Abstract
Methane-bearing C-O-H fluids may be important carriers of carbon and hydrogen in the Earth's deeper mantle1,2. It has been proposed that such fluids have a key function in the genesis of kimberlitic magmas and diamond in the subcontinental mantle2–6. Because the melting behaviour of mantle peridotite in the presence of C-O-H fluids has not been accurately located as a function of pressure, temperature and oxygen fugacity1,4, it has not been possible to assess the validity of reduced fluid 'infiltration' models of this kind. We report here advances in high-pressure fluid buffering techniques that have allowed the C-O-H fluid-saturated solidus of a fertile peridotite to be determined to 35 kbar. The results show that initial melting of peridotite saturated with H2O-CH4 dominated fluids occurs at temperatures well above stable continental geotherms, even under quite H2O-rich conditions. This implies that C-O-H fluid-induced melting beneath continents will be restricted to regions where CH4 can be largely eliminated from the fluid by oxidation (redox melting) or where the geotherm is abnormally high (hot-spot melting), or where there is some combination of these processes.
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Taylor, W., Green, D. Measurement of reduced peridotite-C-O-H solidus and implications for redox melting of the mantle. Nature 332, 349–352 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/332349a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/332349a0
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