Ice-VII inclusions in diamonds: Evidence for aqueous fluid in Earth's deep mantle

O Tschauner; S Huang; E Greenberg; V B Prakapenka; C Ma; G R Rossman; A H Shen; D Zhang; M Newville; A Lanzirotti; K Tait

doi:10.1126/science.aao3030

Ice-VII inclusions in diamonds: Evidence for aqueous fluid in Earth's deep mantle

Science. 2018 Mar 9;359(6380):1136-1139. doi: 10.1126/science.aao3030.

Authors

O Tschauner¹, S Huang², E Greenberg³, V B Prakapenka³, C Ma⁴, G R Rossman⁴, A H Shen⁵, D Zhang^{3

6}, M Newville³, A Lanzirotti³, K Tait⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA. [email protected].
² Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA.
³ Center of Advanced Radiation Sources, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
⁴ Division of Geology and Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
⁵ Gemological Institute, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁶ School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
⁷ Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C6, Canada.

PMID: 29590042
DOI: 10.1126/science.aao3030

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.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Associated data

Dryad/10.5061/dryad.7145v