Titanium-hydroxyl defect-controlled rheology of the Earth's upper mantle

Experiments were conducted with hydrous olivine to investigate the defect responsible for the influence of water (hydrogen structurally incorporated as hydroxyl) on the olivine rheology. Solution–gelation derived Fo90 olivine doped with nominally 0.04–0.1 wt.% TiO2 was first hot-pressed and then deformed in platinum capsules at 300 MPa confining pressure and temperatures from 1200–1350°C. The water content was not buffered so that deformation occurred at water-undersaturated conditions. Due to the enhanced grain growth under hydrous conditions, the samples were at least a factor of three more coarse-grained than their dry counterparts and deformed in powerlaw creep at differential stresses as low as a few tens of MPa. Since all experiments were conducted at the same confining pressure, the essentially linear relationship between strain rate and water content was for the first time determined independently of an activation volume. Infrared spectra are dominated by absorption bands at 3572 and 3525 cm−1. These bands also predominate in infrared spectra of natural olivine, and can only be reproduced experimentally in the presence of titanium. In contrast to the previous interpretation of the hydrous rheology in terms of intrinsic point defects, the experiments show that extrinsic defects (impurities) in natural olivine play the dominant role for water weakening at the water contents expected for most of the upper mantle. •Encapsulation of Ti-bearing olivine in Pt enables water retention without buffer.•FTIR shows that hydrogen associated with Ti impurities causes water weakening.•Dislocation creep rheology is linearly dependent on water content.•For MORB source compositions most or all water can be accommodated by Ti-defects.