Earth Science Frontiers ›› 2024, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (6): 304-319.DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2024.10.10

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Outgassing processes of carbon in deep Earth: A review

LI Zhuoqi1(), XU Cheng1,2,*(), WEI Chunwan1   

  1. 1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
    2. Collaborative Innovation Center for Exploration of Nonferrous Metal Deposits and Efficient Utilization of Resources by the Province and Ministry, College of Earth Sciences, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541006, China
  • Received:2024-01-18 Revised:2024-04-15 Online:2024-11-25 Published:2024-11-25

Abstract:

The Earth’s deep interior is a massive carbon reservoir, containing more than 98% of the Earth’s carbon. In the uppermost mantle, carbon primarily exists as carbonates and CO2. Under certain temperature and pressure conditions, they can lower the solidus of mantle rocks, participating in mantle melting processes and forming carbon-bearing silicate or carbonate melts. Carbon-bearing melts are an important form of carbon migration in the lithospheric mantle and are the direct carrier of deep-sourced carbon release to the surface. During the migration and upwelling of carbonate melts and carbonated silicate melts in the mantle, they may react with olivine, causing melt decomposition and releasing CO2. In the crustal stage, in addition to degassing caused by volcanic activity, during the upwelling of carbon-bearing melts, pressure reduction leads to a decrease in the solubility of CO2 in the melt, or decarbonation reactions between the melt and crustal rocks are also important pathways for CO2 release. Surface carbon can enter the Earth’s deep interior through plate subduction and other processes. This process, together with the release of deep-sourced carbon, constitutes a deep carbon cycle that significantly influences the carbon content in the Earth’s historical atmosphere and climate change. In modern cold plate subduction, the main form of carbon release is the dissolution and migration of carbon in the slab by fluids released from the subducting slab, and most of the subducted carbon can enter the deep Earth. The complexity of deep decarbonation processes makes the pathways and corresponding fluxes of deep carbon release during geological history still controversial. Comprehensive research on different decarbonation processes is an important basis for further clarifying carbon release during geological history. Therefore, this paper systematically summarizes the different decarbonation processes and their identification markers in the deep carbon cycle, and takes the Mesozoic decarbonation process in the eastern margin of the North China Craton as an example to discuss the significance of deep-sourced carbon release for paleoenvironmental changes.

Key words: decarbonation, Earth’s deep interior, mantle degassing, crustal degassing, subduction zone decarbonation

CLC Number: