IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v620y2023i7974d10.1038_s41586-023-06211-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbonate-rich crust subduction drives the deep carbon and chlorine cycles

Author

Listed:
  • Chunfei Chen

    (Macquarie University)

  • Michael W. Förster

    (Macquarie University
    Australian National University)

  • Stephen F. Foley

    (Macquarie University
    Australian National University)

  • Svyatoslav S. Shcheka

    (Macquarie University)

Abstract

The flux balances of carbon and chlorine between subduction into the deep mantle and volcanic emissions into the atmosphere are crucial for the habitability of our planet1,2. However, pervasive loss of fluids from subducting slabs has been thought to cut off the delivery of both carbon and chlorine to the deep mantle owing to their high mobility under hydrous conditions3,4. Our new high-pressure experiments show that most carbonates (>75 wt%) in carbonate-rich crustal rocks—one of the main subducting carbon reservoirs—survive devolatilization and hydrous melting in cold and warm subduction zones, indicating that their subduction has driven the deep carbon cycle since the Mesoproterozoic. We found that KCl and NaCl, respectively, become stable phases crystallizing from hydrous carbonatite melts with low chlorine solubility in warm and hot subduction zones, resulting in the sequestration of chlorine in the solid residue in downwelling slabs. Accordingly, the subduction of carbonate-rich rocks facilitated highly effective recycling of both chlorine and carbon into the deep mantle at intermediate stages of Earth’s history and led to declining atmospheric pCO2 and the formation of carbon-rich and chlorine-rich mantle reservoirs since the Mesoproterozoic. This period of optimal carbon and chlorine subduction may explain the ages of eclogitic diamonds and the formation of the HIMU mantle source.

Suggested Citation

  • Chunfei Chen & Michael W. Förster & Stephen F. Foley & Svyatoslav S. Shcheka, 2023. "Carbonate-rich crust subduction drives the deep carbon and chlorine cycles," Nature, Nature, vol. 620(7974), pages 576-581, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:620:y:2023:i:7974:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06211-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06211-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06211-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-023-06211-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chunfei Chen & Stephen F. Foley & Svyatoslav S. Shcheka & Yongsheng Liu, 2024. "Copper isotopes track the Neoproterozoic oxidation of cratonic mantle roots," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:620:y:2023:i:7974:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06211-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.