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Attention subducters! 12 part THREAD on our new @VoiLA_NERC paper in @Nature, led by @Cooper_geo. TL;DR? Not all #subduction zones recycle water the same way & #LesserAntilles recycling changes in time and space [1/12]
rdcu.be/b49wQ
So how did the @VoiLA_NERC team, funded by @NERCScience, use boron isotopes to show that water subducted by the #Atlantic Plate is directly linked to volcanic and earthquake activity in the #Antilles? [2/12] Title and abstract of Cooper et al (2020) paper in Nature
@VoiLA_NERC is tracking #water right through the #Antilles subduction zone. We chose this site because it contrasts with the much better studied Pacific margins [3/12]
doi.org/10.1029/2019EO… Block schematic diagram of Antilles subduction zone
@VoiLA_NERC #ECR @seismic_kiwi with @ImperialRSM and @OceanEarthUoS used sea-floor seismometers to show that the subducting Atlantic Plate is rich in the mineral serpentine, which can carry lots of #water [4/12]
dx.doi.org/10.1029/2019JB… Ocean bottom seismometer being deployed from ship
Subducted serpentine releases boron with distinctive isotope ratios. @VoiLA_NERC #ECR @Cooper_geo, with @DurUniEarthSci and @UoBEarthScience, used @IonProbe to map where this boron reaches the surface in lavas and cumulate rocks [5/12]
doi.org/10.1007/s00410… Melt inclusions in a clinopyroxene from volcano on Statia
Our @ImperialRSM team used a new model of #Antilles tectonics, by @VoiLA #PhD student @rob_wallen, to figure out where and when #water was released from the subducted #Atlantic Plate [6/12]
doi.org/10.1130/G46708… Model of Antilles tectonic reconstruction from Allen et al (
@VoiLA_NERC #ECR @ben_maunder22 calculated where and when #water was released by the Atlantic plate, and guess what? The main water release coincides with distinctive boron in the melt inclusions! [7/12]
The big water release also matches mantle wedge seismic anomalies, measured by @VoiLA_NERC #ECR @lBIE_1 at @LivUniEarthSci and @seismo_steve at @OceanEarthUoS, collaborating with @UWIseismic, @KITKarlsruhe, and @IPGP_officiel [8/12]
doi.org/10.1785/022019… Deployment of land-based seismometer by VoiLA and UWI Seismi
#Antilles #arc crust is also thickest where most #water has been released, as figured out from the composition of cumulates by @UoBEarthScience colleagues [9/12]
doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl… Cumulate rock from Antilles volcano
So, our new @VoiLA_NERC research links the changing input of #water into #subduction zones to the output of water from volcanic #arcs, and to the structures of the mantle wedge and arc crust [10/12] The Quill volcano on Statia in Lesser Antilles
Our new @VoiLA_NERC work highlights contrasts between #subduction of Atlantic and Pacific lithospheres, which recycle #water in different ways because of their formation at different spreading rates [11/12]
nsf-margins.org/SF/SF.html The Subduction Factory concept
Our next @VoiLA_NERC challenges are to estimate budgets of #water, and to try and place our results in the context of large #earthquake and #volcano #hazards, and natural #resources [12/12]
voila.ac.uk/index.php/work… Participants at VoiLA workshop in Trinidad
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