Post-entrapment modification of residual inclusion pressure and its implications for Raman elastic thermobarometry

Residual pressure can be preserved in mineral inclusions, e.g. quartz-in-garnet, after exhumation due to differential expansion between inclusion and host crystals. Raman spectroscopy has been applied to infer the residual pressure and provides information on the entrapment temperature and pressure conditions. However, the amount of residual pressure relaxation cannot be directly measured. An underestimation or overestimation of residual pressure may lead to significant errors between calculated and actual entrapment pressure. This study focuses on three mechanisms responsible for the residual pressure modification: (1) viscous creep; (2) plastic yield; (3) proximity of inclusion to the thi…