Hydrous mantle transition zone indicated by ringwoodite included within diamond

The ultimate origin of water in the Earth's hydrosphere is in the deep Earth-the mantle. Theory(1) and experiments(2-4) have shown that although the water storage capacity of olivine-dominated shallow mantle is limited, the Earth's transition zone, at depths between 410 and 660 kilometres, could be a major repository for water, owing to the ability of the higher-pressure polymorphs of olivine-wadsleyite and ringwoodite-to host enough water to comprise up to around 2.5 per cent of their weight. A hydrous transition zone may have a key role in terrestrial magmatism and plate tectonics(5-7), yet despite experimental demonstration of the water-bearing capacity of these phases, geophysical probes such as electrical conductivity have provided conflicting results(8-10), and the issue of whether the transition zone contains abundant water remains highly controversial(11). Here we report X-ray diffraction, Raman and infrared spectroscopic data that provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence for the terrestrial occurrence of any higher-pressure polymorph of olivine: we find ringwoodite included in a diamond from Juina, Brazil. The water-rich nature of this inclusion, indicated by infrared absorption, along with the preservation of the ringwoodite, is direct evidence that, at least locally, the transition zone is hydrous, to about 1 weight per cent. The finding also indicates that some kimberlites must have their primary sources in this deep mantle region.