South Korean research team reveals that water storage capacity of cold subducting slabs has been underestimated using synchrotron radiation sources
A research team led by Professor Yongjae Lee of the Department of Earth System Sciences at Yonsei University in South Korea has recently found that in cold, rapidly descending tectonic subduction zones, crustal rocks may transport up to 1 trillion kilograms of water to the mantle each year—approximately twice the previous estimate. The findings have been published in Nature Communications. Subduction zones are regions where Earth's tectonic plates converge and one plate descends beneath another, often accompanied by volcanic and seismic activity. For a long time, the academic community has generally believed that serpentinite, a water-bearing rock, gradually dehydrates as it descends with the plate due to increasing pressure and temperature, and the released water further promotes melting of the overlying plate and is associated with the formation of volcanic arc chains.
2026-09-07
