Evidence for Archean hydrous deep-mantle reservoir provided by Abitibi komatiites

Archean komatiites result from melting under extreme conditions of the Earth’s mantle. Their chemical compositions evoke very high eruption temperatures, up to 1600°C, providing clues to still higher temperatures in their mantle source [1]. This message is clouded, however, by uncertainty about the water content in komatiite magmas. One school holds that komatiites were essentially dry and originated in mantle plumes [2] while the other argues that these magmas contained several percent of water, which drastically reduced their eruption temperature and links them to subduction processes [3].