Subducting serpentinites release reduced, not oxidized, aqueous fluids

Abstract

The observation that primitive arc magmas are more oxidized than mid-ocean-ridge basalts has led to the paradigm that slab-derived fluids carry SO ₂ and CO ₂ that metasomatize and oxidize the sub-arc mantle wedge. We combine petrography and thermodynamic modelling to quantify the oxygen fugacity ( fO ₂) and speciation of the fluids generated by serpentinite dehydration during subduction. Silicate-magnetite assemblages maintain fO ₂ conditions similar to the quartz-fayalite-magnetite (QFM) buffer at fore-arc conditions. Sulphides are stable under such conditions and aqueous fluids contain minor S. At sub-arc depth, dehydration occurs under more reducing conditions producing aqueous fluids carrying H ₂S. This finding brings into question current models in which serpentinite-derived fluids are the cause of oxidized arc magmatism and has major implications for the global volatile cycle, as well as for redox processes controlling subduction zone geodynamics.