Tags: Chemical Substance, Mineral.
Wadsleyite is a high-pressure polymorph of olivine and is an orthorhombic mineral found in the Peace River meteorite in Alberta Canada. In phase transformations with increasing pressure from Mg2SiO4-Fe2SiO4 (forsterite – fayalite) olivine is transformed to wadsleyite (β-Mg2SiO4) and then to a spinel-structured ringwoodite (γ-Mg2SiO4). This series of transformations is thought to occur during an extraterrestrial shock event in the meteorite prior to its fall on Earth.