Abstract
Seismic shear wave anisotropy1,2,3,4,5,6 is observed in Earth’s uppermost lower mantle around several subducted slabs. The anisotropy caused by the deformation-induced crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) of bridgmanite (perovskite-structured (Mg,Fe)SiO3) is the most plausible explanation for these seismic observations. However, the rheological properties of bridgmanite are largely unknown. Uniaxial deformation experiments7,8,9 have been carried out to determine the deformation texture of bridgmanite, but the dominant slip system (the slip direction and plane) has not been determined. Here we report the CPO pattern and dominant slip system of bridgmanite under conditions that correspond to the uppermost lower mantle (25 gigapascals and 1,873 kelvin) obtained through simple shear deformation experiments using the Kawai-type deformation-DIA apparatus10. The fabrics obtained are characterized by [100] perpendicular to the shear plane and [001] parallel to the shear direction, implying that the dominant slip system of bridgmanite is [001](100). The observed seismic shear- wave anisotropies near several subducted slabs1,2,3,4 (Tonga–Kermadec, Kurile, Peru and Java) can be explained in terms of the CPO of bridgmanite as induced by mantle flow parallel to the direction of subduction.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Wookey, J., Kendall, J.-M. & Barruol, G. Mid-mantle deformation inferred from seismic anisotropy. Nature 415, 777–780 (2002)
Wookey, J. & Kendall, J.-M. Evidence of midmantle anisotropy from shear wave splitting and the influence of shear-coupled P wave. J. Geophys. Res. 109, B07309 (2004)
Nowacki, A., Kendall, J. M., Wookey, J. & Pemberton, A. Mid-mantle anisotropy in subduction zones and deep water transport. Geochem. Geophys. Geosys. 16, 764–784 (2015)
Foley, B. J. & Long, M. D. Upper and mid-mantle anisotropy beneath the Tonga slab. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L02303 (2011)
Lynner, C. & Long, M. D. Sub-slab anisotropy beneath the Sumatra and circum-Pacific subduction zones from source-side shear wave splitting observations. Geochem. Geophys. Geosys. 15, 2262–2281 (2014)
Heintz, M. Midmantle deformation between the Australian continent and the Fiji–Tonga subduction zone? J. Geophys Res. 111, B09303 (2006)
Merkel, S. et al. Deformation of (Mg0.9,Fe0.1)SiO3 perovskite aggregates up to 32 GPa. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 209, 351–360 (2003)
Cordier, P., Ungár, T., Zsoldos, L. & Tichy, G. Dislocation creep in MgSiO3 perovskite at conditions of the Earth’s uppermost lower mantle. Nature 428, 837–840 (2004)
Wenk, H.-R. et al. Deformation textures produced in diamond anvil experiments, analysed in radial diffraction geometry. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 18, S933–S947 (2006)
Tsujino, N. Experimental Study on Rheology of the Earth's Lower Mantle. PhD thesis, Tokyo Institute of Technology, (2012)
Fukao, Y. & Obayashi, M. Subducted slabs stagnant above, penetrating through, and trapped below the 660 km discontinuity. J. Geophys. Res. 118, 5920–5938 (2013)
van der Hilst, R. D., Widiyantoro, R. D. S. & Engdahl, E. R. E. Evidence for deep mantle circulation from global tomography. Nature 386, 578–584 (1997)
Zhao, D. Global tomographic images of mantle plumes and subducting slabs: insight into deep Earth dynamics. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 146, 3–34 (2004)
Hirose, K. Phase transitions in pyrolitic mantle around 670-km depth: implications for upwelling of plumes from the lower mantle. J. Geophys. Res. 107(B4), 2078 (2002)
Yamazaki, D. & Karato, S. Fabric development in (Mg,Fe)O during large strain, shear deformation: implications for seismic anisotropy in Earth’s lower mantle. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 131, 251–267 (2002)
Karki, B. B. & Crain, J. First-principles determination of elastic properties of CaSiO3 perovskite at lower mantle pressures. Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 2741–2744 (1998)
Wenk, H.-R., Speziale, S., MacNamara, A. K. & Garnero, E. J. Modeling lower mantle anisotropy development in a subducting slab. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 245, 302–314 (2006)
Mainprice, D., Tommasi, A., Ferré, D., Carres, P. & Cordier, P. Predicted glide systems and crystal preferred orientations of polycrystalline silicate Mg-Perovskite at high pressure: implications for the seismic anisotropy in the lower mantle. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 271, 135–144 (2008)
Wentzcovitch, R. M., Karki, B. B., Cococcioni, M. & de Gironcoli, S. Thermoelastic properties of MgSiO3-perovskite: insights on the nature of the Earth’s lower mantle. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 018501 (2004)
Oganov, A. R., Brodholt, J. P. & Price, G. D. The elastic constants of MgSiO3 perovskite at pressures and temperatures of the Earth’s mantle. Nature 411, 934–937 (2001)
Seto, Y. Whole pattern fitting for two-dimensional diffraction patterns from polycrystalline materials. Rev. High Press. Sci. Technol. 22, 144–152 (2012)
Miyagi, L. & Wenk, H.-R. Texture development and slip systems in bridgmanite and bridgmanite + ferropericlase aggregates. Phys. Chem. Miner. 43, 597–613 (2016)
Ferré, D., Carrez, P. & Cordier, P. First principles determination of dislocations properties of MgSiO3 perovskite at 30 GPa based on the Peierls–Nabarro model. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 163, 283–291 (2007)
Chen, J., Inoue, T., Weidner, D. J., Wu, Y. & Vaughan, M. T. Strength and water weakening of mantle minerals olivine, wadsleyite and ringwoodite. Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 575–578 (1998)
Nishihara, Y. et al. Stress relaxation experiments of olivine under conditions of subducted slab in Earth’s deep upper mantle. Phys. Earth Planet. In. 183, 164–174 (2010)
Jung, H. & Karato, S. Water-induced fabric transitions in olivine. Science 293, 1460–1463 (2001)
Besson, P., Poirier, J. P. & Price, G. D. Dislocations in CaTiO3 perovskite deformed at high-temperature: a transmission electron microscopy study. Phys. Chem. Miner. 23, 337–344 (1996)
Forte, M. A. & Mitrovica, J. X. Deep-mantle high-viscosity flow and thermochemical structure inferred from seismic and geodynamic data. Nature 410, 1049–1056 (2001)
Morra, G. et al. The fate of the slabs interacting with a density/viscosity hill in the mid-mantle. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 180, 271–282 (2010)
Marquardt, H. & Miyagi, L. Slab stagnation in the shallow lower mantle linked to an increase in mantle viscosity. Nat. Geosci. 8, 311–314 (2015)
Yamazaki, D., Yoshino, T. & Nakakuki, T. Interconnection of ferro-periclase controls subducted slab morphology at the top of the lower mantle. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 403, 352–357 (2014)
Mainprice, D. A FORTRAN program to calculate seismic anisotropy from the lattice preferred orientation of minerals. Comput. Geosci. 16, 385–393 (1990)
Yoshino, T., Yamazaki, D., Ito, E. & Katsura, T. No interconnection of ferro-periclase in post-spinel phase inferred from conductivity measurement. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L22303 (2008)
Rubie, D. C., Karato, S., Yan, H. & O’Neill, H. St. C. Low differential stress and controlled chemical environment in multianvil high-pressure experiments. Phys. Chem. Miner. 20, 315–322 (1993)
Nishihara, Y. Recent technical developments of high-pressure deformation experiments. Rev. High Press. Sci. Technol. 18, 223–229 (2008)
Morishima, H. et al. The phase boundary between α- and β-Mg2SiO4 determined by in situ X-ray observation. Science 265, 1202–1203 (1994)
Inoue, T. et al. The phase boundary between wadsleyite and ringwoodite in Mg2SiO4 determined by in situ X-ray diffraction. Phys. Chem Miner. 33, 106–114 (2006)
Fei, Y. et al. A critical evaluation of pressure scale at high temperatures by in situ X-ray diffraction measurements. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 143-144, 515–526 (2004)
Bolfan-Casanova, N., Keppler, H. & Rubie, D. C. Water partitioning between nominally anhydrous minerals in the MgO–SiO2–H2O system up to 24 GPa: implications for the distribution of water in the Earth’s mantle. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 182, 209–221 (2000)
Nishihara, Y. et al. Stress measurement under high-pressure using Kawai-type multi-anvil apparatus combined with synchrotron radiation. J. Synchrotron Radiat. 16, 757–761 (2009)
Ohuchi, T. et al. In situ observation of crystallographic preferred orientation of deforming olivine at high pressure and high temperature. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 243, 1–21 (2015)
Niwa, K. et al. In situ observation of shear stress-induced perovskite to post-perovskite phase transition in CaIrO3 and the development of its deformation texture in a diamond-anvil cell up to 30 GPa. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 194–195, 10–17 (2012)
Acknowledgements
We thank E. Ito and S. Karato for help preparing the manuscript and Takahashi Laboratory and HACTO group members for help collecting the two-dimensional diffraction data. We also thank T. Ohuchi and D. Mainprice for the codes used to calculate the seismic anisotropy of bridgmanite. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 15J09669 to N.T. and 25247088. and 21109001 to E.T. The two-dimensional diffraction measurements for analysis of CPO were carried out on the BL04B1 beamline at SPring-8 under the approval with JASRI (proposal numbers 2012B1437, 2013B1434, 2014A1431, 2014B1400, 2015A1600 and 2015B1504).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
N.T. planned and performed the deformation experiments (with help from Y.N., D.Y. and E.T.). N.T. and D.Y. collected two-dimensional diffraction patterns (with help from Y.H.). N.T. analysed the crystal orientation distribution of the bridgmanite aggregate (with help from Y.S.). N.T., D.Y. and Y.N. wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Figure 1 Schematic cross-sections of cell assemblies.
a, Shear deformation experiments. b, Temperature calibration experiment.
Extended Data Figure 2 The temperature and power relationship at 25 GPa using the cell assembly for the temperature calibration experiments.
The results for the two runs are shown by black and red lines.
Extended Data Figure 3 Loads and strokes of the differential rams during the deformation experiment (run K122) are shown as functions of elapsed time.
The lines for the stroke of the top and bottom rams almost overlap. The sample was deformed by advancement of both the top and bottom differential rams linearly with time. During deformation, the loads of differential rams also increased linearly.
Extended Data Figure 4 Schematic of the two-dimensional X-ray diffraction measurement set-up.
For these measurements the direct beam stopper arm was located at the right side when the assembly is viewed from the front.
Extended Data Figure 5 X-ray diffraction pattern of deformed bridgmanite.
a, Two-dimensional X-ray diffraction pattern where ϕ is the azimuthal angle. b, one-dimensional X-ray diffraction pattern of the deformed bridgmanite (K122). In a the two-dimensional X-ray diffraction pattern at the imaging plate is taken from the back surface of the sample, which is opposite to the polished plane. The position of the direct beam stopper arm is thus on the left. The diffraction peaks of the (111), (020), (120), (210), (022), (202), (113), (122), (212), (023) and (221) planes were used in the analysis of the CPO patterns. Brg, bridgmanite.
Extended Data Figure 6 Normalized intensities of diffraction peaks of the deformed bridgmanite.
Each diffraction peak intensity was normalized by its average value. a–k, Diffraction peaks for the (111) (a), (020) (b), (120) (c), (210) (d), (022) (e), (202) (f), (113) (g), (122) (h), (212) (i), (023) (j) and (221) (k) planes.
Extended Data Figure 7 Pole figures of bridgmanite showing the variation of the CPO of the [200], [020] and [002] directions determined using MAUD.
mrd, multiples of a random distribution.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tsujino, N., Nishihara, Y., Yamazaki, D. et al. Mantle dynamics inferred from the crystallographic preferred orientation of bridgmanite. Nature 539, 81–84 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19777
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19777
This article is cited by
-
Small-Scale Heterogeneity and Seismic Anisotropy in the Mid-Mantle: Oceanic Crust versus Meta-Stable Olivine
Journal of Earth Science (2022)
-
Large-scale variation in seismic anisotropy in the crust and upper mantle beneath Anatolia, Turkey
Communications Earth & Environment (2021)
-
Seismic evidence for subduction-induced mantle flows underneath Middle America
Nature Communications (2020)
-
Ubiquitous lower-mantle anisotropy beneath subduction zones
Nature Geoscience (2019)
-
The role of diffusion-driven pure climb creep on the rheology of bridgmanite under lower mantle conditions
Scientific Reports (2019)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.