Toward Obtaining the Experimental Constraints on the Role of Water on Melting Under the Lower Mantle Conditions

Water and other volatile components (such as carbon dioxide) are known to have important influence on the melting behavior of silicates. The role of these components on the melting under the upper mantle conditions is now reasonably well understood. Recent experimental studies in our lab as well as some of the previous studies do show that water has an important influence on the melting relationship under the lower mantle conditions. The influence of water is not only to reduce the solidus but also to change the composition of the melt to (Mg,Fe)O rich. Quantifying these observations is essential in the understanding of chemical evolution of Earth and other planets. However, there are several challenges in performing these experimental studies. In this presentation, we discuss the issue of quantifying the water effects with special attention to the capability of preserving water content during the high pressure-temperature experiments. The issue of the preservation of water is important firstly because water could escape from a capsule during an experiment, and secondly because the melt is unquenchable in a commonly used processes under the lower mantle conditions. A commonly used practice is to identify the deficit of EPMA measurement from 100% to the water content, but there is no sound basis for this practice. In this presentation, we will show some preliminary results of our new approach to quantify the water content from the high-pressure run products containing melts.