Instrument Home GPS Home Caltech Home	Facilities for Mineral Synthesis   W e have laboratory facilities that obtain an enormous range of pressure and temperature conditions, enabling synthesis of natural and artificial materials under conditions resembling any that occur in the upper 700 km of the Earth or in space. The pictures below show the kinds of apparatus we use for high temperature work at ambient, crustal, upper mantle, and transition zone pressures, respectively. Piston-Cylinder apparatus for mineral synthesis.  This instrument routinely operates at 1300°C and at 30 kbar pressure.   Components which confine the sample while at high pressure.  The actual sample is the tiny speck to the left of the white vial near the front with the cork top.   The internal assembly which constitute the sample cell.  The sample, itself, is contained in the small Pt capsule at the left.   1700°C controlled-atmosphere furnaces for mineral synthesis.   Our 1000-ton hydraulic press for multianvil high-pressure modules waiting, under a typical Caltech archway, to be hoisted into the lab three floors above.   A birds-eye view of the cubic multianvil device partially assembled. This apparatus reaches pressure between 3 and 6 GPa with a sample volume of ~100 cubic millimeters.   This photo shows the tungsten carbide anvils of the octahedal multiannvil device all prepared for a high pressure run (with pyrophyllite gaskets, cardboard backing, and teflon tape; the gaskets will be turned towards the center when the assembly is built). With 8 mm edge length triangular truncations, this assembly reaches pressure of at least 14 GPa with a sample volume of ~3 cubic millilmeters.   A reflected-light photomicrograph of an experimental synthesis product. The fibrous grey-brown materials is a mica, phlogopite. The large blades and six-pointed stars are plagioclase. We're not really sure why this run crystallized in such a striking pattern. back to top | Instrument Home | GPS Home | Caltech Home