Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2122/13614
Authors: | Zhao, Liang* Malusà, Marco Giovanni* Yuan, Huaiyu* Paul, Anne* Guillot, Stéphane* Lu, Yang* Stehly, Laurent* Solarino, Stefano* Eva, Elena* Lu, Gang* Bodin, Thomas* |
Title: | Evidence for a serpentinized plate interface favouring continental subduction | Journal: | Nature Communication | Series/Report no.: | /11 (2020) | Publisher: | Nature P. G. | Issue Date: | 2020 | DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-020-15904-7 | Keywords: | Lithosphere reology serpentinites subduction Western Alps exhumation |
Subject Classification: | 04.01. Earth Interior 04.07. Tectonophysics |
Abstract: | The dynamics of continental subduction is largely controlled by the rheological properties of rocks involved along the subduction channel. Serpentinites have low viscosity at geological strain rates. However, compelling geophysical evidence of a serpentinite channel during continental subduction is still lacking. Here we show that anomalously low shear-wave seismic velocities are found beneath the Western Alps, along the plate interface between the European slab and the overlying Adriatic mantle. We propose that these seismic velocities indicate the stacked remnants of a weak fossilised serpentinite channel, which includes both slivers of abyssal serpentinite formed at the ocean floor and mantle-wedge serpentinite formed by fluid release from the subducting slab. Our results suggest that this serpentinized plate interface may have favoured the subduction of continental crust into the upper mantle and the formation/exhumation of ultra-high pressure metamorphic rocks, providing new constraints to develop the conceptual and quantitative understanding of continental-subduction dynamics. |
Appears in Collections: | Article published / in press |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
s41467-020-15904-7.pdf | Published manuscript | 1.66 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
WEB OF SCIENCETM
Citations
3
checked on Feb 10, 2021
Page view(s)
244
checked on Apr 17, 2024
Download(s)
13
checked on Apr 17, 2024