Mg 2+ ↔ 2Al 3+
diffusion comparable to the grain size oforiginal garnet. If we consider the grain sizeof 1 mm for the parental garnet before thepy r oxe ne -g a r ne t t r a n sfor m at ion , t hetransformation requires high temperaturesof more t ha n 150 0˚C compa r able to anormal mantle geotherm. This suggests thatthe pyroxene-garnet transformation would

be kinetically inhibited in cold subducting
plat es a nd t he pha se relat ion s of a
subducting plate are possibly different fromequilibr iu m phase relations. T hese
metastable phase relations of a subducting
plate are sensitive to temperature conditions
and may provide significant implications forthe dynamics of plates by changing thedensity relation and mechanical properties.

and hence to myriad related geologicalprocesses. I summarize here two analyticaland experimental investigations in textural
petrology, one aimed at the linkage between
cr yst al mor pholog y a nd for mat ion
environment of natural polycr ystalline
diamond, and the other est ablishi ng aquantitative relationship between rheology
and crystallinity in basaltic magma.
We p e r for me d t ex t u r a l a n a lyse s ofsamples usi ng FESEM and TEM tounderstand the for mation processes ofnatural polycrystalline diamond, carbonado,
the origin of which has been vigorously
debated. We found negative cr ystals insingle diamond crystals, interfaces between
d ia mond - d ia mond a nd d ia mond -void
boundaries dominated by {111}, and crystal
size distribution patterns very similar to
those of volcanic rocks. These observations
suggest that carbonado was formed underd ia mond - st a ble a nd f lu id - c o ex i st i ng
conditions in mantle, and are inconsistent
with other leading hypotheses for theirformation, such as phase transformation oforga n ic ca r b on i nduce d by i mpa ct orirradiation or chemical vapor deposition ininterstellar space.
The rheology of crystal-bearing magma is
a topic at the frontier of magma science,
ma de exce pt ionally d if f icu lt to st udy
because of the high temperatures at which
experiments must be performed on natural
m a t e r i a l s . We p e r fo r m e d l a b o r a t o r yviscosit y measu rements of mag mas at
magmatic conditions, and combined these insitu measurements with textural analyses ofcooled samples to clarify the effects ofcrystals on rheology of magma. Our results

showed that magma viscosity increases
m o r e s h a r p l y, a n d t h a t t h e c r i t i c a l
crystallinity for onset of non-Newtonian
behavior is lower for tabular crystals thanequant ones. To bet ter u nderst and therelation between crystal shape and magmav iscosit y, a dd it ional exper i ment s a rerequired. The starting point of my continued
experimental and analytical research, to be
conducted at the Universit y of Hawaii(Januar y- March, 2011), is to st udy the
textural characteristics of basaltic magma
crystallizing in response to various dynamic
thermal histories.

Fig. 1. Representative concentration profile
mea su red by T EM-EDS on re cove reds a m pl e a t 1550˚C fo r 3 0 0 0 m i n u t e s .
Concentration gradient caused by the Si4+ +M 2 + ↔ 2Al 3 + dif f usion were obser ved
between two garnet diffusion couples.

Fig. 1. The ratio of viscosity of magma tothat of melt against cr ystallinit y for atabular-plagioclase bearing magma. The
blue and orange curves indicate relations
respectively predicted by Einstein-Roscoe
and Costa's equations which describes theef fect of isot ropic shaped cr yst als on
viscosity of magma. The best fit line for our
result (green curve) significantly deviates
upwa rd f rom them; the deviat ion is
attributed to shape difference of suspended
crystals.

Page 5TANDEM

THE ASIAN NETWORKIN DEEP EARTH MINERALOGY
News & Events

2nd TANDEM symposium at CUG in Wuhan

to learn some latest ab initio computation techniques on the finite
temperature thermodynamics and study high-P,T behaviors of someoxides and silicates. One of them is also now trying to stay at GRC
for a longer time with help from a Chinese scholarship program.

A visit to HP lab of Peking University

The 2nd symposium of the TANDEM, the Asian networkorganization on Deep Earth Mineralogy, was held at China
University of Geosciences, Wuhan, during 5-7 Novermber, 2010,
with about 130 participants from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan,
USA, and Germany. About 70 oral/poster presentations were given,
including keynote talks by Profs. T. Irifune (GRC, Ehime Univ.), Y.
Wang (GSECARS, Chicago Univ.), Y. Fei (GL. CIW) and 8 invited
talks.
The meeting of representatives of the TANDEM laboratories was
also held during the symposium, and it was agreed that the next
symposium will be held in Matsuyama, Japan, in 2012.
Outstanding presentation awards for young scientists (Ph.D.
students and PD fellows) were selected by senior professors. The
awardees are as follows.
- Ms. Tingting Gu (Peking Univ.), "In situ high-pressure study of
FeP: implications for planetary cores"- Dr. Tomohiro Ohuchi (GRC Ehime Univ.), "Simple-shear
deformation of olivine using a deformation-DIA apparatus:
implications for upper mantle seismic anisotropy"- Ms. Sutao Zhao (CUG Wuhan), "Subducting lithosphere does not
weaken as it crosses the 660 km discontinuity"- Mr. Fulong Wang (GRC Ehime Univ.), "P-V-T equation of stateof stishovite up to mid lower mantle conditions"- Mr. Chunyin Zhou (GRC Ehime Univ.), "Phase relations in(Mg0.93Fe0.07)SiO3 to 24GPa: implications for seismic
velocities of subducted harzburgite"- Dr. Xinzhuan Guo (ISEI Okayama Univ.), "Electricalconductivity anisotropy of deformed talc rocks and serpentinite at
3 GPa"

Internship students from Peking Univ. to GRC
G-COE is making large efforts on the education not only ofstudents at Ehime Univ but also of interinstitutional andinternational students. The short course internship program at GRC
will accept new foreign graduate students from late February. Two
Peking Univ students are going to visit the Theoretical Mineral
Physics group for a month and work with Prof. Tsuchiya. They plan

Page 6

Prof. Tsuchiya and 3 Post-doc researchers of the Theoretical
Mineral Physics Group of GRC visited the high-pressure lab of thePeking University after the 2nd TANDEM meeting. They had a joint
seminar on the high-pressure theoretical mineral physics together on
9 November, 2010. 7 speakers in total (4 from GRC and 3 from thePeking Univ) reported their latest impressive research results
including a new high-P,T phase change in silica, ab initio latticedynamics of the iron-bearing post-perovskite, high-pressure phaserelations of core-related materials, etc. Also various things fromfundamental ab initio computation techniques to applications werediscussed. This special joint seminar was definitely a great
opportunity for all the young scientists and students to expand theirexpertise and also to cultivate international experiences.

Call for Special PhD course at GRC
A special PhD course in deep Earth mineralogy at GRC, Ehime
University, is open for students from Asian countries with financial
supports from the University. The candidates should complete theirmaster's (or equivalent) thesis by the time of entrance. The course
offers educational programs for advanced experimental, theoreticaland computational studies on Earth's deep structure and relatedsciences and technologies. The exam and enrollment for FY2011
will be May and September, 2011, respectively. On the applicationof the Special PhD course for FY2010, see
http://deep-earth-mineralogy.jp/g-coe2008/english/positions/Application information for FY2011 will be announced March2011 on the website above and the mailing list of the TANDEM.
Contact:
Prof. Toru Inoue (inoue@sci.ehime-u.ac.jp)
Dr. Akira Yamada (yamada@sci.ehime-u.ac.jp)

TANDEM Laboratories
Research Group for Earth and Planetary Material
Science in Department of Earth and Planetary
Science (DPES), Kyushu University
Kyushu-University was established in 1911 as Kyushu Imperial
University and celebrated centennial anniversary in this year.
Kyushu University, sometimes abbreviated to Kyudai, is the largest
public university on the island of Kyushu and has near-city airport
Hakozaki and several other campuses in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka
prefecture. In its history, two major serious events are medical
experimentation on living US military captives in 1945 and US Air
Force Phantom crash on computer center in 1968. There are 11
undergraduate schools with 12,000 students and 17 graduate
schools with 3,800 master course students and 2,700 doctor course
students. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (DEPS)
belong to Faculty of Science on duty to educate 51 undergraduate,
41 master course and 14 doctor course graduate students every
school year. Ou r depar t ment was or iginally established as
Department of Geology and reorganized in 1990 as DEPS in joint
with part of Department of Physics, which made atmospheric andelectromagnetic physics to their specialty. Nowadays, about half of
14 research groups in DEPS work on solid earth geophysics andgeochemistry.
Research group for Earth and planetary material sciences has
started high pressure experimental studies, since 2003 when
Takumi Kato has moved to Fukuoka from University of Tsukuba.
Tomoaki Kubo has joined in the next year from Tohoku University
to establish the high pressure laboratory on mineral physics, whichis specialized to clarify the transport properties of the Earth andplanetary materials in extreme conditions. Other department
members in the deep Earth related f ields are Masao Nakada(Geodynamics), Satoshi Kaneshima (Seismology), and Atsushi
Toramaru (Volcanology). Accordingly, in their research groups,
there is no difficulty to find out a person, with whom we candiscuss the origin and evolution of the Earth and the process andphenomena occurring in the Earth, planets and satellites. Two
multi-anvil apparatus are used for the high pressure and hightemperature conditions. MAX90 is 400 ton single stage DIA
system, once used for the in-situ X-ray diffraction experiment at thebeam lines of KEK in 1990's. Another system is the 700 ton double
stage multi anvil system once located at Ehime University as
EUDES. This system has the novel split cylinder type guide blocks
designed in middle 1980's and is now renamed "QDES". It iscapable of realizing the condition at the top of the lower mantle.
Kinetics of the phase transitions and grain growth, and diffusion in
the silicate and metallic materials are target of the studies using

Guide block exchange labor for DCAP deformation DIA
apparatus installed at PFAR-NE7 beam line in KEK
these apparatus, as well as the starting material synthesis for thesynchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments in SPring-8 and KEK.
Diamond anvil cell is used to study the rheological properties ofh ig h-pre ssu re ice s at ro om a nd low t e mp e r at u re s. I n t hesynchrotron facilities, we have studied on transformation kinetics
and rheology of silicate minerals and ices at high pressures. We
have been also actively promoting some collaborative researcheswith Drs. Eiji Ohtani and Akio Suzuki (Tohoku Univ.) on thetransformation and rheology using a newly developed DCAP
deformation DIA apparatus, with Drs. Shuguang Wang (China
Earthquake Administration) and Jieyuan Ning (Peking Univ.) on theolivine transformation kinetics, with Dr. Tadashi Kondo (Osaka
Univ.) on DAC experiments, with Dr. Sumit Chakraborty (Ruhr
Univ.) on atomic diffusion in high-pressure minerals, and with Dr.
William Durham (MIT) on rheology of planetary ices. Most of
state-of-the art analytical facilities (FE-EPMA, FE-SEM, TEM, andSTEM) are available in department and school sharing in Kyushu
University. In near future possibly in 3 years, science, technology
and related faculties are going to move to a new Ito campus, which
is located at the west end of Fukuoka town.
Further information: http://www.geo.kyushu-u.ac.jp/
Correspondences:
Takumi Kato (tkato@geo.kyushu-u.ac.jp)
Tomoaki Kubo (kubotomo@geo.kyushu-u.ac.jp)

Ch r ist mas yea r end i ng pa r t y 12/24/2010 w it h f ield basemineralogy people and guest participants at Hakozaki Fujiyoshi
wherein they served Yakitori, Cake, and Motsunabe.

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TANDEM Laboratories
High Pressure Laboratory of Peking University

Founded in 1898, Peking University (PKU) was originally known
as the Imperial University of Peking. It was the first national
university covering comprehensive disciplines in China, and has
been a leading institution of higher education in China since its
establishment. It also served as the highest administration for
education at the beginning of its founding. In 1912, the university
adopted its present name. At the end of the 20th century, theChinese government put Peking University at the top of its agenda
for promoting higher education, with the aim to build a world-classuniversity in the 21st Century. After merging with Beijing Medical
University in 2000, Peking University once again was strengthened
in its disciplinary structure. Peking University has continually
played the essential role of pioneers in the course of China's
modernization. The university's traditional emphasis on patriotism,progress, democracy, and science, together with its educational
standards of diligence, precision, factualism, and innovation, havebeen passed down from generation to generation. Peking University
has been regarded as a symbol of modern Chinese education. It has
become a center for teaching and research and a university of a new
type, embracing diverse branches of learning such as basic andapplied sciences, social sciences and the humanities, and sciences of
medicine, management, and education. Its aim is to be one of theworld's best universities.
The Department of Geology, a branch of the School of Earth andSpace Sciences, was originally founded in 1909. It was the firstdepartment for geology in Chinese universities and first geologicalacademy in China. More than 4000 students graduated from the
Department of Geology in the past 100 years. The Department of
Geology covers a range of disciplines including mineralogy,
pet rolog y, m i neral deposit, tecton ics, palaeontolog y, a ndgeochemistry. The high-pressure and high-temperature research in
PKU started in the 1980's, focused on hydrothermal experimental
researches using high-pressure vessels. The diamond-anvil cell
techniques were introduced in 2000 for in-situ measurements athigh pressure and temperature.
The expansion and development of the high-pressure andhigh-temperature research program in Peking University was
off icially initiated in June 2008 with new faculty hires andsubstantial university investment of high-pressure facility. The newhigh-pressu re and high-temperat u re laborator y focuses onunderstanding the deep structure and dynamic process of the Earthand other planets via h ig h-pressu re exper i ment at ion,ther mody namic calculations, and theoretical comput ation(molecular dynamics and ab initio simulations). The laboratory
currently consists of 8 staff with various scientific backgrounds inhigh-pressure research, 2 postdocs, and about 20 graduate students.
H i g h - p r e s s u r e e q u i p m e n t i n cl u d e s s o m e h yd r o t h e r m a ld ia mond - a nv i l c el l s , a se r vo ro ck me ch a n ics t e st e r, t wo
piston- cyl i nde r appa r at u s, a mu lt i-a nv il press, a nd somehigh-pressure diamond-anvil cells. The research interests of thehigh-pressure group broadly cover geochemistry, experimental
petrology, mineral physics, rheology, solid state chemistr y,
crystallography, high-pressure technology, and novel materials
synthesis. The routinely used analytical techniques include EMPA,
LA-ICPMS, IR, Raman, XRD, SEM, TEM, and XAFS.
In addition to the research at our own laboratory, we frequently
use synchrotron facilities, including SPring-8, NSLS, PF, BSRF andS S R F, t o p e r fo r m i n - s i t u X- r a y d i f f r a c t i o n a n d X A F S
measurements to examine the physical properties and determine
phase equilibria of minerals and other materials at high pressure
and temperature. We have also developed broad international
collaborations with researchers from the Carnegie Institution of
Washington, the Stony Brook Universit y, the Universit y ofMichigan, the University of Minnesota, the University of Western
Ontario, the Australian National University, the Bayerisches
Geoi nst it ute, and the Okayama Un iversit y. We appreciatecollaborations with the members of TANDEM, and welcome
researchers and students to visit our laboratory.
For more information, please visit our homepage:
http://sess.pku.edu.cn/organization/gwgy//EN/indexEn.html
Correspondence: Shuangmeng Zhai (zhai@pku.edu.cn)

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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