Funded by a Starter Grant from the European Research Council, we are developing computational and simple, analytical models of the effects of CO2 and H2O in the melting regime beneath mid-ocean ridges. One aspect is to predict variations in the emission of carbon from the global mid-ocean ridge system as a function of time, driven by inter/glacial changes in sea level. The other aspect is development of a three-component (olivine-basalt-volatiles) thermochemical model of melting and coupling of that model into simulations of magma/mantle dynamics beneath a ridge axis.
People: Keller, Turner, Burley & Katz.