Grain Boundary Structurally-Bonded Water in Olivine Aggregates

Water storage capacity of nominally anhydrous olivine has been extensively investigated because of its numerous geophysical and geochemical implications for the Earth's dynamic mantle. However, all previous experimental research has been concentrated on the water solubility in single crystals of olivine. Grain boundary as potential storage sites for water in the mantle has not been experimentally studied, in part because solubility experiments were always performed under water-saturated condition, rendering the examination of grain boundaries nearly impossible due to the presence of free water. In the present study we have conducted annealing experiments on forsterite at 5 - 6 GPa and 1200 °C and at water- undersaturated condition. Duration was typically 2 - 3 hours. A small amount of enstatite or periclase was added to the starting forsterite powder (including a few large olivine grains) to buffer the silica activity, while oxygen fugacity was controlled by using various capsule materials (Re, Fe, or BN). FTIR analyses were performed on both single crystal and polycrystalline olivine in doubly-polished thin section of each experimental charge. The results are as follows: (1) single crystal and polycrystalline olivine in the same charge always yielded similar IR pattern, indicating all absorption peaks are due to similar structurally-bonded water (i.e., hydroxyl); (2) water content of periclase-buffered (i.e., low silica activity) sample is at least one order of magnitude higher than those of enstatite-buffered and unbuffered (pure forsterite) samples; (3) under reducing environment (Fe or BN capsule), water content of polycrystalline olivine is always higher than that of single crystal by at lease a factor of 5, regardless of silica activity buffering. We therefore infer that large amount of structurally-bonded water is stored at grain boundaries; (4) with decreasing oxygen fugacity, IR spectra of olivine are increasingly dominated by an absorption peak centered around 3600 cm-1, indicating a gradual change in dominant water incorporation mechanism in olivine. These results strongly suggest that grain boundaries could be significant storage sites for water in the Earth's mantle, especially at locations where oxygen fugacity and silica activity are low.