Comments on “Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content” by Manthilake et al.

Details Comments on “Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content” by Manthilake et al. Comments on “Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content” by Manthilake et al.

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009pepi..174...19k&link_type=abstract

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 174, Issue 1-4, p. 19-21.

Physics

14

Scientific paper

In a recent paper, Manthilake et al. [Manthilake, M.A.G.M., et al. Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, in press] presented the results of experimental study on the electrical conductivity of wadsleyite and concluded that the influence of water is small at transition zone temperatures and that a high concentration of water (hydrogen) cannot explain the observed conductivity in the transition zone as oppose to the conclusion originally obtained by Huang et al. [Huang, X., Xu, Y., Karato, S., 2005. Water content of the mantle transition zone from the electrical conductivity of wadsleyite and ringwoodite. Nature 434, 746-749) from a similar experimental study. In this note, we discuss the causes of discrepancies between the results by two groups and show that almost all the differences are due to the experimental artifacts in the studies by Manthilake et al. and Yoshino et al. [Manthilake, M.A.G.M., et al. Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, in press; Yoshino, T., Manthilake, G., Matsuzaki, T., Katsura, T., 2008a. Dry mantle transition zone inferred from the conductivity of wadsleyite and ringwoodite. Nature 451, 326-329] namely (i) the use of inappropriate method of determining electrical conductivity and (ii) the use of the data from a sample of wadsleyite with a substantial amount of water as a “dry” conductivity. A comparison of electrical conductivity of truly “dry” wadsleyite and olivine shows that the conductivity is similar at the same pressure and temperature. We also show that the use of one frequency method results in systematic errors in the conductivity measurements that explains the discrepancies in the results by two sets of studies. When an appropriate method for determining electrical conductivity (i.e., the impedance spectroscopy) is used and when the results of truly dry sample are used for the background dry conductivity, we find that the influence of water (hydrogen) is large enough to explain a majority of variation of electrical conductivity by the regional variation in water content.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Comments on “Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content” by Manthilake et al. does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Comments on “Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content” by Manthilake et al., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Comments on “Electrical conductivity of wadsleyite as a function of temperature and water content” by Manthilake et al. will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1110612