Ultrahigh-Pressure Magnesium Hydrosilicates as Reservoirs of Water in Early Earth

The origin of water on the Earth is a long-standing mystery, requiring a comprehensive search for hydrous compounds, stable at conditions of the deep Earth and made of Earth-abundant elements. Previous studies usually focused on the current range of pressure-temperature conditions in the Earth's mantle and ignored a possible difference in the past, such as the stage of the core-mantle separation. Here, using ab initio evolutionary structure prediction, we find that only two magnesium hydrosilicate phases are stable at megabar pressures, alpha-Mg2SiO5H2 and beta-Mg2SiO5H2, stable at 262-338 GPa and >338 GPa, respectively (all these pressures now lie within the Earth's iron core). Both are superionic conductors with quasi-one-dimensional proton diffusion at relevant conditions. In the first 30 million years of Earth's history, before the Earth's core was formed, these must have existed in the Earth, hosting much of Earth's water. As dense iron alloys segregated to form the Earth's core, Mg2SiO5H2 phases decomposed and released water. Thus, now-extinct Mg2SiO5H2 phases have likely contributed in a major way to the evolution of our planet.

Automated summary

The origin of water on Earth has always been a mystery. This study used ab initio calculations to discover that only two magnesium hydrosilicate compounds can remain stable under extremely high pressures, and they played a significant role in the early formation of our planet.