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In this work, TEM was used to establish the mineralogy of a sample collected from a hydrothermal field in the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). The mineral assemblages revealed in this sample shed new light on earth mantle hydration and flow. Abyssal peridotites generate at mid-ocean ridges where they can undergo hydration reactions to become serpentinite minerals, especially in slow to ultraslow spreading mid-ocean ridges. The SWIR is one of the two ultraslow spreading ridges in the world. The serpentinized peridotite sample studied in this work was collected by the 21st Voyage of the Chinese oceanic research ship Dayang Yihao (aka Ocean No. 1) from a hydrothermal field (63.5 E, 28.0 S, and 3660 m deep) in SWIR.

The reaction of peridotites to serpentinite has attracted increasing attention as it can provide information regarding mantle hydration and water cycles in the deep Earth. For example, among the …