Electrical conductivity of melts: implications for conductivity anomalies in the Earth's mantle.

Magmatic liquids, including silicate and carbonate melts, are principal agents of mass and heat transfer in the Earth and terrestrial planets, and they play a crucial role in various geodynamic processes and in Earth's evolution. Electrical conductivity data of these melts elucidate the cause of electrical anomalies in Earth's interior and shed light on the melt structure. With the improvement in high-pressure experimental techniques and theoretical simulations, major progress has been made on this front in the past several decades.

Tracing the subducting Pacific slab to the mantle transition zone with hydrogen isotopes.

Hydrogen isotopes have been widely used as powerful tracers to understand the origin of terrestrial water and the water circulation between the surface and the deep interior of the Earth. However, further quantitative understanding is hindered due to a lack of observations about the changes in D/H ratios of a slab during subduction. Here, we report hydrogen isotope data of olivine-hosted melt inclusions from active volcanoes with variable depths (90‒550 km) to the subducting Pacific slab.

High HO Content in Pyroxenes of Residual Mantle Peridotites at a Mid Atlantic Ridge Segment.

Global correlations of mid-ocean-ridges basalt chemistry, axial depth and crustal thickness have been ascribed to mantle temperature variations affecting degree of melting. However, mantle HO content and elemental composition may also play a role. How HO is distributed in the oceanic upper mantle remains poorly constrained.

Buoyant hydrous mantle plume from the mantle transition zone.

Magmatism at some intraplate volcanoes and large igneous provinces (LIPs) in continental areas may originate from hydrous mantle upwelling (i.e. a plume) from the mantle transition zone (MTZ) at 410-660 km depths in the Earth's deep interior.

Water in the upper mantle and deep crust of eastern China: concentration, distribution and implications.

Understanding the concentration and distribution of water in the Earth's mantle plays a substantial role in studying its chemical, physical and dynamic processes. After a decade of research, a comprehensive dataset of water content in upper-mantle samples has been built for eastern China, which is now the only place with water-content data from such diverse types of natural samples, and provides an integrated picture of the water content and its distribution in the upper mantle at a continental scale. The main findings include the following: (i) the temporal heterogeneity of the water content in the lithospheric mantle from early Cretaceous (∼120 Ma) to Cenozoic (<40 Ma) was tightly connected with the stability of the North China Craton (from its destruction to its consolidation); (ii) the heterogeneous water content in the Cenozoic lithospheric mantle beneath different blocks of eastern China was not only inherited from tectonic settings from which they came, but was also affected later by geological processes they experienced; (iii) the distinct water content between the lowermost crust and lithospheric mantle of eastern China and its induced rheological contrast at the base of the crust indicate that the continental crust-mantle boundary could behave either in a coupled or decoupled manner beneath different areas and/or at different stages; (iv) the alkali basalts of eastern China demonstrate a heterogeneous distribution of water content in the mantle; local and regional comparisons of the water content between the lithospheric mantle and basalts' source indicate that the Cenozoic alkali basalts in eastern China were not sourced from the lithospheric mantle.

Mantle hydration and the role of water in the generation of large igneous provinces.

The genesis of large igneous provinces (LIP) is controlled by multiple factors including anomalous mantle temperatures, the presence of fusible fertile components and volatiles in the mantle source, and the extent of decompression. The lack of a comprehensive examination of all these factors in one specific LIP makes the mantle plume model debatable. Here, we report estimates of the water content in picrites from the Emeishan LIP in southwestern China.

High water content in primitive continental flood basalts.

As the main constituent of large igneous provinces, the generation of continental flood basalts (CFB) that are characterized by huge eruption volume (>10(5) km(3)) within short time span (<1-3 Ma) is in principle caused by an abnormally high temperature, extended decompression, a certain amount of mafic source rocks (e.g., pyroxenite), or an elevated H2O content in the mantle source.