Project description
Unravelling the mystery of Earth’s oxygen-breathing interior
Scientists have long marvelled at the Earth’s oxygen-breathing interior. It has puzzled them. To shed new light on this phenomenon, the OZ project, funded by the European Research Council, will address this issue. Unlike other planets, the Earth’s interior is oxygenated through the sink of oxidised tectonic plates at convergent margins. However, recent estimates suggest that some key subducting chemical elements are not balanced on geological time scales by global magmatism and volcanism. OZ will determine the effectiveness of subduction slab fluids to oxidise the mantle wedge and generate the most oxidised magmatism on Earth: arc magmatism. The project aims to achieve four specific goals through innovative techniques, including characterising sulfide-oxide mineral associations in natural samples and upscaling these processes to subduction zones.
Objective
In contrast to other known terrestrial planets, the Earth's interior is oxygen-breathing through the sink of oxidised tectonic plates at convergent margins since the late Archean to Paleoproterozoic. Recent estimates suggest that the redox capacity of some key subducting chemical elements is not balanced on geological time scales by global magmatism and volcanism, thus implying a puzzling deep oxygenation of our planet. Although current models presume that the redox state of subducting slabs is irreversible, my most recent results demonstrate that mixing of fluids from different slab lithologies can dramatically change the redox capacity of such fluids and the deeply subducted residues. The OZ project will provide an unprecedented quantitative framework to account for such interactions in order to determine the effectiveness of subduction slab fluids to oxidise the mantle wedge and generate the most oxidised magmatism on Earth: arc magmatism. To achieve this ambitious goal, OZ will address four specific goals: (1) the experimental determination of the effect of oxygen (fO2) and sulphur (fS2) fugacity on the stability of critical mineral assemblages during the prograde metamorphic evolution of serpentinites by using a novel triple capsule buffering technique in high pressure experiments; (2) the determination of sulphur mobility at high pressure due to gradients in fO2 and fS2 by means of an original experimental capsule design with interconnected reservoirs representative of the heterogeneity of the slab; (3) the characterization of sulphide-oxide mineral associations in natural samples from exhumed paleo-subduction terranes to demonstrate the scales of fluid mixing in nature; and (4) the upscaling of these processes to subduction zones by using two types of equilibrium reactive transport models at the scale of the slab and the mantle wedge.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology lithology
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology volcanology
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planets
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28006 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.