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Water takes a deep dive into an oceanic tectonic plate

A tectonic plate descending into the Mariana Trench carries sea water deep into Earth’s interior. It seems that much more water enters Earth at this location than was thought — with implications for the global water budget.
  1. Donna J. Shillington

    1. Donna J. Shillington is at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964, USA.

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The subduction zones at which the tectonic plates beneath the sea thrust into the deep Earth act as gigantic conveyer belts, carrying water, fluids and volatile compounds into our planet. Water in Earth’s interior is released back into the oceans and atmosphere by volcanoes. These inputs and outputs constitute a global deep-Earth water cycle, but quantifying the total water input from oceanic plates has proved difficult. Writing in Nature, Cai et al.1 report that the Pacific plate, which subducts in the Mariana Trench, contains much more water than was previously supposed — a finding that has major ramifications for Earth’s water budgets.

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Nature 563, 335-336 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07335-8

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