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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • subduction
  • metamorphic
  • temperature

Index Terms

  • Marine Geology and Geophysics: Subduction zone processes
  • Marine Geology and Geophysics: Marine hydrogeology
  • Marine Geology and Geophysics: Heat flow (benthic)
  • Marine Geology and Geophysics: Hydrothermal systems

Abstract

Links between fluid circulation, temperature, and metamorphism in subducting slabs

G. A. Spinelli

Earth and Environmental Science Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, USA

K. Wang

Pacific Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada, Sidney, British Columbia, USA

The location and timing of metamorphic reactions in subducting lithosphere are influenced by thermal effects of fluid circulation in the ocean crust aquifer. Fluid circulation in subducting crust extracts heat from the Nankai subduction zone, causing the crust to pass through cooler metamorphic facies than if no fluid circulation occurs. This fluid circulation shifts the basalt-to-eclogite transition and the associated slab dehydration 14 km deeper (35 km farther landward) than would be predicted with no fluid flow. For most subduction zones, hydrothermal cooling of the subducting slab will delay eclogitization relative to estimates made without considering fluid circulation.

Received 15 April 2009; accepted 9 June 2009; published 2 July 2009.

Citation: Spinelli, G. A., and K. Wang (2009), Links between fluid circulation, temperature, and metamorphism in subducting slabs, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L13302, doi:10.1029/2009GL038706.

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