Dry metastable olivine and slab deformation in a wet subducting slab

In cooperation with the Tohoku University in Japan, the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics (BGI) at the UBT has unravelled the origin of deep earthquakes in a high-pressure and high-temperature experiment. Dr. Takayuki Ishii and Prof. Dr. Eiji Ohtani published their study on the phase transition of olivine and the slab deformations triggered by it in the journal Nature Geoscience. The paradox is that the olivine crystals, which are in the wet slab, are actually dry during the subduction into the Earth's mantle to a depth of 600 kilometres. Thus, the researchers were able to show a connection between the formation of deep earthquakes and the subduction process.