The influence of water on mineral properties has a key role in Earth system dynamics from tectonic processes and weathering reactions in the crust to phase stabilities in and dynamics of the mantle, and is an important parameter for the interpretation of global seismic tomography data. The aim of the HydroMin CRP is to contribute to a deeper understanding of water in minerals using experimental and atomistic simulation approaches.
Advanced experimental techniques (high-P,T synthesis, vibrational, NMR and ultrasound spectroscopy, diffraction and spectroscopic diamond anvil cell studies, solubility and diffusion studies) will be combined with state-of-the-art atomistic modelling studies (firstprinciples density functional theory, and empirical potential based models) to understand the mechanism of water incorporation, including the formation of hydrogen-bearing defects and their influence on physical properties, and the role of hydrogen bonding.
The CRP will progress by establishing the applicability of joint theoretical and experimental approaches concomitantly on crustal hydrous minerals (diaspore, gypsum, phyllosilicates, lawsonite), and deep-Earth nominally anhydrous and hydrous minerals, (pyroxenes, garnet, spinels and hydrous spinels, delta-AlOOH, Phase D). Simulation results will be used to aid the quantitative interpretation of spectra (vibrational, ultrasound and NMR) of these minerals in order to establish the local structure around hydrogen atoms, the associated defect energies and the general change of structure-property relations as a function of the concentration of hydrogen. This knowledge will then allow us to derive reliable thermodynamic data, which are a necessary prerequisite for any model aimed at understanding how water in minerals influences geochemical processes, how water is transported and stored into the deep Earth and the consequences over geological time scales.
Professor Bjoern Winkler (Project Leader)
Abteilung Kristallographie, Institut fuer Mineralogie, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitaet, Frankfurt a.M., Germany
Dr. Etienne Balan
Université Pierre et Marie Curie / Paris 6, Paris, France
Dr. Jannick Ingrin
Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
Professor Hans Keppler
Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
Professor Kersti Hermansson
Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Sweden
Professor Andrew Jephcoat
Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
Dr. Keith Refson
Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, Didcot, United Kingdom
Dr. Henrik Skogby
Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Kathrin Wright
Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia
