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Olivine water contents in the continental lithosphere and the longevity of cratons

Nature volume 467, pages 78–81 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Cratons, the ancient cores of continents, contain the oldest crust and mantle on the Earth (>2 Gyr old)1. They extend laterally for hundreds of kilometres, and are underlain to depths of 180–250 km by mantle roots that are chemically and physically distinct from the surrounding mantle2,3,4. Forming the thickest lithosphere on our planet, they act as rigid keels isolated from the flowing asthenosphere5; however, it has remained an open question how these large portions of the mantle can stay isolated for so long from mantle convection. Key physical properties thought to contribute to this longevity include chemical buoyancy due to high degrees of melt-depletion and the stiffness imparted by the low temperatures of a conductive thermal gradient2,6,7. Geodynamic calculations, however, suggest that these characteristics are not sufficient to prevent the lithospheric mantle from being entrained during mantle convection over billions of years6,7. Differences in water content are a potential source of additional viscosity contrast between cratonic roots and ambient mantle owing to the well-established hydrolytic weakening effect in olivine8,9,10, the most abundant mineral of the upper mantle. However, the water contents of cratonic mantle roots have to date been poorly constrained. Here we show that olivine in peridotite xenoliths from the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary region of the Kaapvaal craton mantle root are water-poor and provide sufficient viscosity contrast with underlying asthenosphere to satisfy the stability criteria required by geodynamic calculations9. Our results provide a solution to a puzzling mystery of plate tectonics, namely why the oldest continents, in contrast to short-lived oceanic plates, have resisted recycling into the interior of our tectonically dynamic planet.

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Figure 1: Water contents of olivine as a function of physical and chemical variables.
Figure 2: Calculated viscosities versus depth for olivine aggregates in dislocation creep in a cratonic geotherm environment.
Figure 3: Simplified sketch of a cross-section of the upper mantle beneath a craton with viscosity and water content variations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Kurosawa for providing unpublished mineral data so that we could recalculate pressure–temperature conditions for his samples. We also thank C.-T. Lee, Z.-X. A. Li, F. Niu and A. D. Brandon for discussions. Earlier versions of this manuscript were improved by the comments of D. E. James. This work was supported by NSF grant EAR0802652.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jacobs Technology, ESCG, Mail Code JE23, 2224 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77058, USA ,

    Anne H. Peslier

  2. Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, NASA-Johnson Space Center, Houston, 77058, Texas, USA

    Anne H. Peslier

  3. Institute of Geosciences, University of Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany ,

    Alan B. Woodland & Marina Lazarov

  4. School of Earth & Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 550 East Tyler Mall, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA ,

    David R. Bell

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  1. Anne H. Peslier
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Contributions

A.H.P. designed and coordinated the study, performed the analyses and interpreted the data. A.B.W., D.R.B. and M.L. contributed samples and supporting petrological information. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anne H. Peslier.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains, Supplementary Information comprising Sample selection, Results: FTIR spectra description, Results: H diffusion and a Discussion: water contents in mantle minerals. It also contains additional references, Supplementary Figures 1-5 with legends and a legend for Supplementary Table 1 (see separate file for table). (PDF 4373 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

This table shows the water content of olivines and selected chemical parameters of southern African mantle xenoliths (see Supplementary Information file page 13 for full legend). (XLS 43 kb)

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Peslier, A., Woodland, A., Bell, D. et al. Olivine water contents in the continental lithosphere and the longevity of cratons. Nature 467, 78–81 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09317

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