Dehydration of subducting slow-spread oceanic lithosphere in the Lesser Antilles

Michele Paulatto (), Mireille Laigle (), Audrey Galve, Philippe Charvis, Martine Sapin, Gaye Bayrakci, Mikael Evain and Heidrun Kopp
Additional contact information
Michele Paulatto: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, IRD, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
Mireille Laigle: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, IRD, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
Audrey Galve: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, IRD, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
Philippe Charvis: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, IRD, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
Martine Sapin: Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, PRES Sorbonne Paris-Cité
Gaye Bayrakci: University of Southampton, Ocean and Earth Science
Mikael Evain: IFREMER, Géosciences Marines, Centre Bretagne
Heidrun Kopp: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Subducting slabs carry water into the mantle and are a major gateway in the global geochemical water cycle. Fluid transport and release can be constrained with seismological data. Here we use joint active-source/local-earthquake seismic tomography to derive unprecedented constraints on multi-stage fluid release from subducting slow-spread oceanic lithosphere. We image the low P-wave velocity crustal layer on the slab top and show that it disappears beneath 60–100 km depth, marking the depth of dehydration metamorphism and eclogitization. Clustering of seismicity at 120–160 km depth suggests that the slab’s mantle dehydrates beneath the volcanic arc, and may be the main source of fluids triggering arc magma generation. Lateral variations in seismic properties on the slab surface suggest that serpentinized peridotite exhumed in tectonized slow-spread crust near fracture zones may increase water transport to sub-arc depths. This results in heterogeneous water release and directly impacts earthquakes generation and mantle wedge dynamics.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15980 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15980

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15980

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().