AI Article Synopsis
- The subducting sedimentary layer holds water and hydrated clay minerals, influencing the physical characteristics of the subducting slab interface.
- Research shows that the clay mineral pyrophyllite breaks down into gibbsite and diaspore in water-saturated environments, absorbing water at depths around 135 km and releasing it at around 185 km.
- This process contributes significantly to the amount of water transported to the lower mantle, estimated to be about 22% of its total content.
Article Abstract
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 (AlSiO(OH)), one of the representative clay minerals in the alumina-silica-water (AlO-SiO-HO, ASH) system, breakdowns to contain further hydrated minerals, gibbsite (Al(OH)) 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% HO in a phase assemblage containing δ-AlOOH and phase Egg (AlSiO(OH)). Our results thus demonstrate the importance of subducting clays to account the delivery of ~22% of water down to the lower mantle.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11126710 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48501-z | DOI Listing |
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