Role of iron content on serpentinite dehydration depth in subduction zones: Experiments and thermodynamic modeling

A comparison between depths of “water-release events” and “earthquake occurrence” in the South Chile slab (“hot” subduction) highlights a clear correlation between each other, suggesting a possible contribution of the dehydration of Fe-bearing serpentinites to the occurrence of seismic events. In contrast, and based on the same comparison applied to the Kermadec slab, our results demonstrate that there is no correlation in depth between serpentinite dehydration and seismicity in “cold” subduction zones.