Water in omphacite fingerprints the thermal history of eclogites

Omphacite is a diagnostic mineral of high- and ultrahigh-pressure rocks, and its association with garnet is characteristic of eclogites from subduction-related massifs and volcano-entrained xenoliths. Omphacite can accommodate significant amounts of water as structurally bound hydroxyl (OH) groups, and is able to convey water into Earth's interior. We show, for the first time, experimental evidence that the infrared absorption patterns of water in omphacite are temperature sensitive. This provides a new framework for discriminating water in natural omphacite equilibrated at different temperatures. We also demonstrate that in low-temperature omphacite, the integral absorbance ratio between the infrared OH absorption bands at 3620 cm−1 and 3450 cm−1 is linearly related to temperature. Water in omphacite of massif eclogites records the temperature of OH equilibrium, allowing reconstruction of the fluid-involved thermal history and tectonics of rock evolution.