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Science 15 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5597, pp. 1344 - 1345
DOI: 10.1126/science.298.5597.1344
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Perspectives

GEOLOGY:
Serpentinite Seduction

Derrill Kerrick

The mineral serpentinite forms through hydrothermal alteration of the main mantle mineral, peridotite. It has been implicated in earthquakes and volcanism in active subduction zones. In his Perspective, Kerrick asks whether serpentinite is indeed widespread in subducted oceanic plates. While there is some evidence for the occurrence of serpentinite at depths of ~50 km, no known mechanism can credibly explain the formation of the hydrated mineral at these depths.

The author is in the Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. E-mail: kerrick{at}geosc.psu.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
High-resolution subducting-slab structure beneath northern Honshu, Japan, revealed by double-difference tomography.
H. Zhang, C. H. Thurber, D. Shelly, S. Ide, G. C. Beroza, and A. Hasegawa (2004)
Geology 32, 361-364
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