Geophysical measurements, such as the lateral variations in seismic wave velocities that are imaged by seismic tomography, provide the strongest constraints on the structure of the Earth's deep interior. In order to interpret such measurements in terms of mineralogical/compositional models of the Earth's interior, data on the physical and chemical properties of minerals at high pressures and temperatures are essential. Knowledge of thermodynamics, phase equilibria, crystal chemistry, crystallography, rheology, diffusion and heat transport are required to characterize the structure and...

High-pressure mineral physics is a field that is strongly driven by the development of new technology. Fifty years ago, when experimentally achievable pressures were limited to just 25 GPa, little was know about the mineralogy of the Earth's lower mantle. Silicate perovskite, the likely dominant mineral of the deep Earth, was identified only when the high-pressure techniques broke the pressure barrier of 25 GPa in 1970s. However, as the maximum achievable pressure reached beyond one Megabar (100 GPa) and even to the pressure of Earth's core on minute samples, new discoveries increasingly were...