Hydrogen-bearing iron peroxide and the origin of ultralow-velocity zones

Ultralow-velocity zones (ULVZs) at Earth's core-mantle boundary region have important implications for the chemical composition and thermal structure of our planet, but their origin has long been debated. Hydrogen-bearing iron peroxide (FeO₂H_x) in the pyrite-type crystal structure was recently found to be stable under the conditions of the lowermost mantle. Using high-pressure experiments and theoretical calculations, we find that iron peroxide with a varying amount of hydrogen has a high density and high Poisson ratio as well as extremely low sound velocities consistent with ULVZs. Here we also report a reaction between iron and water at 86 gigapascals and 2,200 kelvin that produces FeO₂H_x. This would provide a mechanism for generating the observed volume occupied by ULVZs through the reaction of about one-tenth the mass of Earth's ocean water in subducted hydrous minerals with the effectively unlimited reservoir of iron in Earth's core. Unlike other candidates for the composition of ULVZs, FeO₂H_x synthesized from the superoxidation of iron by water would not require an extra transportation mechanism to migrate to the core-mantle boundary. These dense FeO₂H_x-rich domains would be expected to form directly in the core-mantle boundary region and their properties would provide an explanation for the many enigmatic seismic features that are observed in ULVZs.