Grain boundary plane populations in minerals: the example of wet NaCl after low strain deformation

Many physical properties of rocks are sensitive to grain size and hence to the structure of grain boundaries. Depending on their properties, such as deformation and transport behaviour, boundaries may be divided into two broad types, namely special and general grain boundaries. Electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) is used to investigate the misorientation distributions of grain boundaries and, more recently, to determine the population of grain boundary planes. Studies on metals and ceramics suggest that the grain boundary plane, rather than the misorientation, is the key parameter when defining special and general grain boundaries. In this study, the distribution of grain boundary plane orientations has been successfully determined using EBSD for a slightly deformed, synthetic NaCl material containing 22 ppm water. Boundaries showed a preference for {100} planes, which occurred with twice the frequency of a random distribution. The grain boundary plane distributions found in NaCl were largely in agreement with studies on MgO. Grain boundaries, with a coincident site lattice (CSL) misorientation, also showed a preference for {100} planes, rather than the planes of high coincident density associated with the CSL. Three main types of boundary were identified, namely {100} twist boundaries, boundaries with {100}{hkl} planes and general {hkl}{hkl} boundaries. As the properties of these three types of boundary differ, then the transport and creep properties in wet NaCl will depend on the fraction of the different boundary types found in the grain boundary population.