Upgrade of Shock Wave Laboratory for Research in High-Pressure Mineral and Melt Physics

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0824983AsimowThis grant supports upgrade of the Caltech Shock Wave Lab facilities. In order to advance U.S. capability for high-precision, high shock pressure (up to 500 GPa) dynamic compression experiments on small, porous, and pre-heated targets (silicates, oxides and metals), a new 25 mm x 228? launch tube, flash source for fast streak photography, two oscilloscopes and a vacuum pump will be acquired. The equipment upgrade will permit simultaneous measurements of Equation of State, sound speed and temperature of shocked materials and experiments at pressures equal to that found within Earth and planetary cores. Higher shock pressures will be afforded by the tighter barrel inner diameter of a new launch tube relative to the aging and stress expanded tube now in use at Caltech. Studies of the melting behavior of silicates at lower mantle conditions can be used to constrain models of the thermochemical evolution of a magma ocean, thought to exist on the early Earth. The new capability will also allow the PIs to explore the melting curves of metals at conditions found within the Earth?s Core.