Pressure (P) derivatives of thermal conductivity (k) and thermal diffusivity (D) are important to geophysics but are difficult to measure accurately because minerals, being hard and partially transparent, likely incur systematic errors through thermal losses at interfaces and spurious radiative transfer. To evaluate accuracy, repeat experiments for olivine [(Mg0.9Fe0.1)2SiO4], quartz (SiO2), and NaCl are examined in detail: these and other data on electrical insulators are compared with theory. At ambient conditions, D is underestimated in proportion to the number of contacts. As temperature (T) increases, spurious radiative transfer more than offsets contact loss. Compression of pore space and contact losses affect pressure derivatives, but these seem independent of T. Accurate (؎2%) values of D(T) at 1 atm are obtained with the contact-free, laser-flash method. Other optical techniques do not pinpoint D but provide useful pressure derivatives. Published data on ٢(lnk)/٢P at ambient conditions agree roughly with all available models, the simplest of which predicts ٢(lnk)/٢P ϳ ٢(lnKT)/٢P, where KT is the bulk modulus. However, derivatives verified by multiple measurements are reproduced accurately only by the damped harmonic oscillator model. An improved database is needed to refine this model and to confidently extrapolate these difficult measurements to geophysically relevant conditions. laser-flash analysis ͉ thermal conductivity T hermal transport properties play a crucial role in mantle convection, because this phenomenon results from competition between diffusion of heat, resistance to motion, and buoyancy forces. Thermal conductivity (k) and its relative thermal diffusivity,where is density and C P is heat capacity at constant pressure (P), are regulated by two different mechanisms. Transport of heat by phonons is termed lattice conductivity (k lat ). For electrical insulators such as mantle minerals, photons also move heat. Radiative transfer inside Earth proceeds by diffusion among the grains and is calculated from spectroscopic measurements (e.g., ref. 1). In contrast, laboratory experiments involve direct (also called boundaryto-boundary) radiative transfer wherein photons emitted from heater warm the thermocouple with minimal participation of the sample, because most electrical insulators are transparent at certain frequencies (1-3). This effect is not easily separated from k lat . Recent advances made in measurement of D using the contact-free, laser-flash technique (4, 5) allow removal of unwanted direct radiative transfer effects from the raw data. Their approach was recently applied to Earth materials at T but not at P (6-9). Pressure studies of k lat (or D) predominately involve conventional, contact methods (e.g., refs. 10-12), which potentially include simultaneous but opposing errors due to direct radiative transfer and contact resistance at interfaces (e.g., refs. 13 and 14). This report uses laser-flash results and the existing database to decipher meaningful values of Ѩk lat /ѨP. Single cr...