skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Elastic properties of minerals

Journal Article · · Crystallography Reports
OSTI ID:28566

Investigations of the elastic properties of the main rock-forming minerals were begun by T.V. Ryzhova and K.S. Aleksandrov over 30 years ago on the initiative of B.P. Belikov. At the time, information on the elasticity of single crystals in general, and especially of minerals, was very scanty. In the surveys of that time there was information on the elasticity of 20 or 30 minerals. These, as a rule, did not include the main rock-forming minerals; silicates were represented only by garnets, quartz, topaz, tourmaline, zircon, beryl, and staurolite, which are often found in nature in the form of large and fairly high-quality crystals. Then and even much later it was still necessary to prove a supposition which now seems obvious: The elastic properties of rocks, and hence the velocities of elastic (seismic) waves in the earth`s crust, are primarily determined by the elastic characteristics of the minerals composing these rocks. Proof of this assertion, with rare exceptions of mono-mineralic rocks (marble, quartzite, etc.) cannot be obtained without information on the elasticities of a sufficiently large number of minerals, primarily framework, layer, and chain silicates which constitute the basis of most rocks. This also served as the starting point and main problem of the undertakings of Aleksandrov, Ryzhova, and Belikov - systematic investigations of the elastic properties of minerals and then of various rocks. 108 refs., 7 tabs.

OSTI ID:
28566
Journal Information:
Crystallography Reports, Vol. 38, Issue 5; Other Information: PBD: Sep-Oct 1993; TN: Translated from Kristallografiya; 38, 214-234(Sep-Oct 1993)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English