Trace amounts of hydrogen dissolved as defects in nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs) in the mantle are believed to play a key role in physical and chemical processes in the Earth’s upper mantle. Hence the estimation of water storage in mantle phases and solubility mechanisms are important in order to better understand the effect of water. Experimental data on water solubility in NAMs are available for upper mantle minerals such as olivine, pyroxenes and garnet. However, the majority of studies are based on single phases, and at temperatures or pressures that are too low for the Earth’s upper mantle. The aim of this study was to constrain the combined effects of pressure, temperature and composition on water solubility in olivine and pyroxene under upper mantle conditions. The solubility of water in coexisting pyroxene and olivine was investigated by simultaneously synthesising the two phases at high pressure and high temperature in a multi-anvil press. Experiments were performed under water-saturated conditions in the MSH systems with Fe and Al at 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 9 GPa and temperatures between 1175 and 1400°C. Integrated OH absorbances were determined using polarized infrared spectroscopy on doubly-polished thin sections of randomly-oriented crystals. Al is incorporated in pyroxene and olivine via the Tschermak substitution and decreases rapidly as pressure increases in both phases. Addition of Al3+ into the system enhances water solubility notably in pyroxene and also in olivine. However, this effect tends to vanish as pressure and temperature increase. Under these conditions, water solubility in both phases is controlled by water activity in the fluid due to dissolution of silicate component. The main mechanism responsible for water incorporation in olivine is 2H+ substituting for metal sites, which indicates that water solubility in olivine is directly proportional to water fugacity. Water partitioning between pyroxene and olivine is always lower than unity except at low pressure and temperature, in which case Al favours water incorporation into pyroxene rather than into olivine. In the conditions of the deep convective mantle, water preferentially goes into olivine. The effect of temperature on water partitioning between the two phases is negligible. The newly collected data allowed the construction of a water storage capacity model in olivine at all pressures and temperatures in the MFASH system. Combining this model with the newly measured partitioning of water between olivine and pyroxene, as well as previous data on solubility in clinopyroxene and garnet, we are able to build a model of the water saturation curve in the upper mantle. This model predicts that the low velocity layer reported by seismic observations at a depth of 350 km depth can be explained by partial melting triggered by the rise of a hydrated mantle-transition-zone material containing 750 wt ppm H2O.
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