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Possible presence of high-pressure ice in cold subducting slabs

Nature volume 408, pages 844–847 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

During the subduction of oceanic lithosphere, water is liberated from minerals by progressive dehydration reactions1,2 and is thought to be critical to several geologically important processes such as island-arc volcanism3, intermediate-depth seismicity4 and chemical exchange between the subducting lithosphere and mantle5. Although dehydration reactions would yield supercritical fluid water in most slabs, we report here that the stable phase of H2O should be solid ice VII in portions of the coldest slabs. The formation of ice VII as a dehydration product would affect the generation, storage, transport and release of water in cold subduction zones and equilibrium conditions of dehydration would shift, potentially affecting the depths of seismogenesis and magmagenesis. Large amounts of pure ice VII might accumulate during subduction and, as a sinking slab warms, eventual melting of the ice would release large amounts of water in a small region over a short period of time, with a significant positive volume change. Moreover, the decreasing availability of fluid water, owing to the accumulation of ice VII and its subsequent reaction products in a cooling planetary interior (for example, in Mars or the future Earth), might eventually lead to a decline in tectonic activity or its complete cessation.

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Figure 1: The melting curve of ice VII.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Hemley and J. Longhi for helpful comments. C.R.B. acknowledges the support of the US National Science Foundation and of the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo. A.N. acknowledges the support of the Center for High-Pressure Research, an NSF Science and Technology Center, and of the Kreeger-Wolf Endowment at Northwestern University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, 60208, Illinois, USA

    Craig R. Bina

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Thermochemistry Facility, University of California at Davis, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    Alexandra Navrotsky

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Correspondence to Craig R. Bina.

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Bina, C., Navrotsky, A. Possible presence of high-pressure ice in cold subducting slabs. Nature 408, 844–847 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35048555

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