Water storage capacity in oceanic crust slabs increases with age,
researchers find

Date:
July 3, 2023
Source:
Tohoku University
Summary:
An international research team has discovered that a subduction
zone's age affects the ability for it to recycle water between
the Earth's surface and its inner layers. The more mature the
subduction zone, the bigger the water storage capacity.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
An international research team has discovered that a subduction zone's
age affects the ability for it to recycle water between the Earth's
surface and its inner layers.

Details of their findings were reported in the journal Geologyon July
1, 2023.

When two tectonic plates collide and one subducts beneath the other,
various rocks get subjected to changes in pressure, temperatures and
chemical environments and undergo metamorphosis. This process is important
for recycling water and critical elements, such as strontium, uranium,
thorium, and lead, between the Earth's surface and its deep interior.

One such rock that forms at high pressure is lawsonite
eclogites. Lawsonite eclogites, play a crucial role in storing water in subducting plates since they contain the mineral lawsonite, which can
carry large quantities of H2O to the deeper mantle.

Scientists have traditionally thought that oceanic crust turns into
lawsonite eclogites in cold subduction zones. This is based on models
and experiments that point to lawsonite being a common mineral in cold geothermal regimes. Yet, the opposite is the case. Lawsonite is not
commonly found in fossilized subduction zones on the Earth's surface,
providing further questions regarding our current understanding of how
water is stored in subductions zones.

To investigate this puzzle, a team lead by Dr. David Herna'ndez Uribe
and Professor Tatsuki Tsujimori from the Department of Earth and
Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago and the
Center for Northeast Asian Studies at Tohoku University, respectively,
used state-of-the-art modeling techniques to simulate rock formation at different lifetime stages of a subduction zone.

Petrological modeling and phase equilibrium calculations performed by the
group revealed that, in a subduction zone's early stages (< 6 million
years), oceanic crust does not turn into lawsonite eclogites. But over
time, (12-33 millions years) it does.

"We found that the formation of lawsonite eclogites depends on how mature
the subduction zone is," says Tsujimori. "Lawsonite is important for
recycling water deep beneath the Earth's surface only in mature subduction zones. In younger zones, it doesn't play as big of a role as previously thought." The finding will aid scientists in the understanding of water
and mass recycling in tectonic settings. Tectonic plates subducting
early in its subduction zone history will not carry as much H2O as plates subducting in mature stages of the subduction zone's lifetime.

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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. David Herna'ndez-Uribe, Tatsuki Tsujimori. Progressive lawsonite
eclogitization of the oceanic crust: Implications for deep mass
transfer in subduction zones. Geology, 2023; 51 (7): 678 DOI:
10.1130/G51052.1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230703133026.htm

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