Ice-VII inclusions in diamonds: Evidence for aqueous fluid in Earth’s deep mantle

Abstract

Encapsulating Earth's deep water filter Small inclusions in diamonds brought up from the mantle provide valuable clues to the mineralogy and chemistry of parts of Earth that we cannot otherwise sample. Tschauner et al. found inclusions of the high-pressure form of water called ice-VII in diamonds sourced from between 410 and 660 km depth, the part of the mantle known as the transition zone. The transition zone is a region where the stable minerals have high water storage capacity. The inclusions suggest that local aqueous pockets form at the transition zone boundary owing to the release of chemically bound water as rock cycles in and out of this region. Science , this issue p. 1136