Is there a global carbonate layer in the oceanic mantle?

2021

co-auteur étranger; International audience; Previous modeling of carbonate subduction by high‐pressure experimentation has allowed to propose scenarios for bulk carbon return to the mantle, but the detailed transfer mechanisms have seldom been studied. We monitored carbonate – silicate reactions by combining high‐pressure experiments and synchrotron‐based x‐ray diffraction. Carbonates break down at moderate pressure and high temperature and CO2 is trapped at grain boundaries. Further isothermal compression yields melting, which may control continuous carbon introduction, first in the mantle wedge, and next, away from the wedge. Carbon presence has been discussed in a variety of magmatic con…