Colloquium: Tobias Fischer

Gas emissions from volcanoes and active tectonic regions: Implications for the deep carbon cycle

http://epswww.unm.edu/faculty-and-staff/fischer/

Professor of Volcanology and Director of Fluids and Volatiles Laboratory,

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico

Active volcanoes are arguably the main pathways for mantle volatiles, including carbon, to enter the hydrosphere and atmosphere. Carbon return to the mantle via subduction results in a deep carbon cycle that appears balanced within current flux uncertainties. However, recent work suggests that carbon degassing through faults in continental rifts, such as the East Africa Rift, contribute a significant and previously unquantified amount of carbon to the atmosphere. If correct, this observation not only implies current net outgassing of carbon from the mantle to the surface it may also require significant amounts of carbon are stored in the mantle below continents. This talk explores these new aspects of the deep carbon cycle and some of its implications.