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Deep mantle

Enriched carbon source detected

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 625–627 (2017)Cite this article

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Estimates of carbon in the deep mantle vary by more than an order of magnitude. Coupled volcanic CO2 emission data and magma supply rates reveal a carbon-rich mantle plume source region beneath Hawai'i with 40% more carbon than previous estimates.

Over geologic timescales, the deep carbon cycle transports carbon from the mantle to Earth's surface via volcanism and back into the interior through subduction. This process remains poorly constrained, in contrast to the relatively well-studied near-surface carbon cycle between the atmosphere, oceans and continents. Carbon concentrations in the deepest portions of the mantle — those regions that feed mantle plumes and ocean island basalts — are the most poorly constrained, due to the near impossibility of retrieving pristine samples. Hotspot volcanoes, such as Hawai'i, are fed by plumes that originate from the deep, less-degassed mantle, and they represent the best opportunity to investigate deep carbon. The continued ambiguity in the deep carbon budget limits understanding of mantle structure, primary sources of volcanism, and Earth's deep carbon cycle. Writing in Nature Geoscience, Anderson and Poland1 present a physical model that incorporates existing carbon data from Hawai'i and suggests that the deep carbon content of Earth may be significantly higher than previously thought.

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Figure 1: Methods for estimating Earth's deep carbon content.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3AN, UK

    Peter H. Barry

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  1. Peter H. Barry
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Correspondence to Peter H. Barry.

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Barry, P. Enriched carbon source detected. Nature Geosci 10, 625–627 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo3001

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