Effect of oxygen fugacity on the storage of water in wadsleyite and olivine in H and H–C fluids and implications for melting atop the transition zone

Abstract

This study aims to experimentally constrain the water storage capacities of olivine and wadsleyite at a depth near 410 km (12–14 GPa) under water-saturated conditions, as a function of temperature, oxygen fugacity, and the presence of carbon (molar H / C of 2). Experiments have been conducted in the multi-anvil press, with sealed double capsules to preserve fluids, at 1200 to 1400 ∘C and three different oxygen fugacities fixed at the rhenium–rhenium oxide buffer (RRO), nickel–nickel oxide buffer (NNO), and iron-wüstite (IW) for oxidizing, intermediate, and reducing conditions, respectively. The water contents of minerals were measured by Raman spectroscopy that allows a very small beam size to be used and were cross-checked on a few samples with NanoSIMS analyses. We observe an effect, although slight, of fO2 on the water storage capacity of both wadsleyite and olivine and also on their solidus temperatures. At 1200 ∘C, the storage capacity of the nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMS) increases with increasing oxygen fugacity (from the IW to the RRO buffer) from 1 wt % to 1.5 wt % H2O in wadsleyite and from 0.1 wt % to 0.2 wt % in olivine, owing to the increase in H2O / H2 speciation in the fluid, whereas at 1400 ∘C the storage capacity decreases from 1 wt % to 0.75 wt % H2O in wadsleyite and down to 0.03 wt % for olivine. At high temperature, the water storage capacity is lowered due to melting, and the more oxidized the conditions are the more the solidus is depressed. Still, at 1400 ∘C and IW, wadsleyite can store substantial amounts of water: 0.8 wt % to 1 wt % H2O. The effect of carbon is to decrease water storage capacity in both wadsleyite and olivine by an average factor 2 at 1300–1400 ∘C. The trends in water storage as a function of fO2 and C presence are confirmed by NanoSIMS measurements. The solidus at IW without C is located between 1300 and 1400 ∘C in the wadsleyite stability field and drops to temperatures below 1300 ∘C in the olivine stability field. With the addition of C, the solidus is found between 1200 and 1300 ∘C in both olivine and wadsleyite stability fields.