The adiabats of olivine, magnesium oxide, and quartz were measured up to 50kbar and 1000 K. An end‐loaded piston‐cylinder apparatus with an in situ pressure gauge and a very fine thermocouple was used to measure (∂T/∂P)s during adiabatic compression. A power law between (∂T/∂P)s and compression yields values of the power n = −∂ ln (∂T/∂P)s/∂ ln ρ that agree with previous results from salts, metals, and fluids. Assuming constant values for n, the adiabtic gradient for an olivine upper mantle and a magnesium oxide lower mantle was calculated. The results agree well with some previous theoretical estimates. The volume dependence of the Grüneisen parameter γ was calculated from the thermodynamic equation ∂ ln γ/∂ ln ρ = ∂B/∂P − n, where B is the isothermal bulk modulus. γ is found to a good approximation to be proportional to volume.
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