Much of the long-term carbon cycle in solid earth occurs in subduction zones, where processes of devolatilization, partial melting of carbonated rocks, and dissolution of carbonate minerals lead to the return of CO2 to the atmosphere via volcanic degassing. Release of COH fluids from hydrous and carbonate minerals influences C recycling and magmatism at subduction zones. Contradictory interpretations exist regarding the retention/storage of C in subducting plates and in the forearc to subarc mantle. Several lines of evidence indicate mobility of C, of uncertain magnitude, in forearcs. A poorly constrained fraction of the 40-115 Mt/yr of C initially subducted is released into fluids (by decarbonation and/or carbonate dissolution) and 18-43 Mt/yr is returned at arc volcanoes. Current estimates suggest the amount of C released into subduction fluids is greater than that degassed at arc volcanoes: the imbalance could reflect C subduction into the deeper mantle, beyond subarc regions, or storage of C in forearc/subarc reservoirs.We examine the fate of C in plate-interface ultramafic rocks, and by analogy serpentinized mantle wedge, via study of fluid-rock evolution of marble and variably carbonated serpentinite in the Ligurian Alps. Based on petrography, major and trace element concentrations, and carbonate C and O isotope compositions, we demonstrate that serpentinite dehydration at 2-2.5 GPa, 550 °C released aqueous fluids triggering breakdown of dolomite in nearby marbles, thus releasing C into fluids. Carbonate + olivine veins document flow of COH fluids and that the interaction of these COH fluids with serpentinite led to the formation of high-P carbonated ultramafic-rock domains (high-P ophicarbonates). We estimate that this could result in the retention of ~0.5-2.0 Mt C/yr in such rocks along subduction interfaces. As another means of C storage, 1 to 3 km-thick layers of serpentinized forearc mantle wedge containing 50 modal % dolomite could sequester 1.62 to 4.85 Mt C/yr.We stress that lithologically complex interfaces could contain sites of both C release and C addition, further confounding estimates of net C loss at forearc and subarc depths. Sites of C retention, also including carbonate veins and graphite as reduced carbonate, could influence the transfer of slab C to at least the depths beneath volcanic fronts

The cause of intermediate-depth (50–300 km) seismicity in subduction zones is uncertain. It is typically attributed either to rock embrittlement associated with fluid pressurization, or to thermal runaway instabilities. Here we document glassy pseudotachylyte fault rocks—the products of frictional melting during coseismic faulting—in the Lanzo Massif ophiolite in the Italian Western Alps. These pseudotachylytes formed at subduction-zone depths of 60–70 km in poorly hydrated to dry oceanic gabbro and mantle peridotite. This rock suite is a fossil analogue to an oceanic lithospheric mantle that undergoes present-day subduction. The pseudotachylytes locally preserve high-pressure minerals that indicate an intermediate-depth seismic environment. These pseudotachylytes are important because they are hosted in a near-anhydrous lithosphere free of coeval ductile deformation, which excludes an origin by dehydration embrittlement or thermal runaway processes. Instead, our observations indicate that seismicity in cold subducting slabs can be explained by the release of differential stresses accumulated in strong dry metastable rocks

The key role of serpentinites in the global cycles of volatiles, halogens and fluid-mobile elements in oceans and in subduction zones is now ascertained by many studies quantifying their element budgets and the composition of fluids they release during subduction. Geochemical tracers (e.g. B, As, Sb; stable B and radiogenic Sr and Pb isotopes) have also been employed to trace the provenance of serpentinites (slab or forearc mantle?) accreted to the plate interface of fossil subduction zones. In turn, this helps defining the tectonic processes, seismicity and mass transfer attending rock burial and exhumation within subduction zones. The results suggest that the sole use of geochemical data is insufficient to track the origin of subduction-zone serpentinites and the timing of serpentinization, whether oceanic or subduction-related. Integrated multidisciplinary studies of ophiolitic serpentinites show that pristine, oceanic, geochemical imprints (e.g. high 11 B, marine Sr isotopes, low As + Sb) become reset towards more radiogenic Sr, lower 11 B, and higher As + Sb via metasomatic exchange with crust-derived fluids during subduction accretion to the plate interface.The dehydration fluids released by serpentinite dehydration at various subduction stages and still preserved in these rocks as inclusions, carry significant amounts of halogens and fluid-mobile elements. The key compositional similarities of antigorite-breakdown fluids from different localities (Betic Cordillera, Spain; Central Alps, Switzerland) indicate that rocks record comparable subduction processes. We individuate the fluid-mediated exchange with sedimentary and/or crustal reservoirs during subduction as the key mechanism for geochemical hybridization of serpentinite. The antigorite dehydration fluids produced by hybrid serpentinites have high Cs, Rb, Ba, B, Pb, As, Sb and Li overlapping those of the arc lavas and representing the mixed serpentinite-sediment (crustal) component released to arcs. This helps discriminating the mass transfer processes responsible for supra-subduction mantle metasomatism and arc magmatism. The studied plate-interface hybrid serpentinites are also proxies of forearc mantle metasomatized by slab fluids. Based on the above observations, we propose that the mass transfer from slabs to plate interface and/or forearc mantle and the subsequent down-drag of this altered mantle to subarc depths potentially is a major process operating in subduction zones.The nominally anhydrous olivine, orhopyroxene, clinopyroxene and garnet produced by serpentinite dehydration host appreciable amounts of halogens and fluid-mobile elements that can be recycled in the deep mantle beyond arcs. Involvement of de-serpentinized residues in lower mantle metasomatism begins to be increasingly recognized by studies of ocean island basalts (OIB) and of B-bearing blue diamonds and by the isotopic serpentinite compositions presented here.

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