Ice-VII inclusions in Diamonds: Evidence for Aqueous Fluid in Earth’s Deep Mantle

Authors

Oliver Tschauner, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Shichun Huang, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
E. Greenberg, University of Chicago
V. B. Prakapenka, University of ChicagoFollow
C. Ma, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
G. R. Rossman, California Institute of TechnologyFollow
A. H. Shen, China University of Geosciences
D. Zhang, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
M. Newville, University of ChicagoFollow
A. Lanzirotti, University of ChicagoFollow
K. Tait, Royal Ontario MuseumFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-9-2018

Publication Title

Science

Volume

359

Issue

6380

First page number:

1136

Last page number:

1139

Abstract

Water-rich regions in Earth’s deeper mantle are suspected to play a key role in the global water budget and the mobility of heat-generating elements. We show that ice-VII occurs as inclusions in natural diamond and serves as an indicator for such water-rich regions. Ice-VII, the residue of aqueous fluid present during growth of diamond, crystallizes upon ascent of the host diamonds but remains at pressures as high as 24 gigapascals; it is now recognized as a mineral by the International Mineralogical Association. In particular, ice-VII in diamonds points toward fluid-rich locations in the upper transition zone and around the 660-kilometer boundary.

Disciplines

Geology

Language

english

Repository Citation

Tschauner, O., Huang, S., Greenberg, E., Prakapenka, V. B., Ma, C., Rossman, G. R., Shen, A. H., Zhang, D., Newville, M., Lanzirotti, A., Tait, K. (2018). Ice-VII inclusions in Diamonds: Evidence for Aqueous Fluid in Earth’s Deep Mantle. Science, 359(6380), 1136-1139.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aao3030