Heat transport in serpentinites

The thermal transport properties thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity were examined for a variety of serpentinites as a function of temperature at ambient pressure. The thermal transport properties of serpentinites show an extraordinary behavior. Besides the common 1/T decrease in thermal transport properties with increasing temperature, which can be related to an increase in phonon–phonon interactions with increasing temperature, an oscillation of thermal conductivity is observed with maxima around 450 and 850 K. This oscillation is linkable to water release of surficially bounded water and water in pores (450 K) and the dehydration of serpentinite (850 K). The oscillations are explained by advective heat transfer during dehydration, reaching up to 30% of the overall heat transport. The dehydration of serpentinites was examined by XRD and Thermo-Gravimetry and Differential Thermal Analysis/Differential Scanning Calorimeters (TG/DSC) investigations, indicating that the dehydration reaction is kinetically hindered and the crystallization of the product phases are observed at ≈1060 K, more than 200 K above the equilibrium of dehydration reactions. The conductive heat transfer by phonons shows a minor temperature variation and dominates thermal diffusivity. Ultrasonic sound velocities as a function of temperature J. Geophys. Res. 102 (1997) 3051] were used to derive the mean free path length of phonons, which decreases from 0.28 to 0.2 nm at high temperatures. This is in the same order of magnitude as the interatomic distance of O–O, Al–O and Si–O restricting the minimum distance for phononic movement. A high anisotropy in thermal transport properties of single crystallites is concluded from its structure and elastic behaviour. However, the examined samples are macroscopically isotropic. The pressure and temperature dependence of conductive heat transport of an average serpentinite is given by λ=(1/(A+BT))(1+βP) W/m K, with A=0.3638 m K/W, B=0.000244 m/W and β=0.148 GPa⁻¹.