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A role for subducting clays in the water transportation into the Earth’s lower mantle

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10]
  1. Yonsei Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)
  2. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Gwangju Inst. of Science and Technology (Korea, Republic of)
  3. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)
  4. Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Beijing (China); Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (Korea, Republic of)
  5. Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guiyang (China)
  6. Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) (Korea, Republic of)
  7. Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)
  8. Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
  9. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  10. Yonsei Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Subducting sedimentary layer typically contains water and hydrated clay minerals. The stability of clay minerals under such hydrous subduction environment would therefore constraint the lithology and physical properties of the subducting slab interface. Here we show that pyrophyllite (Al2Si4O10(OH)2), one of the representative clay minerals in the alumina-silica-water (Al2O3-SiO2-H2O, ASH) system, breakdowns to contain further hydrated minerals, gibbsite (Al(OH)3) and diaspore (AlO(OH)), when subducts along a water-saturated cold subduction geotherm. Such a hydration breakdown occurs at a depth of ~135 km to uptake water by ~1.8 wt%. Subsequently, dehydration breakdown occurs at ~185 km depth to release back the same amount of water, after which the net crystalline water content is preserved down to ~660 km depth, delivering a net amount of ~5.0 wt% H2O in a phase assemblage containing δ-AlOOH and phase Egg (AlSiO3(OH)). Our results thus demonstrate the importance of subducting clays to account the delivery of ~22% of water down to the lower mantle.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
2470184
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Vol. 15; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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58 GEOSCIENCES
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