Redox-Induced Destabilization of Dolomite at Earth’s Mantle Transition Zone

Abstract

Carbonates are considered to be important hosts of oxidized carbon during subduction processes. Here we investigate the redox interactions between dolomite and metallic iron in laser-heated diamond anvil cells up to ∼20 GPa. The identification of recovered samples via in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and ex-situ Raman spectroscopy shows that the reaction occurs with the formation of ferropericlase, graphite and hexagonal diamond, while CaCO₃ remains stable. The experimental results indicate dolomite and metallic iron phases cannot coexist and demonstrate a possible formation mechanism of ultradeep diamonds via redox reaction between dolomite and iron under the mantle transition zone conditions. The results are significant for understanding carbon transportation during subduction processes and have further implications to the processes in the more complex systems regarding to carbonate-silicate-metal phase relations.

Keywords

deep carbon cycle / carbonates / interaction / dolomite / high pressure

References

[1] Ballhaus C. Is the Upper Mantle Metal-Saturated?. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 1995, 132(1/2/3/4): 75-86.

[2] Bayarjargal L, Fruhner C J, Schrodt N, . CaCO₃ Phase Diagram Studied with Raman Spectroscopy at Pressures up to 50 GPa and High Temperatures and DFT Modeling. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 2018, 281: 31-45.

[3] Brenker F E, Vollmer C, Vincze L, . Carbonates from the Lower Part of Transition Zone or even the Lower Mantle. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2007, 260(1/2): 1-9.

[4] Bureau H, Frost D J, Bolfan-Casanova N, . Diamond Growth in Mantle Fluids. Lithos, 2016, 265: 4-15.

[5] Chen M, Shu J F, Xie X D, . Natural Diamond Formation by Self-Redox of Ferromagnesian Carbonate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018, 115(11): 2676-2680.

[6] Dasgupta R, Hirschmann M M. Melting in the Earth’s Deep Upper Mantle Caused by Carbon Dioxide. Nature, 2006, 440(7084): 659-662.

[7] Dasgupta R, Hirschmann M M. The Deep Carbon Cycle and Melting in Earth’s Interior. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2010, 298(1/2): 1-13.

[8] Dorfman S M, Badro J, Nabiei F, . Carbonate Stability in the Reduced Lower Mantle. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2018, 489: 84-91.

[9] Drewitt J W E, Walter M J, Zhang H L, . The Fate of Carbonate in Oceanic Crust Subducted into Earth’s Lower Mantle. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2019, 511: 213-222.

[10] Dubrovinsky L, Glazyrin K, McCammon C, . Portable Laser-Heating System for Diamond Anvil Cells. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 2009, 16(6): 737-741.

[11] Farsang S, Facq S, Redfern S A T. Raman Modes of Carbonate Minerals as Pressure and Temperature Gauges up to 6 GPa and 500. American Mineralogist, 2018, 103(12): 1988-1998

[12] Fei Y W, Zhang L, Corgne A, . Spin Transition and Equations of State of (Mg, Fe)O Solid Solutions. Geophysical Research Letters, 2007, 34(17): L17307

[13] Fiquet G, Guyot F, Kunz M, . Structural Refinements of Magnesite at very High Pressure. American Mineralogist, 2002, 87 8/9 1261-1265.

[14] Gao J, Niu J J, Qin S, . Ultradeep Diamonds Originate from Deep Subducted Sedimentary Carbonates. Science China Earth Sciences, 2017, 60(2): 207-217.

[15] Hammersley A P, Svensson S O, Hanfland M, . Two-Dimensional Detector Software: From Real Detector to Idealised Image or Two-Theta Scan. High Pressure Research, 1996, 14(4/5/6): 235-248.

[16] Jephcoat A P, Finger L W, Cox D E. High Pressure, High Resolution Synchrotron X-Ray Powder Diffraction with a Position-Sensitive Detector. High Pressure Research, 1992, 8(5/6): 667-676.

[17] Kaminsky F, Matzel J, Jacobsen B, . Isotopic Fractionation of Oxygen and Carbon in Decomposed Lower-Mantle Inclusions in Diamond. Mineralogy and Petrology, 2016, 110(2/3): 379-385.

[18] Kaminsky F, Wirth R, Matsyuk S, . Nyerereite and Nahcolite Inclusions in Diamond: Evidence for Lower-Mantle Carbonatitic Magmas. Mineralogical Magazine, 2009, 73(5): 797-816.

[19] Li X Y, Zhang Z G, Lin J F, . New High-Pressure Phase of CaCO₃ at the Topmost Lower Mantle: Implication for the Deep-Mantle Carbon Transportation. Geophysical Research Letters, 2018, 45(3): 1355-1360.

[20] Litvin Y A, Spivak A V, Dubrovinsky L S. Magmatic Evolution of the Material of the Earth’s Lower Mantle: Stishovite Paradox and Origin of Superdeep Diamonds (Experiments at 24–26 GPa). Geochemistry International, 2016, 54(11): 936-947.

[21] Liu J, Dubrovinsky L, Boffa Ballaran T, . Equation of State and Thermal Expansivity of LiF and NaF. High Pressure Research, 2007, 27(4): 483-489.

[22] Maeda F, Ohtani E, Kamada S, . Diamond Formation in the Deep Lower Mantle: A High-Pressure Reaction of MgCO₃ and SiO₂. Scientific Reports, 2017, 7: 40602

[23] Mao H K, Bassett W A, Takahashi T. Effect of Pressure on Crystal Structure and Lattice Parameters of Iron up to 300 kbar. Journal of Applied Physics, 1967, 38(1): 272-276.

[24] Mao Z, Armentrout M, Rainey E, . Dolomite: A New Candidate Lower Mantle Carbonate. Geophysical Research Letters, 2011, 38(22): L22303

[25] Mao Z, Lin J F, Liu J, . Thermal Equation of State of Lower-Mantle Ferropericlase across the Spin Crossover. Geophysical Research Letters, 2011, 38 23 L23308

[26] Martinez I, Zhang J, Reeder R J. In situ X-Ray Diffraction of Aragonite and Dolomite at High Pressure and High Temperature: Evidence for Dolomite Breakdown to Aragonite and Magnesite. American Mineralogist, 1996, 81 5/6 611-624.

[27] Martirosyan N S, Litasov K D, Lobanov S S, . The Mg-Carbonate-Fe Interaction: Implication for the Fate of Subducted Carbonates and Formation of Diamond in the Lower Mantle. Geoscience Frontiers, 2019, 10(4): 1449-1458.

[28] Martirosyan N S, Shatskiy A, Chanyshev A D, . Effect of Water on the Magnesite-Iron Interaction, with Implications for the Fate of Carbonates in the Deep Mantle. Lithos, 2019, 326/327 435-445.

[29] Martirosyan N S, Litasov K D, Shatskiy A F, . Reactions of Iron with Calcium Carbonate at 6 GPa and 1 273–1 873 K: Implications for Carbonate Reduction in the Deep Mantle. Russian Geology and Geophysics, 2015, 56(9): 1322-1331.

[30] Martirosyan N S, Litasov K D, Shatskiy A, . The Reactions between Iron and Magnesite at 6 GPa and 1 273–1 873 K: Implication to Reduction of Subducted Carbonate in the Deep Mantle. Journal of Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences, 2015, 110(2): 49-59.

[31] Martirosyan N S, Yoshino T, Shatskiy A, . The CaCO₃-Fe Interaction: Kinetic Approach for Carbonate Subduction to the Deep Earth’s Mantle. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 2016, 259: 1-9.

[32] Merlini M, Cerantola V, Gatta G D, . Dolomite-IV: Candidate Structure for a Carbonate in the Earth’s Lower Mantle. American Mineralogist, 2017, 102(8): 1763-1766.

[33] Merlini M, Crichton W A, Hanfland M, . Structures of Dolomite at Ultrahigh Pressure and Their Influence on the Deep Carbon Cycle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012, 109(34): 13509-13514.

[34] Németh P, Garvie L A J, Aoki T, . Lonsdaleite is Faulted and Twinned Cubic Diamond and does not Exist as a Discrete Material. Nature Communications, 2014, 5 5447

[35] Nestola F, Korolev N, Kopylova M, . CaSiO₃ Perovskite in Diamond Indicates the Recycling of Oceanic Crust into the Lower Mantle. Nature, 2018, 555(7695): 237-241.

[36] Oganov A R, Hemley R J, Hazen R M, . Structure, Bonding, and Mineralogy of Carbon at Extreme Conditions. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 2013, 75(1): 47-77.

[37] Palyanov Y N, Bataleva Y V, Sokol A G, . Mantle-Slab Interaction and Redox Mechanism of Diamond Formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013, 110(51): 20408-20413.

[38] Patterson J R, Kudryavtsev A, Vohra Y K. X-Ray Diffraction and Nanoindentation Studies of Nanocrystalline Graphite at High Pressures. Applied Physics Letters, 2002, 81(11): 2073-2075.

[39] Pócsik I, Hundhausen M, Koós M, . Origin of the D Peak in the Raman Spectrum of Microcrystalline Graphite. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 1998, 227–230(2): 1083-1086.

[40] Reich S, Thomsen C. Raman Spectroscopy of Graphite. Philosophical Transactions Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, 2004, 362(1824): 2271-2288.

[41] Rohrbach A, Ballhaus C, Golla-Schindler U, . Metal Saturation in the Upper Mantle. Nature, 2007, 449(7161): 456-458.

[42] Rohrbach A, Schmidt M W. Redox Freezing and Melting in the Earth’s Deep Mantle Resulting from Carbon-Iron Redox Coupling. Nature, 2011, 472(7342): 209-212.

[43] Santillán J, Williams Q, Knittle E. Dolomite-: A High-Pressure Polymorph of CaMg(CO₃)₂. Geophysical Research Letters, 2003, 30(2): 1054

[44] Sato K, Katsura T. Experimental Investigation on Dolomite Dissociation into Aragonite+Magnesite up to 8.5 GPa. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2001, 184 2 529-534.

[45] Schindler T L, Vohra Y K. A Micro-Raman Investigation of High-Pressure Quenched Graphite. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 1995, 7(47): L637-L642

[46] Smith D C, Godard G. UV and VIS Raman Spectra of Natural Lonsdaleites: Towards a Recognised Standard. Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 2009, 73(3): 428-435.

[47] Stagno V, Frost D J, McCammon C A, . The Oxygen Fugacity at which Graphite or Diamond Forms from Carbonate-Bearing Melts in Eclogitic Rocks. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 2015, 169(2): 1-18.

[48] Sung J. Graphite →Diamond Transition under High Pressure: AKinetics Approach. Journal of Materials Science, 2000, 35(23): 6041-6054.

[49] Thomson A R, Kohn S C, Bulanova G P, . Origin of Sub-Lithospheric Diamonds from the Juina-5 Kimberlite (Brazil): Constraints from Carbon Isotopes and Inclusion Compositions. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 2014, 168(6): 1-29.

[50] Thomson A R, Walter M J, Kohn S C, . Slab Melting as a Barrier to Deep Carbon Subduction. Nature, 2016, 529(7584): 76-79.

[51] Toby B H. EXPGUI, a Graphical User Interface for GSAS. Journal of Applied Crystallography, 2001, 34(2): 210-213.

[52] van der Hilst R D, Widiyantoro S, Engdahl E R. Evidence for Deep Mantle Circulation from Global Tomography. Nature, 1997, 386(6625): 578-584.

[53] van Westrenen W, Li J, Fei Y W, . Thermoelastic Properties of (Mg_0.64Fe_0.36)O Ferropericlase Based on in situ X-Ray Diffraction to 26.7 GPa and 2 173 K. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 2005, 151(1/2): 163-176.

[54] Walter M J, Kohn S C, Araujo D, . Deep Mantle Cycling of Oceanic Crust: Evidence from Diamonds and Their Mineral Inclusions. Science, 2011, 334(6052): 54-57.

[55] Yang J S, Shen T T, Zhang C, . Preface: Introduction of IGCP 649 Project—Diamonds and Recycled Mantle. Journal of Earth Science, 2019, 30(3): 429-430.

[56] Zhang X, Yang S Y, Zhao H, . Effect of Beam Current and Diameter on Electron Probe Microanalysis of Carbonate Minerals. Journal of Earth Science, 2019, 30(4): 834-842.

[57] Zhu F, Li J, Liu J C, . Kinetic Control on the Depth Distribution of Superdeep Diamonds. Geophysical Research Letters, 2019, 46(4): 1984-1992.