Superhydrous aluminous silica phases as major water hosts in high-temperature lower mantle.

Water transported by subducted oceanic plates changes mineral and rock properties at high pressures and temperatures, affecting the dynamics and evolution of the Earth's interior. Although geochemical observations imply that water should be stored in the lower mantle, the limited amounts of water incorporation in pyrolitic lower-mantle minerals suggest that water in the lower mantle may be stored in the basaltic fragments of subducted slabs. Here, we performed multianvil experiments to investigate the stability and water solubility of aluminous stishovite and CaCl-structured silica, referred to as poststishovite, in the SiO-AlO-HO systems at 24 to 28 GPa and 1,000 to 2,000 °C, representing the pressure-temperature conditions of cold subducting slabs to hot upwelling plumes in the top lower mantle.