Water pumping in mantle shear zones

Jacques Précigout (1, 2) , Cécile Prigent (3) , Laurie Palasse (4) , Anthony Pochon (5)

1 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans - UMR7327
2 Géodynamique - UMR7327
3 ISTerre - Institut des Sciences de la Terre
4 Bruker Nano Analytics
5 GR - Géosciences Rennes

Water plays an important role in geological processes. Providing constraints on what may influence the distribution of aqueous fluids is thus crucial to understanding how water impacts Earth's geodynamics. Here we demonstrate that ductile flow exerts a dynamic control on water-rich fluid circulation in mantle shear zones. Based on amphibole distribution and using dislocation slip-systems as a proxy for syn-tectonic water content in olivine, we highlight fluid accumulation around fine-grained layers dominated by grain-size-sensitive creep. This fluid aggregation correlates with dislocation creep-accommodated strain that localizes in water-rich layers. We also give evidence of cracking induced by fluid pressure where the highest amount of water is expected. These results emphasize long-term fluid pumping attributed to creep cavitation and associated phase nucleation during grain size reduction. Considering the ubiquitous process of grain size reduction during strain localization, our findings shed light on multiple fluid reservoirs in the crust and mantle.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Jacques Précigout, Cécile Prigent, Laurie Palasse, Anthony Pochon. Water pumping in mantle shear zones. Nature Communications, 2017, 8 (1), pp.Art. n°15736. ⟨10.1038/ncomms15736⟩. ⟨insu-01535741⟩