High-pressure highly reduced nitrides and oxides from chromitite of a Tibetan ophiolite

The deepest rocks known from within Earth are fragments of normal mantle (approximate to 400 km) and metamorphosed sediments (approximate to 350 km), both found exhumed in continental collision terranes. Here, we report fragments of a highly reduced deep mantle environment from at least 300 km, perhaps very much more, extracted from chromite of a Tibetan ophiolite. The sample consists, in part, of diamond, coesite-after-stishovite, the high-pressure form of TiO2, native iron, high-pressure nitrides with a deep mantle isotopic signature, and associated SiC. This appears to be a natural example of the recently discovered disproportionation of Fe2(+) at very high pressure and consequent low oxygen fugacity (fO(2)) in deep Earth. Encapsulation within chromitite enclosed within upwelling solid mantle rock appears to be the only vehicle capable of transporting these phases and preserving their low-fO(2) environment at the very high temperatures of oceanic spreading centers.