Water-induced buoyancy controls transient water storage in the mantle transition zone

TL;DR

This study uses numerical models to show that water in the mantle transition zone can induce buoyancy-driven upwellings and melting, acting as a transient water reservoir influencing Earth's surface ocean stability.

Contribution

It introduces a new empirical model and numerical simulations demonstrating water-induced buoyancy effects and melting processes in the mantle transition zone.

Findings

Water-induced buoyancy triggers mantle upwellings.

Water release during phase transitions can cause melting.

The MTZ acts as a transient water reservoir for 80-430 million years.

Abstract

The spinel phase (wadsleyite, ringwoodite) in the mantle transition zone (MTZ), can contain up to 1-2 weight percent of water. However, whether these water reservoirs in the MTZ are filled is debated. Here, we investigate water dynamics in the MTZ numerically by using a newly developed empirical model of deep hydrous mantle melting combined with 2D thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) upper mantle models. Numerical modeling results suggest that water-induced buoyancy triggers the development of hydrous solid-state mantle upwellings in the MTZ. On time scales of some tens of millions of years, they rise to and interact with the spinel-olivine phase transition. Depending on the water content and temperature of these thermal-chemical plumes, this crossing may trigger hydrous melting by water release from the wadsleyite upon its conversion to olivine. The melts are less dense than the solid matrix and continue rising upward in the form of either diapirs or porosity waives. Similar dehydration-induced melting process3 is also documented for the lower MTZ boundary, where hydrous downwellings (such as subducted slabs) generate buoyant melt diapirs rising through the MTZ. We therefore suggest that the MTZ operates as a transient water reservoir. Relatively small amounts of water (less than 0.1 weight percent, smaller than 0.2 ocean masses) and a geologically moderate duration (80-430 Myr) of the transient water storage should be characteristic for the MTZ, which may play a key role in stabilizing the surface ocean mass on Earth and Earth-like rocky exoplanets.