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Potassium isotopic evidence for recycling of surface water into the mantle transition zone

Nature Geoscience (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Global water cycling involves interactions between Earth’s interior and its surface environment. Geophysical and mineral physics studies have suggested that the mantle transition zone is hydrous, at least locally. However, there are poor constraints on whether water in the transition zone is sourced internally from primordial materials or from Earth’s surface via subduction-related processes. Cenozoic volcanism in Northeast Asia is triggered by hot and wet upwelling flows above the stagnated Pacific slab and has produced mantle transition zone-derived volcanic rocks. Potassium behaves geochemically similarly to water during magmatic processes, and hence can potentially be used to constrain the nature of water in the mantle transition zone. Here we report potassium isotopes in a set of well-characterized Cenozoic volcanic rocks in Northeast Asia. Their K isotope ratios (−0.83‰ to −0.36‰) are lower than primitive mantle (−0.42‰ ± 0.08‰), suggesting crustal potassium inputs and modifications of the mantle transition zone by subducted slab materials. Decoupling of potassium isotopes from radiogenic Sr–Nd–Pb isotopes, combined with a geophysically identified low-resistivity anomaly above the transition zone, requires the input of surficial water from the stagnated subducted slab into the transition zone. This water can then be cycled back to the surface in Northeast Asian volcanics.

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Fig. 1: Three-dimensional schematic diagram of the distribution of Cenozoic volcanism in Northeast Asia.
Fig. 2: Potassium isotopic compositions of samples plotted with indices of magmatic evolution.
Fig. 3: Potassium and radiogenic isotopes systematics of intraplate lavas.
Fig. 4: Potassium isotopes and trace elements systematics of intraplate volcanic rocks.

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Data availability

The new K isotope data are provided in Supplementary Table 1 and are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25398487 (ref. 53). Referenced data supporting the findings of this study are available in Supplementary Tables 1–3.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Z.-D. Liu, Q.-Y. Hu, X.-Z. Yang and Q.-K. Xia for their stimulating discussion and R. S. Sletten for his editing. T.-Y. Huang, Y. Hu and X.-Y. Chen are thanked for their help in the K isotope analytical work. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 42130302 to W.-L.X.), the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number 2022YFF0801002 to F.W.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 42022013 to F.W.), the Program for Jilin University Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (number 2021-TD-05 to W.-L.X.) and the Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin University (grant 2022021 to K.-C. X.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Earth Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Kai-Chen Xing, Feng Wang, Wen-Liang Xu, Yi-Ni Wang & De-Bin Yang

  2. Isotope Laboratory, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Kai-Chen Xing, Feng Wang & Fang-Zhen Teng

  3. Hebei Key Laboratory of Strategic Critical Mineral Resources, College of Earth Sciences, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang, China

    Kai-Chen Xing

  4. Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources Evaluation in Northeast Asia, Ministry of Natural Resources, Changchun, China

    Feng Wang, Wen-Liang Xu & De-Bin Yang

  5. International Center of Future Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Feng Wang

  6. Key Laboratory of Material Simulation Methods and Software of Ministry of Education, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Hong-Lin Li & Yan-Chao Wang

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Contributions

F.W. and W.-L.X.: conceptualization. K.-C.X.: carrying out experiments, data curation, writing—original draft preparation. F.W., F.-Z.T., W.-L.X., Y.-N.W. and D.-B.Y.: writing—reviewing and editing. Y.-N.W.: visualization. H.-L.L. and Y.-C.W.: advised on water and K behaviour in the deep mantle.

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Correspondence to Feng Wang or Wen-Liang Xu.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Jeffrey Park, Kun Wang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Alison Hunt, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Plots of K2O content (a) and δ41K (b-f) versus chemical weathering proxies for the intraplate lavas from the Northeast Asia.

Published data for the different lavas18,20,30,40 and different saprolites profile14 are plot for comparison (ndiabase= 10, ngranite = 19). δ41K error bars indicate 95% c.i. of the mean. When not seen, they are smaller than the sample symbols. LOI: loss-on-ignition; CIA: chemical index of alteration.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Plots of δ41K versus MgO content (a), Mg# (b), and Ba/Sr (c) for the intraplate volcanic rocks from the RFE.

δ41K error bars indicate 95% c.i. of the mean.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–3.

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Xing, KC., Wang, F., Teng, FZ. et al. Potassium isotopic evidence for recycling of surface water into the mantle transition zone. Nat. Geosci. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01452-y

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