Systematic study of hydrogen incorporation into Fe-free wadsleyite

Abstract

The H2O content of wadsleyite were measured in a wide pressure (13–20 GPa) and temperature range (1,200–1,900°C) using FTIR method. We confirmed significant decrease of the H2O content of wadsleyite with increasing temperature and reported first systematic data for temperature interval of 1,400–1,900°C. Wadsleyite contains 0.37–0.55 wt% H2O at 1,600°C, which may be close to its water storage capacity along average mantle geotherm in the transition zone. Accordingly, water storage capacity of the average mantle in the transition zone may be estimated as 0.2–0.3 wt% H2O. The H2O contents of wadsleyite at 1,800–1,900°C are 0.22–0.39 wt%, indicating that it can store significant amount of water even under the hot mantle environments. Temperature dependence of the H2O content of wadsleyite can be described by exponential equation $$ C_{{{\text{H}}_{2} {\text{O}}}} = 6 3 7.0 7 {\text{e}}^{ - 0.00 4 8T} , $$ where T is in °C. This equation is valid for temperature range 1,200–2,100°C with the coefficient of determination R 2 = 0.954. Temperature dependence of H2O partition coefficient between wadsleyite and forsterite (D wd/fo) is complex. According to our data apparent Dwd/fo decreases with increasing temperature from D wd/fo = 4–5 at 1,200°C, reaches a minimum of D wd/fo = 2.0 at 1,400–1,500°C, and then again increases to D wd/fo = 4–6 at 1,700–1,900°C.