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Updated: May 21, 2026

Stress Distribution During Cold Compression of Rocks and Mineral Aggregates Using Synchrotron-based X-Ray Diffraction
Published on: May 20, 2018
Dynamic mechanical relaxation and loss in the incommensurate phase of quartz
Z Peng1, S-Y Chien, S A T Redfern
1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK.
Abstract:
The dynamic mechanical properties of quartz have been studied as a function of temperature across the α-β phase transition and in the vicinity of the incommensurate (IC) phase on cooling from the β phase. The mechanical response of the IC phase shows strong anelasticity for measurement of Young's modulus (closely related to C(11) in our geometry) with modulated stress driven at 1 Hz. The dynamic shear modulus does not show similar strong effects in its imaginary component, although a very weak anomaly is barely detectable in the real part of the modulus. Our results indicate that the incommensurate microstructures within the quartz transition interval are susceptible to dilatational stress with relaxation times around 1 s.
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