New geologic findings about the makeup of the Earth’s mantle are helping scientists better understand long-term climate stability and even how seismic waves move through the planet’s layers.

The research by a team including Case Western Reserve University scientists focused on the “deep carbon cycle,” part of the overall cycle by which carbon moves through the Earth’s various systems.

In simplest terms, the deep carbon cycle involves two steps:

• Surface carbon, mostly in the form of carbonates, is brought into the deep mantle by subducting oceanic plates at ocean trenches.
• That carbon is then returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2) through mantle melting and magma degassing processes at volcanoes

Scientists have long suspected that partially melted chunks of this carbon are broadly distributed throughout the Earth’s solid mantle.

Read more at Case Western Reserve University

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