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A role for subducted super-hydrated kaolinite in Earth’s deep water cycle

Journal Article · · Nature Geoscience
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9]
  1. Yonsei Univ., Seoul (Republic of Korea). Dept. of Earth System Sciences
  2. Yonsei Univ., Seoul (Republic of Korea). Dept. of Earth System Sciences; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL); Chonnam National Univ., Gwangju (Republic of Korea)
  3. Yonsei Univ., Seoul (Republic of Korea). Dept. of Earth System Sciences; Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai (China)
  4. George Washington Univ., Washington, DC (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  5. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany). Photon Science
  6. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). High-Pressure Physics Group, Physics and Life Sciences
  7. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States). NanoCenter & Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  8. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
  9. Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai (China); Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Washington, DC (United States). Geophysical Lab.
+ Show Author Affiliations
Water is the most abundant volatile component in the Earth. It continuously enters the mantle through subduction zones, where it reduces the melting temperature of rocks to generate magmas. The dehydration process in subduction zones, which determines whether water is released from the slab or transported into the deeper mantle, is an essential component of the deep water cycle. Here in this paper we use in situ and time-resolved high-pressure/high-temperature synchrotron X-ray diffraction and infrared spectra to characterize the structural and chemical changes of the clay mineral kaolinite. At conditions corresponding to a depth of about 75 km in a cold subducting slab (2.7 GPa and 200 °C), and in the presence of water, we observe the pressure-induced insertion of water into kaolinite. This super-hydrated phase has a unit cell volume that is about 31% larger, a density that is about 8.4% lower than the original kaolinite and, with 29 wt% H2O, the highest water content of any known aluminosilicate mineral in the Earth. As pressure and temperature approach 19 GPa and about 800 °C, we observe the sequential breakdown of super-hydrated kaolinite. The formation and subsequent breakdown of super-hydrated kaolinite in cold slabs subducted below 200 km leads to the release of water that may affect seismicity and help fuel arc volcanism at the surface.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357; AC02-76SF00515; AC52-07NA27344; FG02-99ER45775; NA0001974; NA0002006; SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1423465
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1418045
OSTI ID: 1581491
OSTI ID: 1499533
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--719991; PII: 8
Journal Information:
Nature Geoscience, Journal Name: Nature Geoscience Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 10; ISSN 1752-0894
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (7)

Insights into the water status in hydrous minerals using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy journal June 2019
Discharge of deeply rooted fluids from submarine mud volcanism in the Taiwan accretionary prism journal January 2020
Structural Transformations of the Nanoconfined Water at High Pressures: A Potential Factor for Dynamic Rupture in the Subduction Zones
  • Tsukanov, Alexey; Shilko, Evgeny; Psakhie, Sergey
  • Trigger Effects in Geosystems: The 5th International Conference, Sadovsky Institute of Geospheres Dynamics of Russian Academy of Sciences, p. 297-306 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31970-0_32
book November 2019
Enrichment of 18O in the mantle sources of the Antarctic portion of the Karoo large igneous province journal February 2018
Compressibility of 2M1 muscovite-phlogopite series minerals journal November 2019
Natural gas seepage in the Gulf of Mexico journal June 1976
Effect of Pressure Treatment on the Specific Surface Area in Kaolin Group Minerals journal October 2019

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58 GEOSCIENCES
Element cycles
Geochemistry
Mineralogy
Seismology
Volcanology