| The principal method of adding or removing material from the Earth?s surface is the formation of oceanic lithosphere and its subsequent subduction. The material fluxes that accompany this cycle control the cooling of the Earth, the composition of the atmosphere and are responsible for the generation of the continental crust on which we live as well as for many ore deposits of economic importance. To unravel these fluxes, we need to quantify the nature and rates of processes occurring in subduction zones. As a step towards this goal, this proposal integrates, in an innovative manner, several state-of-the-art techniques in experimental petrology, analytical geochemistry and computational chemistry to constrain the composition of fluids in subduction zones. |
