Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Earth science

Water may be a damp squib

Nature volume 498, pages 181–182 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Experiments on silicon diffusion in the mineral olivine cast doubt on the widely held belief that water has a significant effect on the rheological properties of Earth's upper mantle. See Letter p.213

In 1965, Griggs and Blacic demonstrated1 that wet quartz is much weaker than dry quartz, and suggested that this should also be the case for other silicates. Indeed, the authors concluded: “These observations raise the possibility of great weakness in the earth's deeper crust and outer mantle at temperatures far below the melting point.” In other words, water might control the viscosity of all rocks. Since then, experiments on other silicates have reinforced that view2, and small amounts of water bound into normally dry minerals such as olivine are now attributed with almost divine powers in shaping the way that Earth works. On page 213 of this issue, Fei and colleagues3 show that water may be much less important in controlling many large-scale processes occurring in the Earth than was previously thought.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. Griggs, D. T. & Blacic, J. D. Science 147, 292–295 (1965).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kohlstedt, D. L. Rev. Miner. Geochem. 62, 377–396 (2006).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Fei, H., Wiedenbeck, M., Yamazaki, D. & Katsura, T. Nature 498, 213–215 (2013).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Regenauer-Lieb, K., Yuen, D. A. & Branlund, J. Science 294, 578–580 (2001).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Moresi, L. & Solomatov, V. Geophys. J. Int. 133, 669–682 (1998).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Korenaga, J. J. Geophys. Res. 116, B12403 (2011).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Girard, J., Chen, J., Raterron, P. & Holyoke, C. W. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 216, 12–20 (2013).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bercovici, D. & Ricard, Y. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 202–203, 27–55 (2012).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. John Brodholt is in the Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.,

    John Brodholt

Authors
  1. John Brodholt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Brodholt.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brodholt, J. Water may be a damp squib. Nature 498, 181–182 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/498181a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/498181a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing