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Minerals
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Water in Mantle Minerals
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Water in Mantle Minerals

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Crystallography and Physical Chemistry of Minerals & Nanominerals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 2614

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Feiwu Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China
Interests: density functional theory; theorical mineral physics; high pressure and temperature; deep water cycling; volatile; rock–water interface; core formation and composition
Dr. Jin Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Beijing 100094, China
Interests: mineral physics; high pressure and high temperature; carbonate; subduction; oxygen fugacity; deep water cycling; core formation and composition; multi-megabar pressures; synchrotron radiation techniques
Dr. Joshua Muir

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China
Interests: diffusion; partition; deep water cycling; rock–water interface

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface but make up only about 0.025% of the planet's mass, indicating a great disparity between the surface and the Earth’s interior. Despite representing a small proportion of the mass of the Earth’s interior, water can play important roles in the dynamics of the interior. Water can soften rocks and enhance mantle convection which has important effects on volcanism and tectonics. It can also affect properties such as phase transition, seismic wave speeds, and conductivity. It is therefore important to identify, characterize and quantify the water reservoirs in the mantle, since a small amount of water can significantly modify the physical and chemical properties of mantle materials.

Subducting slabs transport water stored in dense hydrous minerals into the mantle transition zone and the lower mantle. The mantle transition zone may be a major water reservoir and water or hydrogen may be carried even further to as far as the core–mantle boundary region where reaction with metallic iron can form hydrous phases or iron hydride. Understanding the mechanics and effects of this global water recycling is key to understanding the evolution of the planet.

On the other hand, the nominally anhydrous minerals of the Earth's mantle contain small but measurable amounts of hydrogen, structurally bound as hydroxyl (OH) groups which are thermodynamically derived from water. While small in concentration, these OH groups can still have profound effects on the properties of these minerals, but these effects have proven to be often very sensitive to pressure and temperature. Thus far, the effect of water on nominally anhydrous minerals has been one of the most poorly constrained compositional variables inside the Earth. It could have large effects on mineral behavior and formation and urgently needs to be elucidated.

The areas of specific interest for this Special Issue of Minerals include, but are not limited to:

(1) Analytical methods and atomistic models of water in nominally anhydrous minerals,

(2) Hydrous phases and water transport in the mantle,

(3) Water storage and content in the Earth’s interior,

(4) Thermodynamics of water solubility, diffusion and partitioning,

(5) The role of water in the mantle minerals, partial melting and deformation,

(6) Iron–water reaction and the role of hydrous phases at the core–mantle boundary (CMB),

(7) Water budget and hydrogen geochemistry of mantle minerals,

(8) Geophysical evidence and remote sensing for water in the deep mantle.

The Special Issue aims to bring together current and recent research in the geochemistry and mineral physics of water/hydrogen in the mantle mineral phases.

Dr. Feiwu Zhang
Dr. Jin Liu
Dr. Joshua Muir
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • structural water
  • nominally anhydrous minerals (NAM)
  • dense hydrous magnesium silicate (DHMS)
  • hydrous phase
  • mantle minerals
  • subducting slab
  • water content
  • water cycle
  • high pressure and temperature
  • mantle dynamics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 5947 KiB  
Article
Structure and Properties of Water in a New Model of the 10-Å Phase: Classical and Ab Initio Atomistic Computational Modeling
by Evgeny V. Tararushkin, Grigory S. Smirnov and Andrey G. Kalinichev
Minerals 2023, 13(8), 1018; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13081018 - 30 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1152
Abstract
The 10-Å phase is an important member of the family of dense hydrous magnesium silicates (DHMSs) that play a major role in the water budget in the Earth’s upper mantle. Its nominal composition is usually written as Mg3Si4O10 [...] Read more.
The 10-Å phase is an important member of the family of dense hydrous magnesium silicates (DHMSs) that play a major role in the water budget in the Earth’s upper mantle. Its nominal composition is usually written as Mg3Si4O10(OH)2·xH2O, and its structure is often described as layers of talc with some amount of water present in the interlayer space. However, its actual structure and composition and the detailed mechanisms of retaining H2O molecules within the mineral are not yet sufficiently known. In particular, more recent spectroscopic and diffraction data indicate the presence of Si vacancies in the tetrahedral silicate sheets of the 10-Å phase leading to the formation of Q2-type Si sites terminated by silanol groups. These silanols are, in turn, hydrogen bonded to interlayer H2O molecules. Here, we use classical and ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to compare the structures and properties of ideal and defect models of the 10-Å phase under ambient conditions. For classical MD simulations, the most recent modification of the ClayFF force field is used, which can accurately account for the bending of Mg–O–H and Si–O–H angles in the mineral layers, including the structural defects. The crystal lattice parameters, elastic constants, structure, and dynamics of the interlayer hydrogen bonding network for the model 10-Å phase are calculated and compared with available experimental data. The results demonstrate that the inclusion of Si vacancies leads to better agreement with crystallographic data, elastic constants, and bulk and shear moduli compared to a simpler model based on the idealized talc structure. The results also clearly illustrate the importance of the explicit inclusion of Mg–O–H and Si–O–H angular bending terms for accurate modeling of the 10-Å phase. In particular, the properly constrained orientation of the silanol groups promotes the formation of strong hydrogen bonds with the interlayer H2O molecules. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water in Mantle Minerals)
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12 pages, 3600 KiB  
Article
Antigorite Dehydration under Compression and Shear Loadings in a Rotational Diamond Anvil Cell
by Dayong Tan, Changguo Jiang, Weishan Chen, Yi Tan, Binbin Yue and Wansheng Xiao
Minerals 2023, 13(7), 871; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13070871 - 28 Jun 2023
Viewed by 815
Abstract
Mineral dehydration in the subduction zone enormously affects Earth’s geodynamics and the global geochemical cycles of elements. This work uses Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to investigate the dehydration process of antigorite under compression and shear loading conditions in a rotational diamond anvil [...] Read more.
Mineral dehydration in the subduction zone enormously affects Earth’s geodynamics and the global geochemical cycles of elements. This work uses Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to investigate the dehydration process of antigorite under compression and shear loading conditions in a rotational diamond anvil cell (RDAC) at room temperature. In order to compare the shear effects, T301 stainless steel and Kapton plastic are applied as the gasket materials. In the experiment using a high-strength T301 stainless steel gasket, two new broad OH-stretching peaks of H2O and H3O2− appear at 3303 and 3558 cm−1, respectively, at 1.7 GPa. The original sharp OH-stretching peaks of antigorite at 3668 and 3699 cm−1 remain, while the central pressure is increased to 8.0 GPa, and the largest pressure gradient is about 2.5 GPa in the sample chamber. In another experiment with a low-strength gasket of Kapton plastic, two new OH-stretching broad peaks of H2O and H3O2− also start to appear at 3303 and 3558 cm−1, respectively, at a lower pressure of 0.3 GPa, but the original sharp OH-stretching peaks of antigorite at 3668 and 3699 cm−1 almost completely vanish as the central pressure reaches 3.0 GPa, with the largest pressure gradient at around 4.8 GPa. The comparison between the two experiments shows that antigorite is easier to dehydrate in the chamber of a Kapton plastic gasket with a larger gradient of shear stress. However, its axial compression stress is lower. The high-pressure Raman spectra of MgO2(OH)4 octahedron and SiO4 tetrahedron in the low wavenumber zones (100–1200 cm−1) combined with the micro-beam X-ray diffraction spectrum of the recovered product strongly support the structural breakdown of antigorite. This investigation reveals that the water-bearing silicate minerals have strong shear dehydration in the cold subduction zone of the plate, which has important applications in predicting the physical and chemical properties of subduction zones and deducing the rate of plate subduction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water in Mantle Minerals)
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